This comprehensive history of North American railroad
electrification has been out of print for many years. Now, Indiana
University Press is proud to announce its return in an new, updated
second edition.
For most of the first half of the 20th century the United States
led the way in railroad electrification. Before the outbreak of
World War II, the country had some 2,400 route-miles and more than
6,300 track-miles operating under electric power, far more than any
other nation and more than 20 percent of the world s total. In
almost every instance, electrification was a huge success. Running
times were reduced. Tonnage capacities were increased. Fuel and
maintenance costs were lowered, and the service lives of electric
locomotives promised to be twice as long as those of steam
locomotives. Yet despite its many triumphs, electrification of U.S.
railroads failed to achieve the wide application that once was so
confidently predicted. By the 1970s, it was the Soviet Union, with
almost 22,000 electrified route-miles, that led the way, and the
U.S. had declined to 17th place.
Today, electric operation of U.S. railroads is back in the
limelight. The federally funded Northeast Corridor Improvement
Program has provided an expanded Northeast Corridor
electrification, with high-speed trains that are giving the fastest
rail passenger service ever seen in North America, while still
other high-speed corridors are planned for other parts of the
country. And with U.S. rail freight tonnage at its highest levels
in history, the ability of electric locomotives to expand capacity
promises to bring renewed consideration of freight railroad
electrification.
Middleton begins his ambitious chronicle of the ups and downs of
railway electrification with the history of its early days, and
brings it right up to the present which is surely not the end of
this complex and mercurial story."
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