Apples55 posted:MELGAR;
I usually noticed where the NH branched off from the Harlem (somewhere around Woodlawn if I remember correctly). There were some pretty impressive catenary towers shortly after the split, but I never saw the pantographs in use. Do you know if the cat towers in that area were also from 1906 and do you know where the MN trains started using the overhead power???
The New Haven's 1906 high-voltage AC electrification and catenary system began at Woodlawn Junction, twelve miles from Grand Central Terminal, and ran 21 miles to Stamford, Connecticut . Sometime later (I don't know when), the New York Central Railroad's DC third-rail system was extended to a point about two miles east of Woodlawn near where the New Haven (now Metro-North) main line crosses the Hutchinson River Parkway between the Mount Vernon East and Pelham stations. Although they are no longer in use, the New Haven's catenary towers through this stretch are still in place. Pantographs are lowered in third-rail territory and pickup shoes on the trucks draw DC current from the third rail. New Haven electric locomotives serving Grand Central Terminal were unique in that they were capable of running on overhead AC power through the pantographs or DC power through the pickup shoes, with the changeover effected on the fly...
MELGAR
