[PRR-talk] U25C/E44 and brethren

[robert netzlof]

--- On Fri, 6/27/08, ricktipton <ricktipton at bellsouth.net> wrote:

> 1. To my shame, I don't remember the specs on the
> Muskingum Electric Railway
> units, built IIRC in the early 60's.  I can remember
> thinking how flimsy the
> simple catenary looked (especially compared to PRR's
> structures).

As I recall, the Muskingum Electric was intended to serve as a demonstration of the virtues of high voltage commercial frequency electrification, including the ability to use relatively low-cost catenary.

The idea was getting a lot of play at that time. There was much talk of converting the Northeast Corridor to 60Hz power once the GG1's were retired. The latter didn't happen, of course.

The locomotives were styled E50.

> However,
> GE later delivered some big electric units to the Black
> Mesa & Lake Powell,
> which I believe was a newly built coal-mine-to-power-plant
> line in the
> 4-Corners/Navajo country where Colorado meets NM, AZ, and
> UT.  That was a
> later project than the Muskie, and may have been the
> ultimate development of
> the "E44" family.

E60's operating on 50KV 60Hz power. For both lcomotive types, the numbers were nominal horsepower in units of 100 hp. That is, E50 - 5000 hp

I just stumbled onto a reference to a Deseret Western Railroad. They use E60's on a 35 mile line between a mine in Colorado and a power plant in Utah.

Bob Netzlof a/k/a Sweet Old Bob