The New Haven EP-1 was a class of

boxcab A boxcab, in railroad terminology, is a locomotive in which the machinery and crew areas are enclosed in a box-like superstructure (from boxcar). It is a term mostly used in North America while in Victoria (Australia), such locomotives have been ...

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...

s built by Baldwin-Westinghouse for the

New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad The New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad , commonly known as The Consolidated, or simply as the New Haven, was a railroad that operated in the New England region of the United States from 1872 to December 31, 1968. Founded by the merger of ...

. The locomotives were part of an electrification project undertaken by the New Haven between

Grand Central Terminal Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal located at 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Grand Central is the southern terminus ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut, outside of Manhattan. It is Connecticut's second-most populous city, behind Bridgeport. With a population of 135,470, Stamford passed Hartford and New Haven in population as of the 2020 ...

. Baldwin-Westinghouse delivered 41 locomotives between 1905–1908, and the New Haven retired the last in 1947.

Design

The EP-1 had to support two electric systems and three collection methods. The

New York Central Railroad The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...

's 660 V

third rail A third rail, also known as a live rail, electric rail or conductor rail, is a method of providing electric power to a railway locomotive or train, through a semi-continuous rigid conductor placed alongside or between the rails of a railway t ...

DC extended from Grand Central to Woodlawn, where New Haven territory began. Westinghouse installed 11 kV

overhead line An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

AC from Woodlawn to Stamford. Finally, the New York Central employed overhead lines over

railroad switch A railroad switch (), turnout, or ''set ofpoints () is a mechanical installation enabling railway trains to be guided from one track to another, such as at a railway junction or where a spur or siding branches off. The most common ty ...

es in place of third rail electrification. To support these myriad methods, Westinghouse installed two sets of

pantographs A pantograph (, from their original use for copying writing) is a mechanical linkage connected in a manner based on parallelograms so that the movement of one pen, in tracing an image, produces identical movements in a second pen. If a line dr ...

, one for AC and one for DC collection, and a

contact shoe Electric current collectors are used by trolleybuses, trams, electric locomotives or EMUs to carry electrical power from overhead lines, electrical third rails, or ground-level power supplies to the electrical equipment of the vehicles. Those for ...

for third rail operation. Control devices within the locomotive prevented drawing power from multiple sources and enabled transition between them without stopping. The boxcab body was long and weighed . Beneath it, initially, were four axles in a pair of

trucks A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport cargo, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construction ...

( B-B arrangement). After oscillation problems the New Haven added an unpowered axle to each end (1-B-B-1), which resolved the issue. The EP-1 was capable of

multiple working On the UK rail network, multiple working is where two or more traction units (locomotives, diesel multiple-units or electric multiple-units) are coupled together in such a way that they are all under the control of one driver (multiple-unit t ...

, and was the first electric locomotive to do so regularly.

History

Westinghouse delivered the first prototype in 1905, followed by 34 production units in 1907–1908. One was loaned to the

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad (reporting mark PRR), legal name The Pennsylvania Railroad Company also known as the "Pennsy", was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was named ...

in 1907 for testing on the

West Jersey and Seashore Railroad The West Jersey and Seashore Railroad (WJ&S) was a Pennsylvania Railroad subsidiary in the U.S. state of New Jersey with a connection to Philadelphia. It was formed through the merger of several smaller roads in May 1896. At the end of 1925 it ...

; the locomotive tested well but the Pennsylvania adopted DC electrification for its

New York Tunnel Extension The New York Tunnel Extension (also New York Improvement and Tunnel Extension) is a combination of railroad tunnels and approaches from New Jersey and Long Island to Pennsylvania Station (New York City), Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan ...

. The New Haven ordered six more in 1908. The EP-1 designation, applied later, stood for "Electric Passenger." The EP-1s handled passenger trains between New York and Stamford, and later

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...

, when the New Haven extended electrification there. Retirements began in 1936 as equipment wore out and newer locomotives became available, but the last left service in 1947. The New Haven supplemented the EP-1 fleet with 27 EP-2 boxcabs, built between 1919–1927 and 10 EP-3 boxcabs in 1931. No New Haven EP-1s survive today.

Notes

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:New Haven EP1 11 kV AC locomotives 600 V DC locomotives B-B locomotives 1-B-B-1 locomotives Bo-Bo locomotives Electric locomotives of the United States EP-1 Scrapped locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of the United States Westinghouse locomotives Multi-system locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1905 Passenger locomotives

Design

History

See also

Notes

References