Welcome to the Trainscapes segment! Each week here on Geek Alabama, Trainscapes will feature train content including videos of trains and behind the scenes action of trains and locomotives. Some people have an interest in seeing trains, and we here at Geek Alabama aim to please the train lovers!
The Pennsylvania Railroad and the Milwaukee Road electrified their main lines at roughly the same time, using the same suppliers, at roughly the same total mileage. One of those systems is still running trains at 150 miles per hour today. The other became a bicycle path. This is not a story about which railroad made the better engineering decision — both made sound decisions. This is the story of why the same correct decision produced one of the most durable pieces of infrastructure in American history on one railroad, and a catastrophic financial loss on another. The answer is not in the wire. It is in what the wire was built to serve.
Categories: Trainscapes Stuff
