Railroad electrification in the United States comprised many different systems in many different geographical areas, few of which were connected. Despite this, there were a small number of common reasons for electrification.
Streetcars and interurban systems are not within the scope of this article. Most of these systems electrified very early; many were electrified from the beginning.
The common reasons for electrification were these:
A number of municipalities passed laws in the early part of the 20th century forbidding steam locomotives from operating within city limits, after some bad accidents caused by the awful conditions of visibility in smoke and steam-filled tunnels and cuttings. The most prominent of these was New York City.
Long, deep tunnels provide poor ventilation for steam locomotives, to the point where crews had to wear oxygen masks to avoid asphyxiation. The ventilation problem also limited the frequency of trains through these tunnels. The Cascade Tunnel is a good example.
The electric locomotive has many advantages in mountainous terrain, including better adhesion, greater power at low speeds, no requirements for fueling or watering, and regenerative braking.
Extremely high-traffic lines can readily recoup the high capital investment of electrification by the savings accrued during operation.
Suburban commuter trains are an ideal subject for electrification since electric multiple units possess rapid acceleration, fast braking (sometimes regenerative braking) and the ability to change direction without running a locomotive around. It also reduces diesel locomotive emissions in relatively high-density areas.
Amtrak, the national intercity passenger railroad, inherited an 1930s era 25 Hz electrification system from the Pennsylvania Railroad, which it is slowly modernizing, and has completed two electrification projects on its own lines.
The Empire Connection was electrified when it was built in 1991, allowing trains from Albany direct access to Penn Station New York by use of dual-mode locomotives. The Empire Connection was electrified with 750V DC third rail, compatible with the third rail system used within Penn Station by the Long Island Rail Road.
The Northeast Corridor mainline from New Haven to Boston was electrified in 1999, completing the thwarted ambition of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. This electrification was part of the Acela Express high-speed project, and involved the building of overhead lines electrified at 25kV 60 Hz AC, requiring trains to handle a change of voltage and frequency on the fly at New Haven. Plans to convert the rest of the Northeast Corridor to 60 Hz AC have been shelved, although the section from New Haven to the Hell Gate Bridge has been converted to 60 Hz by Metro-North.
The construction of a line through Baltimore in order to make a rail connection to New York City brought about the world's first mainline electrification. Operation began in 1895 with three General Electric locomotives. These locomotives only worked pulling northbound trains; southbound traffic simply coasted through this section, which was all downhill. Initially the system used a unique overhead track in which the current shoe rode, but shortly after it was converted to a conventional 675V DC third rail system.
The BM&LP is an isolated short line in Arizona which hauls coal from a mine near Kayenta, Arizona to the Navajo Generating Station power plant at Page, Arizona. When built in 1973, it was the first line to use 50,000 V overhead catenary. The coal it hauls on the 78-mile (126 km) is used by the power plant at its western terminus to power the line itself. The line does not connect to any other part of the American freight rail network.
The Burlington & Mount Holly Railroad and Transportation Company, was incorporated in 1836. The railroad ran from Burlington NJ to Mount Holly NJ. 7.2 track miles. In 1895, the Pennsylvania Railroad used the Burlington & Mount Holly tracks to experiment with 500 volt DC trolley wire; trolley pole electric operation, with three motor passenger-baggage combination cars built by Jackson and Sharp Company at Wilmington, Del.[1]
This service was discontinued on Oct. 29, 1901, after the electrical powerhouse in Mount Holly burned.[2]
On April 1902 PRR orders demolition of Mount Holly power house and ends experiment of electric trolley operation between Burlington and Mount Holly.[2]
This line was the first electrified PRR branch in New Jersey. The Burlington & Mount Holly line was abandoned by the PRR in 1927.[2]
Burlington County RT 541 is on and or follows the Burlington & Mount Holly Railroad and Transportation Co. Right of Way.
The BA&P, a copper ore-hauling short line in Montana, electrified in 1913 using a 2,400 Volts DC system engineered by General Electric. It was the first primarily freight railroad in North America to electrify. Original motive power was in the form of 28 identical B-B boxcabs, which served until de-electrification in 1967, by which time diesel-electric locomotives were cheaper to run. General Electric used the BA&P as a model railroad for demonstrating the success of its DC electrification techniques. The Milwaukee Road electrified soon afterward using a similar technique at 3,000 V DC.
The Milwaukee electrified with 3000V DC overhead. Two divisions were electrified; a plan to connect them was never completed. The 438-mile section from Harlowtown, Montana to Avery, Idaho operated under wire from 1916 to 1974. The 207-mile section between Tacoma and Othello, Washington was electrified from 1919 to 1971.
What are now New Jersey Transit's Morris & Essex Lines (the Morristown Line and Gladstone Branch) and Montclair-Boonton Line were electrified by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad at 3kV DC in 1930/31,[3] until NJ Transit converted them to 25kV AC 60 Hz in August, 1984.[4]
The Great Northern Railway (now BNSF Railway) in 1909 electrified the 2.5-mile (4.0 km) original Cascade Tunnel near the summit of Stevens Pass in the Cascades. This first electrification system and GE-built boxcabs were the only three-phase A.C. implementation ever used in North America. The electric boxcabs pulled the trains through the tunnel with their steam locomotives still attached until they were retired in 1927.
In 1925 work began on the new 7.8-mile (12.6 km) Cascade Tunnel, with the Great Northern ultimately electrifying a 73-mile (117 km) section of its main line route to Seattle, Washington from Wenatchee to Skykomish. The new tunnel and electrification reduced the mainline by 9 miles (14 km), eliminated 502 feet (153 m) of elevation and 6 miles (9.7 km) of snow sheds. Electric locomotives handled mainline freight and passenger trains on this section exclusively. The route was de-energized and dismantled in 1956, after the Cascade Tunnel was fitted with ventilation fans.
The Illinois Central Railroad electrified its passenger lines into Chicago in 1926 due to ordinances passed by the city. The IC commuter lines remain electrified and now run as Metra Electric. The catenary is energized at 1500V and serves four tracks of commuter operations. Two tracks are unelectrified and used for freight and Amtrak service to downstate Illinois and beyond.
The Long Island Rail Road's electrification was initiated in the first decade of the 20th century while it was owned by the Pennsylvania Railroad, which was building tunnels under the Hudson River and East River to gain access to Manhattan. The first segment of the LIRR to be electrified was the trackage between the Atlantic Avenue terminal in Brooklyn and Jamaica Station. In 1910, the opening of Pennsylvania Station (New York City) ushered in electric service between that station and Jamaica. The LIRR's Port Washington Branch was rebuilt and electrified by 1918. By the 1934, LIRR branches to Hicksville, Hempstead, West Hempstead, Far Rockaway, Long Beach, and Babylon were electrified. At some later date, electrification was extended from Hicksville to Huntington on the Port Jefferson Branch. In 1987, electrification of the Main Line between Hicksville and Ronkonkoma was completed, resulting in greatly increased service.
The LIRR utilizes third rail electrification, which was the original method used by the Pennsylvania Railroad. By the 1930s, the Pennsylvania Railroad had switched to overhead catenary electrification, but the LIRR has continued utilizing its third rail system. Voltage was increased from 600 to 750 volts in the early 1970s to meet the greater power needs of the railroad's new M-1 cars.
The New York Central electrified a section of its main line Hudson Division route in 1913 from New York City (Grand Central Terminal) to Harmon (now Croton-Harmon), where it changes to normal steam or diesel power. The Harlem Division in Westchester County, New York was also electrified to North White Plains.
The Hudson Division electrified line is still in use by Amtrak for inter-city passenger service. Metro-North Railroad, a commuter railroad, uses both Divisions and in 1983 extended electrification from North White Plains to Brewster North station (now Southeast).
The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad completed electrification in 1907 of its New Haven - New York City mainline and was one of the pioneers of heavy electric railway use in the United States. The New Haven choose the 11kV/25 Hz system later used by the Pennsylvania, in addition to working with Westinghouse to develop AC/DC electric motors (locomotives) to run on both AC overhead lines and DC third rail. The New Haven was at the forefront of many developments in heavy electric railroads. It possesses a unique triangular contact wire and rounded pole design not repeated in any line.
The N&W had an electrified district of 52 miles from Bluefield to Iaeger, West Virginia, between 1913 and 1950. It was an 11 kV overhead electrification in a mountain region with a major tunnel.
Electrification on the Pennsylvania Railroad began in 1915 with the electrification of the Chicago-Philadelphia Main Line (now part of Amtrak's Keystone Corridor) between the former Broad Street Station in Philadelphia and the village of Paoli. The PRR electrification utilized overhead catenary wires electrified at 11 kV/25 Hz, and was fed by two substations, one in Philadelphia and another in Ardmore. It was expanded in 1919 on the PRR's Chestnut Hill line, and in the 1920s on the Philadelphia-Washington Main Line between Philadelphia and Wilmington, Delaware and on the West Chester Line between Philadelphia and West Chester, with the latter two lines being fed through a single substation located in Chester.
Extensive electrification after 1925 occurred on the PRR's New York-Washington line (now part of the Northeast Corridor), the Chicago-Philadelphia Main Line between Paoli and Harrisburg, several major commuter lines in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and on major low-grade, through-freight lines, including the Trenton Cut-Off, the Atglen & Susquehanna, Port Deposit, Philadelphia & Thorndale, Shellpot Branch, and Enola branches. All electrification done after 1919 used the same catenary supports used on the Paoli commuter line, but with the catenary being supplied with 100 kV/25 Hz "transmission" lines with the voltage stepped-down at substations located every 10 to 20 miles. The PPL-owned Safe Harbor Dam, located near the Exelon-owned Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant between Conowingo, Maryland and York, Pennsylvania, supplies the voltage for all post-1925 electrical expansion projects, while Exelon supplies the pre-1925 electrification areas through the existing Philadelphia, Ardmore, and Chester substations. Plans were made in the thirties to extend electrification to Pittsburgh, but were not pursued due to the Great Depression.
Since its takeover by Amtrak in 1976, both the Northeast and Keystone Corridors are undergoing extensive wire replacements, either by Amtrak or SEPTA, while the through-freight branches taken over by Conrail have been de-electrified and freight operations carried out by diesel locomotives. Those lines that were de-electrified, but have transmission lines are maintained by Amtrak through arrangements through Conrail's successors, Norfolk Southern and CSX Transportation.
Electrification on the Reading Railroad began during the late 1920s. The first stage was placed in operation on July 26, 1931, when electric suburban trains began serving the Bethlehem Branch between Reading Terminal, Philadelphia and Lansdale, the Doylestown Branch between Lansdale and Doylestown, the Warminster Branch between Glenside and Hatboro, and the Jersey City Branch between Jenkintown and West Trenton, New Jersey. The second stage, the Norristown and Chestnut Hill branches, was opened on February 5, 1933. Like the Pennsylvania Railroad's Paoli commuter line, the Reading employed overhead catenary wire powered at 11 kV/25 Hz, but unlike the PRR, the Reading used a single generator, located at Wayne Junction, with long-distance lines being supplied by spider-frame pylons that can still be seen, mostly along the Schuylkill Expressway (I-76).
Extensions of electrification over intercity lines, such as West Trenton-Jersey City, Norristown-Reading-Harrisburg, and Lansdale-Bethlehem were planned, but because of the Great Depression, they were dropped. Only two expansion projects, carried out by the Reading with funding from SEPTA, were that of the Newtown Branch between Newtown Junction and Fox Chase in September 1966,[5] and the Warminster Branch between Hatboro and Warminster in 1974.
Since the takeover of the Reading commuter lines in 1983, SEPTA has rehabilitated the catenary wires between the Center City Commuter Connection and Wayne Junction, and on all ex-Reading tracks owned by SEPTA. Those sections of ex-Reading tracks owned by Conrail, and later by CSX Transportation are being done on a step-by-step basis.
The VGN had an electrified district of 134 miles[6] of mountainous terrain built in the 1920s from Roanoke, Virginia to Mullens, West Virginia. It went to the N&W with the 1959 merger and was de-electrified in 1962.
The Pennsylvania Railroad, owner of West Jersey & Seashore Railroad, electrified with 600 VDC from Camden, New Jersey to Atlantic City, via Newfield, and to Millville. A third-rail system was used for most of the line except overhead trolley wire was installed between Mickle Street in Camden and Gloucester City, New Jersey as well as a ten-mile segment between Newfield and Millville. The Camden-Gloucester City portion was installed due to a decision to use the old Camden Seventh Street line as part of the route. Numerous grade crossings on both this segment and in Gloucester City precluded the use of third rail due to public safety considerations. The Millville branch, however, was equipped with overhead wire as a "method of comparing the durability of trolley wire versus third rail under high-speed open-country operating conditions." The WJ&S ordered 62 coaches and six combination baggage mail units split between Jackson and Sharp Company at Wilmington, Del., and J. G. Brill and Company at Philadelphia, which had 46 cars from the order. J. G. Brill and Company sublet work on 22 coaches to its Wason subsidiary at Springfield, Mass.
The electrification was opened in 1906 with cars that resembled wooden interurbans of other electric traction properties. The same year the 1906 Atlantic City train wreck occurred, in which a three-car train of the new equipment derailed and fell into a waterway; 53 people died. Other cars were built in 1909 bringing the fleet total to 80 MP1 and MP2 class wooden MU coaches. The 19 purchased in 1909 had steel instead of wooden ends and featured PRR porthole style windows on each end. There were six MO1 class passenger-baggage combines including two with steel ends, four MBM1 baggage-mail cars and two MB1 baggage-express cars. In 1912, Pennsylvania Railroad assigned two MPB54 all-steel combines and 15 all-steel MP54 coaches to WJ&S. WJ&S and the Philadelphia and Reading Railway subsidiary Atlantic City Railroad were merged into Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines in 1932.
Electric MU service between Newfield and Atlantic City ended Sept. 26, 1931 so P-RSL only inherited the electrified Millville commuter rail service from WJ&S. On Oct. 20, 1948, New Jersey's public utility regulators ordered P-RSL to remove all remaining 26 wooden MU coaches from service as a safety hazard should they be involved in fire or collision. P-RSL management already was considering replacing the MUs due to an aging power distribution system and obsolete rolling stock. So nearly two-thirds of the MU fleet was removed from service. With only the PRR style all-steel MUs left for passenger service, P-RSL cut back the electrified commuter service to Glassboro in fall 1948 and management then ordered an end to all remaining electrification as of Sept. 8, 1949. On that date a morning commuter run from Glassboro to Camden ended 43 years of electrification. Non-electrified commuter rail service to Glassboro and Millville continued until March 5, 1971.
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