From <@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU:owner-railroad@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Mon Feb  5 09:09:21 EST 1996
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Date:         Mon, 5 Feb 1996 09:08:32 -0500
Reply-To: RAILROAD@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Sender: The Railroad List 
From: _RAIL_Tom Kerwin 
Subject:      Re: PRR electrified territory
To: Multiple recipients of list RAILROAD 
In-Reply-To:  <199602042115.QAA22759@pluto.njcc.com>
Status: RO

You missed two pieces:
  1.   the old NY&LB is now electrified to Long Branch not South Amboy.
  2.   the Amboy Secondary from Midway (Monmouth Junction) to Essay
       (South Amboy) no longer has wires.

On Sun, 4 Feb 1996, David Black wrote:

> >>>In any case, how much of the former PRR electrified territory still has the
> > >>overhead?
> >
> >>Yes, it is still in full operation from Washington, DC to New Haven CN.
> >>Also, Philadelphia to Harrisburg.  The engines now used are AEM-7's and
> >>some (GE)  E-60's.
> >
> >No, from DC to New York City.  The trackage from New York to New Haven
> >was NYNH&H, not PRR.  Some formerly electrified secondary lines have lost
> >their catenary.  This includes:
> >
> >Perryville, MD to near Harrisburg, PA
> >The line from Newark to Jersey City (Exchange Place)
> >and possibly the Jamesburg Secondary
>
> Adding a few nits (which will doubtless be corrected by some PRR afficionado):
>
> PRR electrified commuter lines still in service (in addition to commuter
> service on the corridor):
>
>         NY&LB to South Amboy
>         Princeton Jct. - Princeton
>         Suburban Station - 30th st. (both Phila.)
>         52nd st. (Phila.) - Cynwyd
>         30th st. (Phila.) - Elwyn
>         N. Phila. - Chestnut Hill (West)
>
> The Cynwyd line is the stub of the old Manayunk line (stubbed due to decision
> not to refurbish Manayunk bridge) which in turn used to be electrified all the
>  way to Norristown.  The Elwyn line used to be electrifed all the way to
> West Chester; there's no longer any passenger service beyond Elwyn, although
> there used to be a ballast quarry out there, so I'm not sure what survives.
> The NY&LB extension, Phila. Airport, and Phila. center city tunnel
> lines were post PRR electrifications by the respective states and transit
> authorities.
>
> On the other hand ...
>
> PRR electrified freight lines no longer electrified:
>
>         Trenton cutoff (Morrisville - Downingtown)
>         Phila. high line (Zoo - Arsenal)
>         South Philadelphia line (Arsenal to S. Phila.)
>         Low Grade freight line (Lancaster or thereabouts to Enola)
>         Washington DC freight bypass (to Potomac yard)
>
> The western piece of the Trenton cutoff is probably abandoned, ditto most
> of the low grade freight line (ex Atglen & Susquehanna, if I rememeber
> correctly).  The post quoted above noted that the "Port Road" (ex Columbia
> and Port Deposit) has had its wires removed.  The basic story here is
> that after Conrail decided that electrified freight was no longer cost
> effective, a contractor paid Conrail for the privilege of removing the
> wires (courtesy of the high scrap value of the copper).
>
> The biggest surprise in all of this is that the portion of the Trenton cutoff
> east of the Schuylkill river has fairly heavy freight traffic, since this
> line connects to Amtrak trackage on both ends.  What's happened is that
> it's been connected to ex-Reading lines from Reading and to New York and
> serves as part of a double stack route from New York to Harrisburg and west.
>
> --David
>
> --
> ============================================================================
> David L. Black                ___   ___   ___      Voice: (617) 621-7347
> Open Software Foundation     /  /  /__   /__         Fax: (617) 621-8696
> Eleven Cambridge Center     /__/  ___/  /         E-Mail: dlb@osf.org
> Cambridge, MA  02142                                http://www.osf.org/~dlb/
> ============================================================================
>

From <@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU:owner-railroad@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Mon Feb  5 11:02:29 EST 1996
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Date:         Mon, 5 Feb 1996 11:00:41 EST
Reply-To: RAILROAD@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Sender: The Railroad List 
From: _RAIL_Mark D Bej 
Subject:      Re: PRR electrified territory (fwd)
To: Multiple recipients of list RAILROAD 
Status: RO

> You missed two pieces:
>   1.   the old NY&LB is now electrified to Long Branch not South Amboy.
>   2.   the Amboy Secondary from Midway (Monmouth Junction) to Essay
>        (South Amboy) no longer has wires.

Hmm.. when was #2 taken down?  (This was still up as late as 1991 or 2, a
good 6-7 years after CR removed their other electrification.)

> > >Some formerly electrified secondary lines have lost
> > >their catenary.  This includes:
> > >
> > >Perryville, MD to near Harrisburg, PA
> > >The line from Newark to Jersey City (Exchange Place)
> > >and possibly the Jamesburg Secondary
> >
> > Adding a few nits (which will doubtless be corrected by some PRR
> > afficionado):

Naaaaaahhhhhhh.  :-)

> > PRR electrified commuter lines still in service (in addition to commuter
> > service on the corridor):
> >
> >         NY&LB to South Amboy
> >         Princeton Jct. - Princeton
> >         Suburban Station - 30th st. (both Phila.)
> >         52nd st. (Phila.) - Cynwyd
> >         30th st. (Phila.) - Elwyn
> >         N. Phila. - Chestnut Hill (West)

> > On the other hand ...  PRR electrified freight lines no longer electrified:
> >         Trenton cutoff (Morrisville - Downingtown)
> >         Phila. high line (Zoo - Arsenal)
> >         South Philadelphia line (Arsenal to S. Phila.)
> >         Washington DC freight bypass (to Potomac yard)
> >         Low Grade freight line (Lancaster or thereabouts to Enola)
               technically the A&S Branch, Parkesburg (Atglen) to ?PORT
          Port Road (C&PD Branch) along the Susquehanna
          York Haven Line on the west shore, to Enola Yard
          Royalton Branch
          Columbia Branch
          Greenville branch, already mentioned somewhere, I believe.
          P&H branch
          DRRR&B Co. Branch: the line from SHORE, across the Delaware River
             bridge, to JERSEY, and south to Camden.
          Shellpot Branch: the line around AMTK's Wilmington shops, through
             Edgemoor yard, and back to the main line at RAGAN.
          Cumberland Valley Branch Bridge and stub electrification west
             thereof (to allow use of 3 wye tracks)

> > The western piece of the Trenton cutoff is probably abandoned,

One of the tracks abandoned, the other reduced to unsignalled, Manual
Block running.  All of this west of the connection with the Reading
at (&^&*^&^ I can't remember the name).

> > of the low grade freight line (ex Atglen & Susquehanna, if I rememeber
> > correctly).

You do.  A&S abandoned from a couple of miles west of Parkesburg to the
Port Road.  Stub is in, consideration for use by SEPTA to store trains for
its now-extended service to Parkesburg.

  The post quoted above noted that the "Port Road" (ex Columbia
> > and Port Deposit) has had its wires removed.  The basic story here is
> > that after Conrail decided that electrified freight was no longer cost
> > effective, a contractor paid Conrail for the privilege of removing the
> > wires (courtesy of the high scrap value of the copper).

Correct.  "Not cost effective", though, has much overlay.  A large part of
the decision for CR to get off the ex-PRR and onto the ex-RDG (the Lebanon
Valley Branch of the RDG was NOT in good shape at that point, besides being
a considerably hillier way to get to Philadelphia) was AMTK's sudden and
outrageous per-car-mile charges imposed on freight on its lines.  Because
of the obviously tight-knit connections of the Low Grade, etc., CR decided
to switch to the RDG, electrification-free nearly all the way to Philly,
and electrification-free all the way to New Jersey.  They were still forced
to use the NEC to Baltimore and DC, plus for local traffic, but such a small
operation clearly did not warrant keeping electrics around.

Note that the HV wires (132 kV) above Conrail trackage or Conrail lack-of-
trackage still is active and supplies Amtrak.

> > The biggest surprise in all of this is that the portion of the Trenton
> > cutoff
> > east of the Schuylkill river has fairly heavy freight traffic, since this
> > line connects to Amtrak trackage on both ends.

Well, not really.  Yes, it connects to Amtrak on the west, but it's
miniscule in terms of freight traffic.  Yes, it connects to Amtrak on the
east.  But the major connection now is to the Reading near Norristown, where
an old, decrepit connection was rebuilt for through trains to Morritown
Yard.  Morristown was the Philadelphia-area TV (piggy-back) terminal.

Rumor had it, just prior to my 1992 leaving Philly, that Morristown was to
be closed.  Did this happen?  Did anything happen?

--
Mark D. Bej
bejm@ccfadm.eeg.ccf.org

From <@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU:owner-railroad@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> Sun Feb  4 16:16:05 EST 1996
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Date:         Sun, 4 Feb 1996 16:14:22 -0500
Reply-To: RAILROAD@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
Sender: The Railroad List 
From: _RAIL_David Black 
Subject:      PRR electrified territory
To: Multiple recipients of list RAILROAD 
In-Reply-To:  Your message of "Sat, 03 Feb 1996 16:53:11 EST."
              <199602040117.UAA02208@postman.osf.org>
Status: RO

>>>In any case, how much of the former PRR electrified territory still has the
> >>overhead?
>
>>Yes, it is still in full operation from Washington, DC to New Haven CN.
>>Also, Philadelphia to Harrisburg.  The engines now used are AEM-7's and
>>some (GE)  E-60's.
>
>No, from DC to New York City.  The trackage from New York to New Haven
>was NYNH&H, not PRR.  Some formerly electrified secondary lines have lost
>their catenary.  This includes:
>
>Perryville, MD to near Harrisburg, PA
>The line from Newark to Jersey City (Exchange Place)
>and possibly the Jamesburg Secondary

Adding a few nits (which will doubtless be corrected by some PRR afficionado):

PRR electrified commuter lines still in service (in addition to commuter
service on the corridor):

        NY&LB to South Amboy
        Princeton Jct. - Princeton
        Suburban Station - 30th st. (both Phila.)
        52nd st. (Phila.) - Cynwyd
        30th st. (Phila.) - Elwyn
        N. Phila. - Chestnut Hill (West)

The Cynwyd line is the stub of the old Manayunk line (stubbed due to decision
not to refurbish Manayunk bridge) which in turn used to be electrified all the
 way to Norristown.  The Elwyn line used to be electrifed all the way to
West Chester; there's no longer any passenger service beyond Elwyn, although
there used to be a ballast quarry out there, so I'm not sure what survives.
The NY&LB extension, Phila. Airport, and Phila. center city tunnel
lines were post PRR electrifications by the respective states and transit
authorities.

On the other hand ...

PRR electrified freight lines no longer electrified:

        Trenton cutoff (Morrisville - Downingtown)
        Phila. high line (Zoo - Arsenal)
        South Philadelphia line (Arsenal to S. Phila.)
        Low Grade freight line (Lancaster or thereabouts to Enola)
        Washington DC freight bypass (to Potomac yard)

The western piece of the Trenton cutoff is probably abandoned, ditto most
of the low grade freight line (ex Atglen & Susquehanna, if I rememeber
correctly).  The post quoted above noted that the "Port Road" (ex Columbia
and Port Deposit) has had its wires removed.  The basic story here is
that after Conrail decided that electrified freight was no longer cost
effective, a contractor paid Conrail for the privilege of removing the
wires (courtesy of the high scrap value of the copper).

The biggest surprise in all of this is that the portion of the Trenton cutoff
east of the Schuylkill river has fairly heavy freight traffic, since this
line connects to Amtrak trackage on both ends.  What's happened is that
it's been connected to ex-Reading lines from Reading and to New York and
serves as part of a double stack route from New York to Harrisburg and west.

--David

--
============================================================================
David L. Black                ___   ___   ___      Voice: (617) 621-7347
Open Software Foundation     /  /  /__   /__         Fax: (617) 621-8696
Eleven Cambridge Center     /__/  ___/  /         E-Mail: dlb@osf.org
Cambridge, MA  02142                                http://www.osf.org/~dlb/
============================================================================