The Baltimore & Ohio railroad (B&O) was the first railroad to electrify part of its tracks, doing so in 1895 (Lecture Notes, 2/19/14). The electric locomotive was faster and cheaper than the steam locomotive, and produced no smoke (Lecture Notes, 2/19/14). This opened up the gates for electric locomotives to replace steam engines on their own tracks. Still, only a few American railroads electrified their lines between 1900 and 1950. Many American railroads failed to electrify their railroads due to the high initial cost and economic conditions, the lack of standardized electrical systems used for the railways, and corporate resistance (Bezilla, 42-47).
Electric traction had numerous advantages over steam railroads. One major advantage was electric locomotive’s ability to pull heavier loads than steam locomotives (Bezilla, 30-31). One statement from electrical manufacturers’ stated that an electric locomotive could pull from five times its own weight on a 2% grade, whereas a steam locomotive on the same grade could only pull two times its own weight (Bezilla, 31). In addition to this, the electric motors could sustain higher currents for a short time in order to increase horsepower dramatically; steam engines had no analogous feature (Bezilla, 31). These factors combined allowed for electric locomotives to accelerate more rapidly, even while pulling more weight, than steam locomotives (Bezilla, 31). The electric motor also had less moving parts and thus needed less maintenance than complex steam engines (Bezilla, 31). For example, the Pennsylvania Railroad’s electric locomotives in 1940 were typically running 90% of the time, but the steam locomotives that the electric ones replaced had only ran 69% of the time (Bezilla, 32). The...
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... as “cheap electrification” because it had many of the advantages of traditional electrification, but the initial cost was dramatically cheaper(Lecture Notes, 2/19/14). The story of railway electrification showed that just because a particular technology is better than an existing one, does not necessarily mean that it will win out in the end. The success of the “better” technology largely depends on what people want at the time, the magnitude of change required to adopt the “better” technology, and people’s willingness to accept that degree of change.
Works Cited
Bezilla, Michael. “Steam Railroad Electrification in America, 1920-1950: The Unrealized Potential.”
Perry, John. “Railways.” 2/19/14.
Stradling, David and Tarr, Joel. “Environmental Activism, Locomotive Smoke, and the Corporate Response: The Case of the Pennsylvania Railroad and Chicago Smoke Control.”
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Taylor, George Rogers, and Irene D. Neu. The American Railroad Network, 1861-1890. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1956. Print.
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