Part of my early years were spent close to Libertyville, Illinois wherein Samuel Insull laid the foundational pattern for the electrification of the U.S. For those unfamiliar with Insull, he was an astute Englishman who served as Edison’s secretary, and having serves that apprenticeship,made affordable electricity vailable through the conceptual and real development of what we call now…nationally…not regionally as in his time…the grid. Insull also owned either outright or held a stake in many, many interurban railroads who were supplied electricity by main powerplants, as well as residential customers as these cross fed each other by profit…The most notable were the three major interurban lines out of Chicago we all know…The Indiana RR, a share in the Illinois Terminal etc. Anyone remember the C&IM…a utility owned coal carrying railroad? Again…the inventive Insull at work. Insull’s salesmen would call on housewives and give away free electric toasters…sell stock at a affordable price…same for railroad employees…Then in it’s infinite wisdom, the Supreme Court of the U.S decided that the railroads should be seperated from the utilities…As a second blow…Eastern banking interests decided to call in their note to eliminate him as a competitive steam roller…a third blow…when the collapse of 1929 and the depression hit, he was charged with fraud through the mail as he wanted end users to also reap profits from the service he was using…he was found not guilty when through the course of the trail it was proven that he invested nearly all his own savings in his belief of economic democracy…he died penniless of a heart attack in a Paris subway…few even recognise who Samuel Insull was and his part in American History… Now that having relayed all the above in a simplified summary…is it time to electrify the Class O
Do the utilities need any more large industrial customers they are willing to subsidize? The railroad infrastructure is tied to diesel fuel. The advantage of the electric vs. the diesel is not at great as the electric vs. steam engine. Railroads like to be able to use the locomotive of foreign line railroads on their own trackage and though the other lines diesels will work on the electrified sections the electric locos will not work where there is not wire.
None of these problems save for the cost/subsidization issues are insurmountable. When the lines into California are electrified to further reduce diesel locomotive air polution then we will know there is potential. Until then we can watch the diesel industry further reduce diesel emissions. I doubt EMD or GE really give a rip about what type of power is used on their locomotives anymore. It is likely the profit from building an ESD70ACe or an E44GEVO would be any lower than their current diesel conterparts.
I am an staunch electrification supporter just waiting for the first trolley poles to go up over Cajon Pass, Snoqualmie Pass or Mullan Pass. Yes, I said Snoqualmie.
It might have happened in the 30’s, as the Insull empire was unravelling. I can’t recall exactly but I think it was in a Classic Trains webpage-a map of RR electrifications proposed by the Federal Power Administration. Keeping in mind that the Pennsy used Reconstruction Finance Corporation loans to finish up their electrification program, these other proposals could have been built if the stars had aligned correctly…
Our own Michael Sol-resident archivist of all things MILW PCE-has mentioned a 1970’s proposal to renovate/extend the Milwaukee Road’s electrifiaction, which was floated by the power companies themselves. I suspect that something like this would have been easier in the days of regulated power monopolies.
I guess I look to the Insull story as relevant to today…heres a very creative non railroader who, for a short time. took the 3 Chicago interurbans out of a downward slump, recapitalized them…in such a solid manner, one survives and the other two just barely missed having survived into the Age of Transit Authorities. An electric utility magnate who owned a coal carrying railroad, the C&IM, routed coal on the CNSM…had a decent coal business on the Indiana Railroad…his utilities supplied the power to his roads…there were mumblings about routing same up to the CSSB…alot of infrastructure upgrades would have been needed…but the ax fell…he managed to invent the grid system…etc. Where are the folks of Insull’s ilk these days? Why arent utilities developing coal carrying roads as customers this seems to be a screamingly obvious synergy…?
Speaking of people who made things happen, Ford, the auto king, rebuilt the DT&I, electrified part of it, and envisioned electrification from Detroit to the Atlantic seaboard.
It makes me wonder is all those concrete catenary supports are still providing an arbor over the right of way…I understand they are extremely well built…which brings to mind the FEC line to Key West…many a time Ive riden that viaduct over open ocean and marvelled at the audacity of that project…one wonders with all the fanciful discussions about crossing the Bering Straight…once Cuba turns the political tide…with modern day technology if that wouldnt be worth a shot…all the concrete remained after the disaster…A buddy of mine that owns a fishing business down there told me they had a good laugh when the powers that be tried to blow it up to no avail…and just gave up… Your post made me think of another idea that was about one hundred years ahead of the curve…
The first interurban line based in Gary (1906) had the ambitious title of the Chicago-New York Electric Air Line Railroad, but succeeded only in building a total of twenty miles of track centered in LaPorte
It was designed to be literally an arrow straight electric interurban on a grade seperated right of way…Chicago to New York…talk about being prematurely visionary…
THE PUCH (PUBLIC UTILTIES HOLDING ACT OF 1932) HAS BEEN REPEALED!!! as of Feb of this year
THE PUCH said that railroads and Utlilites can not be one unit as in owning each other
Now this opens up some intresting deals…
Power Company A generates Power for Transmission Company B which needs to expand there power lines which happen to be along the right of way of the C&D Railroad…
Transmission Company B Buys the railroad and erects there power lines as part of the catananry system that runs the railroad OR the railroads trades the righ to haul coal in exchnage for the power to run there trains…
It’s interesting the link between power generation and railroads. In Britain, one reason why a lot of electric tramway systems were abandoned after WW2 is that the power Labour Govt. nationalised the electric companies, many of which had previously been owned by local authorities who also owned the tramways. Once the electric generators were stated owned they treated the tramways just like any other customer. Also at that time coal, which was the main fuel used to generate electricity in Britain, was expensive and oil was cheap so hence almost all electric tramways were abandoned at this time.
If you are interested in this topic, PBS did a show on this, and in particular, Samuel Insull who was a pragmatic businessman, visionary and tragic figure…all of which is an engrossing topic…
This topic of integrated power generation and public transportation…is very interesting. I have a copy one of the excellent “Under The Singing Wire” series entitled The Indiana Railroad which shows unit trains of coal scurrying along under wire on it’s way to the powerhouses where it was used to generate the power which moved them along. It struck me as particularly timely, considering all the global debate on fuels and ground transport. Samuel Insull Jr ran the Indiana and in an interview many years later, he said he was “haunted by the memory of all those acres of reciprocating engines” in the powerhouses…as well as his own failure to concentrate on freight rather than investing in the construction of freight bypasses around municipalities…at one time, there was a connection envisioned between the Illinois Terminal and the IRR…this would have created a network from Missouri to Ohio, north to Michigan and south to Kentucky. Instead the ITRR built a bridge over the Missisipi River…&nbs
I’ll suggest the book , "let there be light " By Forrest Macdonald . Required reading for anyone interested in the electric power industry . It is more or less typical of midwest electric utilitys in early days .
In 1974, I was speaking to a manager of Puget Sound Power & Light in Seattle about the MILW electrification, and their power studies, and he mentioned how willing they had been to try and work something out with MILW and how frustrating it was to try and work with the railroad.
“Hell, we even offered that if we could build a transmission line on RR ROW, we would build or rebuild their electrification for free and deliver the power they needed right to the trolley – AC, DC whatever they wanted. All they needed to do was buy the engines. The industry has attempted to discuss that with railroads. It solves their problem and it solves one of ours. No dice. The financial people are always interested but the operating people always veto it. Too much intrusion into their little empires. Maybe they will change their minds now.” [Arab Oil Embargo was then in full swing].
At the time, I thought the judgment harsh, but I was also surprised that the power companies had been so willing to work with railroads, but not the other way around.
I agree that the final verdict on the wisdom of PCE’s extermination is far from a clear cut case and as a subject has nine lives. But I think Mr Sol’s point was that the utilities were agreeable, even enthusiastic on negotiating electrification but a certain element in the road was insistant on refusing to consider
As an aside on the PCE, Stanley Johnson’s book, “The Milwaukee Road’s Western Extension” has been released. It is 548 pp. hardcover. It is first class in every way, and may be the definitive work to date on transcontinental railroad construction.
Rebuild Snoqualmie-Pass with 11 kV / 25 Hz catenary. Then restore the still-existing PRR-GG1s to running condition and let them haul trains over there.[;)]
A few years ago I read a rather entertaining corporate biography commissioned by the Commonwealth Edison Company, the Chicago-based electric utility that was formed by Mr. Insull. As part of his never ending quest to wring greater efficiencies from the power generating process, Mr. Insull kept demanding larger and more complex steam turbines to drive his electric generators. Although General Electric and Westinghouse balked with a lot of “… it can’t be done, Mr. Insull” complaints, the old man wouldn’t accept their arguments. Through time and Mr. Insull’s untiring persistence, Schenectady and Pittsburgh did manage to deliver what they said couldn’t be done: generation-after-generation of bigger and better turbines. The commercial electric power industry wouldn’t be the marvel of efficiency that it is today without pioneers like Samuel Insull driving it forwards.
I remember reading too that Mr. Insull acquired the Chicago Rapid Transit Company only because this operator of third-rail powered trains was Commonwealth Edison’s largest customer! If it took selling nickel rides on the Chicago ‘L to sell more electricity, Mr. Insull wanted that business too. By extension of this logic, it makes perfect sense that he would acquire what became the North Shore Line, the South Shore Line, and the Roarin’ Elgin.
