So this line of questioning more stems an O scale project, and something someone said to made a disturbing amount of sense almost immediately from both a technical perspective and a historical perspective.

In discussing the model of the B&A suburban coach I've been working on, someone mentioned something about the cars being designed with the idea in mind to later convert them to multiple units, but electrification not going forward left that a non-starter. And to be honest? It immediately made sense. The underframes of the cars had plenty of room for equipment. And as built the ends of the cars where it was set up for standing room were WIDE open. Which would give room for electrical cabinets or other control gear that might be needed inside the carbody.

Of course there's precedent for such a design idea when it comes to coaches. The LIRR Ping Pong cars and some of the Erie Stillwells immediately come to mind, and there's probably others out there as well. Even the narrow gauge BRB&L pulled that trick off in practice with 3ft gauge wooden coaches on the other side of the river.

Now as built South Station DID have an underground loop with two platforms which had connections to all the main approaches into South Station. And it was built just before the New Haven started experimenting with electrification not far from Boston on some of the Old Colony lines (some of which are part of the current Greenbush line). But that was also a good thirty years before these coaches were built for the B&A. And that discounts the fact that the electrification being played with was for a different company.

All of this goes to a rather obvious question. What was the reality with the railroads in the area playing with electrifying their Boston area operations? It definitely seems that at least some people were playing with the idea for years.

There is a 1915 book on railroad termini which extensively covers South Station, and noted that the loop was explicitly designed for an electric service. Might even have mentioned the extent, but I don't recall and don't have my copy handy.

The era around 1907 was probably the great period of interest in electrifying "steam" operations where there was sufficient anticipated traffic. Despite any issues with the Panic of 1907, NYC (West Shore) not only developed an electrification (between Syracuse and Utica) but provided dramatically high-speed-streamlined (for the time) equipment in 1912. The Erie electrified the Rochester branch at 11kV AC, at the same time as the New Haven, and a reference indicated this was a pilot program for electrifying all the New York area lines -- perhaps even my beloved Northern branch. (So look analytically at Stilwells as perhaps designed with this in mind; the Rochester equipment ran in some form all the way to 1934, and I believe featured on pantograph located mid-car.)

I would have to wonder at the Boston area being a major priority for electrification so long as more 'important' parts of the main stem were getting the treatment (and that applies not only to the New Haven to Stamford and past New Haven, but to Morgan's NYW&B) Look at whether traction companies would have provided 'electric' service better than, say, B&M in their areas. I don't know whether the necessary density and sense of competition that produced widespread electrification in the Philadelphia region (including all the way to West Trenton, clearly with an eye to wiring further toward Bound Brook) would be true of the Boston commuter areas.

CNJ's 1930 coaches had pantograph pads at each end of the roof, but CNJ never electrified. RDG did buy 11 kV 25 Hz MU cars in 1931-1932 and used them for decades. They were similar but not identical to what CNJ would have used. SEPTA now uses cars a couple of generations newer on the ex-RDG lines and they run through to the ex-PRR lines.

Phil Mulligan