Third-rail Electrification

I'm looking for information on the electrification of certain lines in southeast MA around the turn of the century. Was the third-rail electrification used on the Nantasket Beach Branch and parts of the Greenbush line planned to be used on more of the Old Colony? Was the third rail extended across grade crossings?

How did it co-exist with traditional engines? Once electric trains ran from Braintree to Cohasset, were steam engines still allowed to run over the line, or did people coming from places past Cohasset have to transfer?

As far as I can tell, electric trains replaced steam trains on the electrified branches. The electrification was 600v DC and the equipment was similar to interurbans of the day.

-otto-

Otto Vondrak wrote:As far as I can tell, electric trains replaced steam trains on the electrified branches. The electrification was 600v DC and the equipment was similar to interurbans of the day.

-otto-

Interesting... so people coming from points south of Cohasset had to transfer to an electrified train, and then to a non-electrified train at Braintree?

How much of the line did the New Haven plan to electrify? Was this what the lower level loop platforms at South Station were planned for?

These were light-duty, trolley or interurban-like operations that were mostly fairly short-lived and basically experimental in nature. If you can find a copy of William D. Middleton's book When The Steam Railroads Electrified, you can find photos and maps and other details. The NH also had an electric commuter operation out of Providence to Bristol, RI, and Fall River, Mass., that lasted a little longer.

Yes, the South Station loop track anticipated electric commuter trains but the NH ran out of money before it could electrify its Boston-area trackage the way it did in New York.

Jack Swanberg's "New Haven Power" also covers all the various forms of NH electrification, including installations operated by the NH itself (there were several), and electrified sections used by Connecticut Co. streetcars. The Nantasket Beach line was thoroughly covered in a special issue of one of Roger Borrup's old "Transportation Bulletins" published by the Connecticut Valley NRHS.

I cant agree that they were "light duty", they employed equipment too large to run on the interurbans of the time and some full size steam road coaches, converted for trolley operation.
However some were short lived. The line from Braintree to Cohasset was third rail (in the center of the track) as was the line from Hartford to Bristol.
They were both de electrified by 1904 due to safety objections. On the other hand the overhead wire equipped lines lasted longer. The Nantasket Branch lasted from the mid 90s to 1932 or 1933 and the Providence to Fall River from 1901 to 1932
(fire on the Slades Ferry Bridge) Providence to Bristol ended in 1934.
Other DC electric lines were Stamford to New Canaan (changed to AC)and Middletown-Berlin Some other New Haven lines were electrified for the use of the Connecticut Co. including West Hartford to Rockville and Melrose, which did have New Haven electrics from Vernon to Melrose and Rockville along with the Conn. Co. cars which ran over the street to an interchange off Burnside Ave. (until 1926). This interchange was the one used for years afterwards by the freight line to Glastonbury. The electrification from Taftville to Central Village was used by the Conn. Co. and, during the time they leased the New London and Norwich Divisions by the Shore Line Electric. Lines used only by Conn. Co. were Westfield to Meriden and
Middletown to Cromwell. There were also two freight only lines, Manufacturers Ry. in New Haven and Fairfield Ave in Bridgeport.
I have possibly forgotten one or two but the above is enough to indicate that the NH probably was the principal steam road user of this sort of electrification.
LS

There were also two freight only lines, Manufacturers Ry. in New Haven and Fairfield Ave in Bridgeport.
I have possibly forgotten one or two but the above is enough to indicate that the NH probably was the principal steam road user of this sort of electrification.
LS[/quote]

Seems to me the DC electric operation in Bridgeport was the Seaview
Avenue trackage.

Thanks Noel, that's what I get for not looking anything up. I also almost included Berlin-New Britain but it didn't look right. Wonder why they didn't Electrify Berlin-New Britain?
LS

In either event, that's a pretty impressive compilation off the top of your head, Leo.

This is a pretty good example of NH's third-rail electrification. The cars in use look like beefed up interurbans to me.

http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/3rail.Html

and more

http://www.bera.org/articles/nh3rail.html

-otto-

Certainly the NYNH&H D.C. equipment had a great deal in common with the interurbans. This is also true of the New York Central electrification out of GCT which is mechanically similar though more advanced. The differences are in wheel profile, size, weight and speed. Those huge cars could not have run on any interurban at that time. Connecticut Company cars, with compromise wheels, could and did run on some of the NH DC lines but, the New Haven's own electrics did not venture onto street railway track. the one known attempt, to run PW&B cars into downtown Providence, was a dismal failure, due to the full MCB wheel profile, and eventually led to the building of the tunnel and viaduct to the station as the only way to reach downtown. The differences were similar to the differences between Rapid Transit and surface cars though, the New Haven cars, some of which were actually converted steam coaches, were even bigger.
The Branford article gives the impression that the Nantasket Branch once had third rail but,
that was only on the Braintree-Cohasset section (and in Conn.).
As for Hartford-Bristol being the first permanent installation, at the time the company believed that Braintree-Cohasset was the first stage of a comprehensive electrification of the Boston suburban system and it was as serious an electrification as could be done at the time. South Station Boston was very congested and the operating characteristics of MU trains would have greatly increased capacity. Local objection to the exposed third rail and change of management objectives changed that and longer trains rather than increased frequency solved the problem until the decline set in. Though in 1907 South Station was handling over 1900 moves a day which was, at the time, a world record.

Leo Sullivan wrote: The line from Braintree to Cohasset was third rail (in the center of the track) as was the line from Hartford to Bristol.
They were both de electrified by 1904 due to safety objections.

Yes, the safety objections are easy to understand. However, they were not the only reason, there was also a technical problem: the center third rail had to be installed so low to insure it would not foul the bottoms of the cars that they had a problem with it shorting out in heavy rains.

Lionel does not have either of these problems

TC is certainly also right about the technical problems. The long 'dead spots' at switches must have been operationally annoying too. The electrics were, at that time a single motor car with trailers (MU operation was not yet invented), so only one car had shoes. The shoes had to slide over the rails of the switch so, even if there was a shoe at both ends, with the technology of the time neither could be live when crossing a switch. That's a long coast and if you made a mistake it meant using a bug to get clear. Definitely a high skill job that didn't allow for emergencies. With only one car drawing power for a train of up to 4 or 5 cars, the amperage must have been pretty high which is the reason for the third rail in the first place. Use of wire was very sparse on the Cohasset line and not at all on the Hartford route.
(You can tell Hartford cars because they were 'baldies'). So, that would have killed the experiment eventually anyway but, what got written up was the
locals fear of electricity. The Nantasket Branch had the simplest type of single wire very direct suspension with attachment directly to the crossarm.
Not a high speed wire though, they did have a demonstration reaching, it is said, 80+. I think the wire was 0000, the largest at the time. there must have been definite rules about acceleration there. If Sprague's Multiple Unit Control and catenery suspension had been invented 7 or 8 years earlier, the NH DC electrification story might have been a lot different.

The electrified baggage cars originally used in electric service each had four 250hp motors. Rather than trolleys or interurbans, they were more like 1000 horsepower locomotives with plenty of useable space in the carbody.
The third rail stopped short of the street on each side of grade crossings and short sections of overhead were provided which could be reached by trolley pole in case the train failed to coast through the crossing.
From the photos I have seen, the turnouts were arranged very similarly to those made by Lionel, with the center rails ending just far enough from the running rails to allow for mechanical and electrical clearances. It may have been possible to cut out either of the pick-up shoes on a given car so that if a train should come to rest with one shoe on a running rail, that shoe could be cut out and the train moved using the other shoe for electrical contact.

The electrified baggage cars originally used in electric service each had four 250hp motors. Rather than trolleys or interurbans, they were more like 1000 horsepower locomotives with plenty of useable space in the carbody.
The third rail stopped short of the street on each side of grade crossings and short sections of overhead were provided which could be reached by trolley pole in case the train failed to coast through the crossing.
From the photos I have seen, the turnouts were arranged very similarly to those made by Lionel, with the center rails ending just far enough from the running rails to allow for mechanical and electrical clearances. It may have been possible to cut out either of the pick-up shoes on a given car so that if a train should come to rest with one shoe on a running rail, that shoe could be cut out and the train moved using the other shoe for electrical contact.