"What if" - Conrail electrics

[USRailFan]

If we imagine that Conrail had kept its electrified lines, and even electrified Horseshoe Curve, as they apparently had plans to do: What kind of Electrics do you think we'd have seen? E60Cs? GM6/GM10s? Freight AEM-7s? Or something completely different?

[crazy_nip]

something along the lines of the E44...

likely a freight-centric E60 that produced more power, 8000 hp or so

[LCJ]

In the early '80s there was an E44 that GE had upgraded to E60 power for Conrail. It was originally to be a possible E44 rebuild program if electric propulsion had been maintained. It was tested on the NEC a bit, but I don't know what happened to it after that -- since CR had already terminated electric operations.

I saw it in fresh CR blue paint at The Meadows during that period, along with the silver GM experimentals.

Anyone know if it was scrapped?

[Noel Weaver]

Unfortunately for the prospects of electrification, the majority of the
electrified routes for Conrail involved major operations over Amtrak owned lines. The cost to Conrail for use of Amtrak track and Amtrak
electricity was very high and the lines were closly paraleled by good
alternative routes over much of the territory. The gap between Philadelphia and Washington was taken care of by a trackage rights
agreement with Conrail and Chessie/CSX. This effectively killed any
savings that the electric operation offered.
The cost of electrification of the paralel lines at the time was not deemed
to be worth it. Same thing with trackage west of Harrisburg although an
electrified operation west of Altoona may well have enabled Conrail to get
rid of the helper operations west of that point.
Had the electrification been retained and/or expanded, the E-44's and the
E-33's as well probably had lots of good miles remaining in them. In
addition the two experimentals from General Motors would probably have
been included in future motive power plans.
Another thing, the former PRR did not handle all of the east - west freight
traffic, the NYC route through New York State was probably the superior
route due to a better physical plant, more modern facilities and much
less power needed to move the same tonnage due to more favorable
grades.
With the improvements in diesel locomotives for freight operations that
have taken place over the past few years, I do not think any major
changes in the electric locomotive situation will occur any time in the
future.
My above comments apply ONLY to freight operations.
Noel Weaver

[MR77100]

When did the last Conrail electrics run? I know it was sometime in late 1981.

[LCJ]

I know it was sometime in late 1981.

I believe that is correct. I don't have anything more specific.

[Alcochaser]

Amtrak had planned to sell the E60 units to CR after they had purchased enough AEM7. But CR pulled the plug on Electric operation before such could be done.

[Noel Weaver]

Amtrak had planned to sell the E60 units to CR after they had purchased enough AEM7. But CR pulled the plug on Electric operation before such could be done.

Don't think this was in the plans, Conrail had already sharply reduced
their operations on the electrified territories.
The E-60's were geared high and were not really freight engines, or
decent passenger engines either for that matter.
Noel Weaver

[Tadman]

What was it that made E60 such a junker?

[oakpoint]

The E-60s were well known for their severe lateral motion.

Charles

[crazy_nip]

What was it that made E60 such a junker?

the fact that it was a GE...

[Noel Weaver]

What was it that made E60 such a junker?

the fact that it was a GE...

That probably helped a lot, GE's designs and workmanship during that
era were absolutely terrible, you had to operate some of that stuff to
really appreciate just how bad it was.
Noel Weaver

[Zeke]

I often thought it was a good idea to electrify west of Harrisburg / Enola particularly getting up and over the mountains of central Pennsylvania. Having run every possible combination of diesel power and straight electric on every concievable type of train, the brute force of electric freight locomotion can not be denied. If this had all come to pass I wonder how today's doublestack traffic would fare ie; clearance of trolley wire ? And would the engineering people devise some type of extended pantograph system ? I wonder if the modern diesel is now close to matching the efficiency of straight electric power ? I am sure there are certain freight main lines in the U.S. approaching a traffic density that may on a cost / benefit analysis, be ripe for electrification.

[GOLDEN-ARM]

The GE "pile" LCJ made mention of, sat for the longest time, behind E'port, with a rather unusual assortment of old NJDOT locos. I saw one also (possibly the same one) down in Wilmington, at the shops where Amtrak stored all of the junk E-60's, RS-1 and SW-1 locos, in the mid 80's. Also there, a huge assortment of derelict GG-1 locos. Will post a pic, of that GE rebuilt E-44, when I come across the phot of it. I photo'ed the cab, and as I seem to remember, it had either a 16 notch, or 27 notch controller (throttle) on it. It had one of those, the GG-1 had the other, just don't remember which was which. Those locos were "too little, too late", as LCJ mentioned, ConRail had no desire to maintain electric locos, or transmission wires, catenary, etc. They were done away with, operationally, as fast as they could be replaced, with diesels. Look at the Virginian, Milwaukee, etc., and see there was no interest in maintianing electric operations, once diesels could muster comparable HP and tractive effort numbers, as the electrics. Less headaches, with power swaps, maintenance, etc., as well as a "simplified" parts inventory. (theoretically, anyways) Regards

[msernak]

If CR kept running electrics, just think. NS would be running black electrics on the Morrisville line and CSX dark future motors on the High Line through Piladelphia. I wonder how they would look? I often imagine E44's in NS black although I am sure they would not have survived that long.