North of Philadelphia on Route 95

I was cruising north yesterday and noticed a spot, about four or miles north of Center City.... the ex-PRR was on my left and some catenary posts went off the main and under Route 95, terminiting on my right side near some water. No tracks, just posts.... Anyone out there help me? Seems unusual that PRR would electrify a line off the main that was less than a mile long.

I think it was almost certainly the K&T (Kensington and Tacony,
part of PRR). It came off the PRR about 1/2 mile south of Cottman Ave
(just south of Princeton ave), went to the water, and made a sharp
turn and went south. Down near Richmond it curved back up
to Frankford Junction Yard. Used to be a lot of industry
aroudn there and Frankford Arsenal. The track is all gone, but north
of the Delair/Betsy Ross bridges, the catenary poles are still there.
You can see them on good satellite maps site
(maps.google.com, local.live.com, ...)

By coincidence, a thread has been going on lately about the area:
http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=20938
JS

The towers that you see are not actually catenary towers but they DO carry catenary power from the PECO Richmond generating station which is located alongside the approach to the ex-PRR Delair bridge, currently the NS/CSAO line into Pavonia Yard and South Jersey. The Richmond Station is dedicated to providing power for the NEC, those lines connect to the NEC just to the west of where you crossed over the old ROW (the grade crossing poles still exist on State Rd). The K&T tracks have been gone for well over twenty years, recent reports of the line being re-established have so far gone nowhere.

glennk419 wrote:The towers that you see are not actually catenary towers but they DO carry catenary power from the PECO Richmond generating station which is located alongside the approach to the ex-PRR Delair bridge, currently the NS/CSAO line into Pavonia Yard and South Jersey. The Richmond Station is dedicated to providing power for the NEC, those lines connect just to the west of where you crossed over the line. The K&T tracks have been gone for well over twenty years, recent reports of the line being re-established have so far gone nowhere.

The only report I have read about potential Kensington & Tacony re-activation was from Railpace HotNews maybe 5 years ago?
Otherwise the only discussion is the sporadically mentioned rail-trail (oddly I have not seen a complete map of this rail-trail, albiet you get verbal descriptions from various sites here and there)

Glenn, thanks, I learned something.
Does the NEC run on some weird frequency, that they need
dedicated power plants?
Also, was the K&T ever electrified. I used to think so from
the "catenary" towers -- I guess I was fooled since some are
suspiciously "H" shaped. But it doens't make sense I guess for
an industrial branch to be electrified, with all the industrail spurs
and siding,, etc.

As far as the park, here is a map I found.
http://www.greentreks.org/delawarerivercity/map.asp

From what I can make out from it,
north of the old Frankford Creek (just south of the new Arsenal
boat ramp), the trail follows the K&T north until the end of the K&T --
just south of the Tacony army warehouse --
From old Frankford Creek going south to the
Delair bridge, it hugs the waterfront
with the active Belt Line tracks and abandoned K&T to the west..

South of Delair to Allegheny Ave, it follows Delaware Avenue Ext.
(the old K&T again), with the Belt line tracks now further WEST.

Another link said the trail should be done in 2008, with property
aquisition in 2005 and 2006.

JS

pumpers wrote:Glenn, thanks, I learned something.
Does the NEC run on some weird frequency, that they need
dedicated power plants?
Also, was the K&T ever electrified. I used to think so from
the "catenary" towers -- I guess I was fooled since some are
suspiciously "H" shaped. But it doens't make sense I guess for
an industrial branch to be electrified, with all the industrail spurs
and siding,, etc.

The Northeast Corridor runs on 11KV 25 Hz power from Washington, DC to NYC, thus the need for "dedicated" power sources. Dating back to the original PRR electrification, all of the catenary power was provided by dedicated or quasi-dedicated sources. Richmond generating station was one of these sources and it exists today solely to provide Amtrak power, although it is now accomplished by solid sate freqency converters using commercial power for the input. Much of the power for other parts of the corridor is also now provided by strategically located converters and substations, although the lower end still gets 25Hz power from a couple of dedicated turbines at a hydro plant in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

glennk419 wrote:Much of the power for other parts of the corridor is also now provided by strategically located converters and substations, although the lower end still gets 25Hz power from a couple of dedicated turbines at a hydro plant in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

Some posts on the PRR section of this forum suggest that the powerhouse is at Safe Harbor, Pa., on the formerly electrified Columbia & Port Deposit branch, and that 4 transmission wires run overland to the corridor at Perryville, Md., across the river from Havre de Grace.

JimBoylan wrote:

glennk419 wrote:Much of the power for other parts of the corridor is also now provided by strategically located converters and substations, although the lower end still gets 25Hz power from a couple of dedicated turbines at a hydro plant in Havre de Grace, Maryland.

Some posts on the PRR section of this forum suggest that the powerhouse is at Safe Harbor, Pa., on the formerly electrified Columbia & Port Deposit branch, and that 4 transmission wires run overland to the corridor at Perryville, Md., across the river from Havre de Grace.

Thanks Jim, I do believe you (and they) are correct. Mea culpa.

wasn't the NEC supposed to go over to to 25kv, 60 hz at one time. like in the 1980's.. Supposedly one of the reasons that the GG-1's couldn't run anymore????

just wondering

Proposed power changes on the NE Corridor are just some of the things you can't pay for out of a "shut down" budget appropriation.