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Catenary problem disrupts corridor service between Washington and Baltimore
Fortunately ultimately the whole catenary system up to New Haven will be replaced. The present one has given good service for a great many years but it is time for a new one.
Fortunately ultimately the whole catenary system up to New Haven will be replaced. The present one has given good service for a great many years but it is time for a new one.
NARP listed at goodsearch.com .
This is an ongoing problem on all catenary powered lines, regardless of where the lines are. Though it can to be a problem elsewhere in the world, it is most prevalent in the United States because of funding issues.
I can recall the bone chilling, arthritic hours waiting on NJ Transit and AMTRAK’s platforms because of the broken or malfunctioning systems, which have not been properly maintained since the Erie-Lackawanna and the Pennsylvania Railroads went down.
AMTRAK needs to duplicate NJ Transit’s order for dual-power locomotives, powered by CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) or bio-diesel and catenary, using the wire in the ‘North River’ and ‘East River’ tunnels and underground.
The only alternative is to plan, fund, and establish a through and effective preventative maintenance program on the physical plant, the catenary and the pantographs too.
as the power director working that section when it happened,
it would have been a lot faster if Marc had the 4901 and 02 at opposite ends. and if the protect engine didn’t have to come out of Odenton mw base and take forever to get in position. the delays would have been much less. and then there was about 2 miles of wire busted up to be repaired and inspected
and 1 boken steady span to be replaced at mp108.
The solution is simple- they need to use a constant tension catenary wire system like Europe . Amtrak has this system on the relatively new New Haven- Boston section of the NEC . They hardly ever have wire problems. While the solution is simple , the problem is cost. Right now Amtrak has started a project to replace the old catenery wire system between Edison, NJ and Morrisville , PA. (distance about 32 miles) which will allow 170+ mph speeds on this section. The cost is over 350 million.
Amtrak still has 25 cycle, there are static converters at a hydro plant on the Susquehanna river to supply 25 cycle.
Darryl: Have you been scared by Jeffery? The problem with that is no matter what the non-electric locomotives are powered by, they will not reach the speeds that electrics do. Yes, I know that there were steam engines that reached the century mark. But if that was the case, then why do countries make their high speed trains with electric trains? PS, I don’t want to compare you with our friend? Jeffery.
Jim K., the cost to replace catenary is almost 11 million dollars a mile. I don’t know if the cost is worth it to increase speeds a few miles per hour on certain sections of track. The decrease in travel time is minimal.
Another point is dependability. When the power grid fails, all electric trains come to a stop. If dual power locomotives were acquired by Amtrak like the ALP 45’s of NJ Transit, Amtrak would not be affected in the NEC. Generators can be used to maintain the catenary in the tunnels in and out of New York. When the president made his whistle stop tour from Philadelphia to D.C., the Secret Service required diesel locomotives so that the train would be able to keep going in the event an electric power failure. What did Jeffery say?
I will always prefer that locomotives have independent power without the need for catenary wires. Catenary should at most be used for the tunnels under the rivers into and out of New York City.
The economic benefits of electrification on heavily traveled lines well justifies the use of catenary. Locomotive problems can always happen, regardless of the power mode.
Specifically what exactly was the problem?
Has the operating frequency been converted to 60 Hz as opposed to the original 25 Hz used between Harrisburg-Washington-New York?
I have to agree with JOSEPH HERBERT comments. I remember back to the 1940’s when you never had a problem with GG1s and the other juice jacks Pennsy had. Why? Because the catenary maintenance was orders of magnitude better than Amtrak has. I suspect funding has a lot to do with this. it is time for Amtrak to stop pussy-footing around and to get Joe Biden to help them let congress know that Amtrak needs a proper maintenance budget to bring the catenary up to Pennsy standards; or to replace it with constant tension (European style catenary as was installed on the New haven to Boston section (formerly NYNH&H).
During the 10 years i spent in Norway in the 70’s & 80’s I observed NSB’s (Norwegian State Railway’s) catenary function quite well, but today for presumedly budget cuts there are more catenary failures and delays.
Where’s Mr. Guse’s irrational response to this one. Hey Mr. Guse, how about a suggestion to totally remove the tracks from the NEC and put in a busway or bike trail.
Seriously, the idea of a dual mode sysytem is unrealistic with a high spped rail line. In all the world, any major HSR line is traction due to the efficiencies. The problem with the NEC is antiquated catenary, some going back to the 1930’s. If state of art constant tension catenary were in place tomorrow, many such problams would be at best, infrequent. Mr. Herbert is the expert, but I believe he would agree.