@B Smith posted:However, neither the EP-3s nor the EP-4s ever ran off third rail power; they all operated under New Haven catenary (and under PRR catenary during the tests referred to).
All New Haven electric passenger motors - from the early ones in 1907 to the later EP-2, EP-3, EP-4 and EP-5 - had third-rail shoes for 660-volt DC operation over the 12 miles of tracks of the New York Central Railroad between Woodlawn and Grand Central Terminal. The City of New York prohibited steam locomotives in GCT and the tunnels leading to GCT after 1907. This led to the New Haven Railroad's 1907 AC electrification between Woodlawn and Stamford, Connecticut so that its passenger trains could continue to operate into GCT - which required third-rail shoes. All New Haven electric passenger motors had a small overhead DC pantograph due to gaps in the third rail in the complex trackwork within GCT. New Haven electric freight motors ran to Bay Ridge yards in Brooklyn (via the Harlem River branch and H**l Gate Bridge) under AC catenary and were not equipped for DC third-rail operation.
MELGAR
