Quote:
Originally Posted by Plokoon11
Makes sense. (maybe there should be a thread about this.) i was curious we all know the bottom of the p
Lines is for the trains. But what about the top? Is that for regular power?
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It's also used for trains. But the way it's electrified -- part of which dates back to the ca. 1915 Main Line electrification -- was one of the first large-scale applications of A/C power, which kind of makes it a pilot for global long-distance electrification.
It works like this: Most of the NEC's power is generated at Safe Harbor Dam on the Susquehanna. From there, the power is fed via long-distance wires hung above the catenary to substations, which step it down and feed it into the wires that feed the trains. The final version of the network was in place in the mid-'30s, around the same time that Hoover Dam was being built and the TVA was developing the Tennessee Valley as a hydropower supply for the Midwest (the other really large-scale prewar electrification system).
(Obviously the major cities were already electrified by the 1910s, but their networks would have been largely localized to the urban areas themselves. Development of regional and national electrification grids took time.)
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