# would catenary wires fit in the Great Northern tunnel?



## NorthwestPennsyGuy (12 mo ago)

i have recently been wondering if it would possible to fit catenary wires in the Seattle Great Northern Tunnel without affecting clearences to much


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## Severn (May 13, 2016)

Looks too low to me but maybe. I'm not up catenary tech.


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## MichaelE (Mar 7, 2018)

Many times catenary wire inside of a tunnel is a single wire suspended on a short registration arm from the ceiling.


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## NorthwestPennsyGuy (12 mo ago)

actually would catenary wires fit in the moffat tunnel?


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Why would you need to know? Are you planning to do it?


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## NorthwestPennsyGuy (12 mo ago)

well i heard that back in the 50s there was a proposal to electrify the rio grande


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## J.Albert1949 (Feb 3, 2018)

I'm wondering just how high diesel fuel prices will have to go before the big railroads take another good look at the possibility of electrifying some of their main lines...


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## Old_Hobo (Feb 20, 2014)

Could you even imagine how much that would cost?


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## NorthwestPennsyGuy (12 mo ago)

J.Albert1949 said:


> I'm wondering just how high diesel fuel prices will have to go before the big railroads take another good look at the possibility of electrifying some of their main lines...


hehe well here in washington almost everybody wants electrified service around king street station so at some point WSDOT will probably force BNSF to electrified it


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## Dennis461 (Jan 5, 2018)

in philadelphia, regional rail electric cars have roof top pantographs, 11,000 volts. When you lower the pantograph, an arc forms and as the pantograph lowers the distance the arc bridges ( between pantograph and overhead wire) gets too long and the arc goes out.

Now in the tunnels, sometimes the pantograph would bounce, and latch itself down on the roof
BUT
the tunnels were too low, the distance the arc bridges is too short, and the arc stays, continuing to power the car.


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## Gramps (Feb 28, 2016)

NorthwestPennsyGuy said:


> hehe well here in washington almost everybody wants electrified service around king street station so at some point WSDOT will probably force BNSF to electrified it


That will probably be good news to Traction Fan.


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## miracleworker (Mar 23, 2021)

An interesting subject. I am very much a fan and student of history, so have accumulated a large amount of historical paper goods. I have almost every issue of Trains Magazine, starting with its first issue.

The issue of electrification is addressed in the December 1962 issue, which I just acquired. The article is a good read, much technical talk. 

At that time, the writer argued against electrification, due to the costs required to do so.

The analysis could be very different in our era. For example, in the 1962 consideration, diesel fuel cost $0.10 per gallon. Yes, 10 CENTS (!) per gallon. That's hard to comprehend in this time where I'm feeding my farm machines $5.00 PLUS fuel.


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