I read a caption of a picture taken in Bryn Mawr Pa in last month's Railplace Newsmagazine which stated the original 1915 catenary from Philadelphia to Paoli has numbered days and will be replaced in the near future which would move the transmission overbuild onto this ROW (and remove it from the old Trenton Cutoff).

Any truth to this? I know Amtrak has been trying to do this for years (decades), but it falls through everytime. Does someone know something that I don't?

They're working on it. The original 1915 AC electrification to Paoli used 44 kV transmission lines. That is still in use probably 48 kV now. Contact wire has been a nominal 11 or 12 kV.

The 138 kV transmission line from Safe Harbor goes onto the PRR Trenton Branch to Plymouth Meeting (formerly to Morrisville) and from Mogees onto the PRR Schuylkill Branch to "ZOO" and to 30th St. Part of this is now NS, part a Montgomery County Rail Trail and part SEPTA.

The plan is to move the 138 kV line to new cat poles on the Main Line and retire the 44/48 kV hardware dating to 1915. Contact wire would move to the new cat poles as well.

When will it happen? It should be sooner than later. The 107 year old poles and equipment keep getting older.

Note: do not confuse the Reading's Norristown Branch, now SEPTA, with the parallel PRR Schuylkill Branch. RDG/SEPTA and PRR/AMTRAK-SEPTA both use 12 kV 25 Hz traction power but they are from different sources between the ex-PRR and ex-RDG sides and the two sides are not necessarily in phase with each other.

Phil Mulligan

Not to mention the catenary pole hardware on the ex PRR's Schuylkill Branch will need some serious cash if it's not replaced one way or the other as well.

Brian

I know it's bound to be replaced someday - just not sure if it's "on the docket" right now.

The old money in that area has helped block it before.

It's not designed as a transmission corridor so I hope they can just rebuild as-is.

But... if the time is coming, I hope to know before they break ground.