Well. this gets a bit off the subject of this thread, but since I grew up on an electrified railroad (NYC Harlem Division) and once thought that all railroads of any consequence were electrically operated, here's a very brief summary of electric operations in North America:
1) Canadian National Railways, Montreal terminal (originally built by Canadian Northern). Terminal electrification and suburban operation.
2) Boston & Maine, Hoosac Tunnel. Freight and passenger, for smoke abatement.
3) New Haven Railroad, suburban and through trains New York to New Haven, electric main line freight operation Bay Ridge (Brooklyn) to New Haven.
4) New York Central, third rail suburban electrification. Through trains hauled by electric locomotives. Limited electric freight operation.
5) Pennsylvania Railroad. The big one, the only comprehensive freight/passenger/suburban/terminal electrification in North America.
6) Cleveland Union Terminal, electric operation of through passenger trains only (no suburban service) Collinwood to Linndale, Cleveland.
&) Detroit terminal and tunnel, NYC. Tunnel electrification, freight and through passenger.
9) Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, tunnel electrification in Baltimore. Freight and through passenger. Third-rail suburban electrification on Staten Island, passenger only.
10) Chicago, South Shore, and South Bend. Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee. Chicago, Aurora, and Elgin. Basically interurban electric railroads, with suburban passenger and mainline freight operations more like those of the "steam railroads". Of the three, only South Shore survives, and only as a suburban passenger operation. Electric freight ended some years ago.
11) Illinois Central Railroad, suburban electrification. Undertaken mainly for smoke abatement, but long-haul passenger and freight trains were never electrically operated.
12) Milwaukee Road. The only large-scale, mainline freight electrification besides New Haven and PRR. However, traffic was always light, and "the gap" between Avery, ID and Othello, WA was never closed. Electric operation ended on the Washington State trackage in 1972, and shortly thereafter on the Montana trackage. After 1981, the mainline itself was abandoned west of Terry, MT.
And that's about it. I've left out Key System and SP's Interurban Electric, the Sacramento Northern and other interurbans, and the BC Rail Tumbler Ridge electrification, which came and went in the space of less than 20 years. I've also left out coal-haulers Deseret Western and Black Mesa and Lake Powell, and the abortive Mexican mainline electrification of the 1980s (some of which may be re-used for surburban service). I've tried to keep it short.
Randy Resor, aka "NellieBly" passed away on November 1, 2013. We honor his memory and his devotion to railroading at railroad.net.