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Electrification and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad

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Electrification and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad University of Missouri, St. Louis IRL @ UMSL Theses Graduate Works 11-20-2009 Unfulfilled Promise: Electrification and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Adam T. Michalski University of Missouri-St. Louis, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis Recommended Citation Michalski, Adam T., "Unfulfilled Promise: Electrification and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad" (2009). Theses. 181. http://irl.umsl.edu/thesis/181 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Works at IRL @ UMSL. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses by an authorized administrator of IRL @ UMSL. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Unfulfilled Promise: Electrification and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad by Adam T. Michalski B. S., Urban Studies, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2004 A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Missouri – St. Louis In partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in History December 2009 Advisory Committee Carlos A. Schwantes, Ph. D. Chairperson Daniel L. Rust, Ph. D. Kevin J. Fernlund, Ph. D. Michalski Adam, 2009, UMSL, p. ii Copyright © 2009 by Adam T. Michalski All Rights Reserved Michalski Adam, 2009, UMSL, p. iii CONTENTS LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv GLOSSARY v Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. THE PROMISE OF ELECTRICITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE 5 3. EARLY ELECTRIFICATION OF STEAM RAILROADS 26 4. THE MILWAUKEE ELECTRIFICATION 50 5. THE MILWAUKEE ELECTRIFICATION’S BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS 83 6. CONCLUSION 104 WORKS CITED 110 Michalski Adam, 2009, UMSL, p. iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AC Alternating Current AT&T American Telephone and Telegraph Company ABS Automatic Block System B&O Baltimore and Ohio Railroad B&M Boston and Maine Railroad Burlington Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad BNSF Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad BA&P Butte, Anaconda, and Pacific Railroad CN Canadian National Railway CP Canadian Pacific Railway CB&Q Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad CM&PS Chicago, Milwaukee, and Puget Sound Railroad CM&StP Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad DC Direct Current EMD Electro-Motive Division of General Motors GE General Electric Company GT Grand Trunk Railway GN Great Northern Railway IRT Interborough Rapid Transit Long Island Long Island Railroad LIRR Long Island Railroad MC Michigan Central Railroad Milwaukee Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad MPC Montana Power Company MU Multiple-Unit Cars New Haven New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad NYC New York Central Railroad NY&E New York and Erie Railroad NYC&HRRR New York Central and Hudson River Railroad N&W Norfolk and Western Railroad NP Northern Pacific Railroad Pennsylvania Pennsylvania Railroad PRR Pennsylvania Railroad PRTC Philadelphia Rapid Transit Company PW&B Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad PSTL&P Puget Sound Traction, Light, and Power Company RBC John W. Barriger III National Library, University of Missouri-St. Louis, Reinier Beeuwkes Collection SP Southern Pacific Railroad WJ&S West Jersey and Seashore Railroad Michalski Adam, 2009, UMSL, p. v GLOSSARY Arc lighting. An electric light in which a current traverses a gas between two incandescent electrodes and generates an arc that produces light. Cable-powered. A railroad car that moves on a steel cable driven by a stationary engine. Couplings. Mechanisms at the ends of railroad cars that connect one railroad car to another. Distribution system. The final step of delivering power, carrying electricity from the transmission system to the customer. Drawbar pull. The towing force of a locomotive, exerted at a coupler in the direction of motion of the coupling point (typically expressed in pounds or Newtons). Frog. A device at the intersection of two tracks to permit the wheels and flanges on one track to cross or branch from the other. Motive power. A locomotive that supplies tractive power to move a train. Overhead. The wires from the distribution system suspended over the railroad tracks that supply power to the electric locomotive. Pantograph. a device usually consisting of two parallel, hinged, double-diamond frames, for transferring current from an overhead wire to an electric locomotive. Regenerative braking. A braking system where a train reduces speed by converting the train’s kinetic energy into electricity that can be fed back into the distribution system for other trains to use or sent back to the power grid for other customers to use. Rolling stock. Any wheeled vehicle on a railroad, such as locomotives, freight cars, and passenger cars. Route miles. The actual distance traveled over railroad tracks between two points. Siding. A short railroad track, opening onto a main track at one or both ends, on which one of two meeting trains is switched until the other has passed. Third-rail. A rail laid parallel and adjacent to the running rails of an electrified railroad to provide electric current to the motors of a car or locomotive through contact shoes. Tractive effort. The force exerted by a locomotive on its driving wheels. Transformer. A device used to transfer electrical energy from one circuit to another, while raising or lowering the voltage in the transfer process. Michalski Adam, 2009, UMSL, p. vi Transmission system. The second step of delivering power, carrying electricity from the generating plant over high-voltage wires to a transformer, which sends the electricity to the distribution system. Trolley. A grooved metallic wheel carried on the end of a pole by an electric car or locomotive, and held in contact with an overhead wire, from which it collects the current for the propulsion of the car or locomotive. Trolley wires. (See: Overhead) Truck. A group of two or more pairs of wheels in one frame, for supporting one end of a railroad car or locomotive. Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION “In this forward movement electricity challenges the supremacy of steam, and on the Scroll of Time the year 1916 marks the dawn of the electrical era of railroading,” exclaimed a Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad advertisement.1 The Milwaukee's revolutionary technological breakthrough warranted the attention it received. The railroad world was on the verge of something spectacular and never before seen: the electric operation of 440 miles of mainline railroading on the CM&StP Railroad. It was the most ambitious railroad electrification project ever undertaken in the world. The railroad eventually added another 216 miles of electrification, bringing its total to 656 miles. The Milwaukee, as the railroad was nicknamed, was at the forefront of railroad electrification technology. While the promise of electricity for propelling trains was still a novel idea during the early 1900s, the American public experienced electricity’s potential in everyday life for over twenty years. Fairs and expositions, for example, displayed some of the biggest demonstrations of electricity’s potential. These spectacular events captured the imagination of visitors, fascinating young and old alike with the potential of electricity’s power. Manufacturers displayed new electrically operated machines, which offered a look in the future and promised the benefits of improved productivity. One of the biggest draws, however, was electric lighting. The exposition grounds were typically lit with incandescent light bulbs and, in many cases, these encounters with electric lighting were 1 Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railway, The Dawn of the Electrical Era in Railroading: The Electrification of the Mountain District of the Chicago, Milwaukee, & St. Paul Railway (Chicago: Poole Brothers, 1916), 1. Michalski Adam, 2009, UMSL, p. 2 usually the visitor’s first. In fact, many of the fairs’ guests preferred to visit the grounds at night to enjoy the electrically lighted landscape. Although the first expositions to use electric lighting occurred in Europe in 1881, the United States quickly adopted electric lighting at its fairs. The nation’s first exposition to use electric lighting, as well as the last to use gas lamps, was Louisville’s Southern Exposition in 1883. The exposition featured an Edison system with 4,000 sixteen-candlepower incandescent filament lamps, as well as lights outlining the exhibition halls and electric arc lamps lighting the grounds.2 A decade later, Chicago’s Columbian Exposition used a variety of 92,600 electric lamps to light the buildings and the grounds.3 Between 1898 and 1915, other expositions at Omaha, Buffalo, St. Louis, and San Francisco demonstrated to the admiring public the promise of electric lighting in similar fashions. Americans realized rapidly they could utilize electricity’s power in many different capacities. Electricity made communications faster. Street lighting improved safety and revolutionized advertising. Electricity promised better manufacturing techniques and allowed industries to locate away from water sources, as well. In addition, Americans invited electricity into their homes with the promise that it would improve comfort and simplify domestic chores. The American public looked forward to electricity’s potential. Steam railroad executives, however, were reluctant to adopt electricity for hauling trains. The promise of electricity was nothing new to the railroad industry. Beginning in the early 1880s, steam railroads used electricity to light freight yards, major passenger terminals, and passenger cars. By the 1890s, urban railroads, as exemplified by streetcars, 2 John A. Jakle, City Lights: Illuminating
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