How easy would it be for NS to operate freight trains under electricity? I know they would not do it but if they wanted to run freight electrified on the Keystone Corridor what work would have to be done? Same with locals on the NEC.
atsf sp wrote:How easy would it be for NS to operate freight trains under electricity? I know they would not do it but if they wanted to run freight electrified on the Keystone Corridor what work would have to be done? Same with locals on the NEC.Aside from buying new electric freight locomotives, a skill lost for decades in the US, building a shop complex dedicated to their maintenance, retraining personnel for maintenance and operations, restringing wire over those industrial spurs off the NEC and Keystone Corridor (most either were never electrified, or have since been de-wired) and negotiating contracts with Amtrak for the power, quite easy. Amtrak's E60CHs would have been fine for freight drags but those are long gone, and the AEM-7s and HHP-8s are all busy, so there's no chance of borrowing power.
That's not to say Norfolk Southern couldn't benefit from electrifying the Philadelphia freight bypass and the Old Main Line, along with their high-volume NYC main across Indiana and their ex-Virginian and N&W coal lines, but they wouldn't do so piecemeal.