Explanation of the Misunderstood Testing
In 1900, the Pennsylvania Railroad had bought a controlling interest in the Long Island. It had planned to send mainland passenger trains under the Hudson into Manhattan - where, unfortunately, it could find no real estate on which to park and service its trains. Getting control of the LIRR allowed it to tunnel under the East River, and purchase land for a huge train yard in Sunnyside. The arrangement not only got it a Manhattan-accessible yard; it also positioned the Pennsy as the parent of the Long Island, which it would exploit, by having the LIRR lease or purchase some of the Pennsy's surplus cars and engines.
This is the context for the decision to use a stretch of LIRR track (at the time, a scarcely used, steam powered freight-only line) in a Pennsylvania test - it considered LIRR assets to be PRR assets.
What was being tested? A prototype electric locomotive, the testing of which would yield data to be used to design a new long-haul electric hauler.
Experimental Pennsylvania Railroad Electric Locomotive,
pulling obsolete wooden PRR coaches during tests on the
LIRR Central Branch, autumn 1908
from trainsarefun.com
The Pennsylvania was happy to continue using its steam engines over much of its coal-rich territory. In the train-intense Northeast Corridor, however, electric locomotives - if they could be built sufficiently powerful - could haul trains more economically and more quickly than could steam locomotives. Electric locomotives never needed to "waste time" taking on coal or water, or dumping out all the ash they had accumulated. After stopping at a station, their trains accelerated more quickly than trains hauled by steam locomotives. That meant that at every station stop, they might shave a few more minutes off the overall length of a journey. Moreover, they would traverse the New York tunnels safely, belching neither steam nor dangerous byproducts of coal combustion.
In contrast to the existing steam locomotives, such electric locomotives could take trains from, say, Baltimore, run them north to New Jersey, and reach Manhattan via tunnel, getting passengers there sooner, with no delay due to changing locomotives. And afterwards, they could use another tunnel to run the empty trains to Sunnyside for cleaning.
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The route used for the testing ran over the Central Branch, from Island Trees, past Garden City, and joined the LIRR Main Line west of New Hyde Park. It then ran through Jamaica into Manhattan, and continued west under the Hudson to New Jersey. It ended at what later would be known as Manhattan Transfer (try not to think of the singing group). This was a special-purpose station at which, until Northeast Corridor passenger service was completely electrified, Pennsylvania passengers transferred between electric Manhattan trains and steam mainland trains.
Most of the test's run already had third-rail power; the Central Branch was an exception. Overhead wire was chosen to temporarily electrify it all the way to Island Trees. Why wire instead of third rail? In a light-duty rural setting, wire was cheaper to buy, and easier and faster to install, to operate safely, and to rip out afterwards.
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The Pennsylvania already had evaluated smaller electric locomotives, designed to shunt cars around railroad yards, but building a big loco to reliably haul heavy, fast mainline trains was very different. Many new things had to be tested, including its ability to stay on the rails at high speed. The last comment is not facetious - in the past, new types of steam locomotives occasionally had experienced problems speeding through certain types of track arrangements. The railroad applied its steam-based knowledge where it could, but so much was new about electric locomotives that thoroughly testing a prototype was considered a necessary step. It helped that the chosen wheel arrangement mimicked that of a familiar type of steam locomotive.
The testing went well. When it was finished, the findings and recommendations were used to further develop the prototype's design principles and components into a more robust, dual-unit production locomotive. When introduced in 1910, it was the most powerful locomotive ever put into service anywhere in the world. And by the way, it took power only from third rails, not from overhead wire.
The result of the tests: the DD-1 locomotive, which
would see service both on the LIRR and on the PRR
Digital model of the DD-1, built from plans by the author
in AutoCAD 2017
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