Catenary on Private Industrial Track

Did the PRR ever power privately owned industrial tracks or spurs? If so, who paid for the overhead wire, who maintained it, and who ultimately owned it? Or, alternatively, was each and every spur leading into a factory without power, therefore always necessitating a diesel to switch cars for said factory?

The 1st private siding North of Torresdale, Pa. station on the NorthEast Corridor had catenary in 1967 and a bit later, but everything has been gone for many years.

I believe that the spur to the PEPCO plant near Benning Yard in Washington, DC may have had catenary.

StephenJohnson wrote:Did the PRR ever power privately owned industrial tracks or spurs? If so, who paid for the overhead wire, who maintained it, and who ultimately owned it? Or, alternatively, was each and every spur leading into a factory without power, therefore always necessitating a diesel to switch cars for said factory?

The PRR (and later Penn Central/Conrail) had many sidings with "tail" wire to allow electric powered freight trains to shift private sidings. One thing to remember (according to my fellow PC co-workers) is that usually the whole siding was not wired, save for only a few car lengths. The idea was to use part of the train as a "buffer" or "bridge" to drill the track and the engineer had to be mindful of how much wire he had to work with when drilling. One place on Amtrak that still has "tail" wire is the Old Main Line Industrial siding in Havre de Grace, Md. via #2 track at Oak Interlocking.

If so, who paid for the overhead wire, who maintained it, and who ultimately owned it?

Since it was installed for the convenience of the railroad, it was owned and maintained by the railroad.

There is wire up right next to certified steel, tracks lead onto/off of the NEC not too far from trenton.

- A