Last edited Tue Apr 21, 2015, 08:21 AM - Edit history (10)
Northeast Corridor
The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railway line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston through New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore to Washington, D.C.
The corridor is used by many Amtrak trains, including the high-speed Acela Express, intercity trains, and several long-distance trains. Most of the corridor also has frequent commuter rail service, operated by the MBTA, Shore Line East, Metro-North Railroad, New Jersey Transit, SEPTA, and MARC. Several companies run freight trains over sections of the NEC.
The NEC closely parallels Interstate 95 for most of its length, and is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by ridership and service frequency. Branches to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Springfield, Massachusetts, though not considered part of the Northeast Corridor, see frequent service from routes that run largely on the corridor.
Much of the line is built for speeds higher than the 79 mph (127 km/h) allowed on many U.S. tracks. Amtrak can operate intercity Northeast Regional and Keystone Service trains at up to 125 mph (201 km/h), as well as North America's only high-speed train, the Acela Express, which runs up to 150 mph (241 km/h) on several sections in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Acela covers the 225 miles (362 km) between New York and Washington, D.C., in under 3 hours, and the 229 miles (369 km) between New York and Boston in under 3.5 hours.
Under Amtrak's $151 billion Northeast Corridor plan, which hopes to roughly halve travel times by 2040, trips between New York and Washington would take 94 minutes.
There's a lot involved in upgrading to speeds beyond 150 mph. The sharper curves will have to be straightened out, and that takes land, expensive land in the northeastern US. High-speed rail from Omaha to Cheyenne? Curvature is no problem. From DC to Boston? Now it's an issue.
The tracks themselves have to be installed and maintained to a higher level of uniformity than is generally found in other parts of the US. Another poster asked how fast our trains are. The quick answer is that it is a function of track conditions. Most busy US rail lines have track maintained to a quality that the Federal Railroad Administration refers to as Class IV. At that level, the FRA limits are 80 mph for passenger trains and 60 mph for freight trains. The railroads back off just a bit and limit passenger traffic to 79 mph and freight traffic to 55 mph.
Yes, I know that in the 1930s,
the Milwaukee Road was running its trains at 100 mph behind
4-4-2s and
4-6-4s:
The Milwaukee Road class A comprised four (#1–#4) high-speed, streamlined 4-4-2 "Atlantic" type steam locomotives built by ALCO in 1935-37 to haul the Milwaukee Road’s Hiawatha express passenger trains. They were among the last Atlantic types built in the United States, and certainly the largest and most powerful.
The class were the first locomotives in the world built for daily operation at over 100 mph (160 km/h), and the first class built completely streamlined, bearing their casings their entire lives. Although partially supplanted by the larger F7 "Hudsons" {sic; the Milwaukee Road called them "Baltics"} from 1937, they remained in top-flight service until the end. Locomotive #3 was taken out of service in 1949 and cannibalised for spares to keep the other three running until 1951. None survived into preservation.
History
Designed for a 6½ hour schedule between Chicago and St. Paul, the class proved capable of handling nine cars on a 6¼ hour schedule.
....
They hauled the fastest scheduled steam-powered trains in the world. Running at 100 mph or greater was required to keep these schedules; the class A locomotives were designed to cruise at over 100 mph and be able to achieve 120 mph (190 km/h). A run with a dynamometer car behind the locomotive was made on May 15, 1935 by locomotive #2 between Milwaukee and New Lisbon, Wisconsin. Over a 14-mile stretch the speed of 112.5 mph (181.1 km/h) was recorded. This was the fastest authenticated speed reached by a steam locomotive at the time, making #2 the rail speed record holder for steam and the first steam locomotive to top 110 mph (180 km/h). There are reports, without evidence or accurate records, that these locomotives could exceed 120 mph. Such speeds would have placed the class A in contention with the LNER Class A4 and German BR 05 for the crown of fastest steam locomotive until that time, but no records have been unearthed. The successor
Milwaukee Road class F7 was even more powerful, with a claimed top speed of 125 mph (201 km/h).
But after
the wreck of the Exposition Flyer, things changed.
Along the Northeast Corridor, you need higher classes of track than Class IV. See
Rail speed limits in the United States. That's just the beginning.
There used to be a railroad in the Midwest called the
Nickel Plate. In the 1940s, it was famous for its high-speed freights, which were operated with steam locomotives, most notably
80 exceptionally well-designed 2-8-4s. About a year ago, I read an account of what it took to keep those freights running so fast. It was more than just outstanding locomotives or topnotch track layout and maintenance. The signaling system had to be designed to handle the speeds. The sidings had to be located in just the right places so that opposing traffic could operate without speed reductions. The dispatchers had to have the right skills.
In the case of the Northeast Corridor, braking systems will have to be designed for the anticipated higher speeds. The catenary (overhead electrification structure) will have to be able to handle the higher stresses.
It's not just land or eminent domain. It's everything. This is a big project.
= new reply since forum marked as read
