What if: Full systemwide electrification?

[Allen Hazen]

I've never seen any details on the 1970s study, but I was aware of its existence: the Columbia business school library subscribed to "Railway Age" and there was a brief report.
Possibly the same article as the one with a sketch of a conceptual "dual mode" SD-40: a unit that looked SD-40-ish and had an SD-40's diesel engine, but ALSO had a pantograph. I don't know whether that idea got to the stage of detailed plans or not.

[Buffalobillho]

Actually Mactraxx, the reason Conrail elected to kill the electric operations in very short order in early 1981 had more to do with the renegotiation of the Northeast corridor operating agreement than oil prices. At expiration of the original 5 year Amtrak and Conrail operating agreement, Amtrak elected to increase the axle charge by a significant amount, and the capital cost assigned to the traction power was substantially increased, making the operation of the E-44's non competitive with conventional diesel power. So the electrics got shelved, and the freight traffic was moved off the corridor as quickly as Conrail could accomplish it. The tonnage over the LV and Reading from the Newark NJ area to Harrisburg went up exponentially in the early 1980's. All that was left on the corridor was local stuff, and stuff that could not be moved off.
Bill

[MACTRAXX]

Bill: Thanks for that insight - there WAS more then just oil supply and price driving Conrail's
decision to end electric freight service...

I did not realize that Amtrak was making price changes to get freight service off of the NEC earlier...

Me and perhaps many others had thought that those efforts were primarily after the Chase wreck
in early 1986...

MACTRAXX