by Nasadowsk
3rdrail wrote:Did the industry dislike, distrust, or not be familiar with electric, or be concerned about safety concerns ?I'm going to say it's a bit of that, AND the fact that until the 1950's, you needed either a DC system - and 3kv requires lots of substations and is constrained anyway - or AC at 25hz, an oddity even then.
Had the practical rectifier locomotive come about in the mid 1930's instead of the early 1950's, I suspect things would look VERY different today in the US. Even electric was a financial godsend Vs steam, but once you factored in a 25hz power system, it wasn't. EMD and Alco had useful diesels ready to go in 1946, GE and Westinghouse had nice electrics - if you were 3kv DC or 25hz AC. Even into the 50's though, the industry spoke of diesel as a stop-gap measure, and at least some believe electrification was coming soon. By the 70's, it became cost, and these days, I frankly believe that it's more "not invented here" than anything else. US railroads these days are on the trailing end of any innovation, and seem to want to stay that way, for whatever reason...