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Hell Gate Bridge
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=== Electrification === As completed, none of the bridge's four tracks had electrification.<ref name="n142458180" /> Although the passenger tracks were electrified by 1918,<ref name="RA1918 p. 1367" /> some steam locomotives continued to travel across the bridge through the 1920s.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Clardy |first=W J |date=March 17, 1923 |title=All-Electric Passenger Service for New Haven: Twelve New Electric Locomotives Will Eliminate Steam Passenger Locomotives on Electrified Section |magazine=Railway Age |page=767 |volume=74 |issue=15 |id={{ProQuest|873956580}}}}</ref> Freight trains had to switch between electric and steam-powered locomotives at Oak Point Yard.<ref name="REE1928 p. 398">{{harvnb|Railway Electrical Engineer|1928|ps=.|page=398}}</ref> The [[New York State Legislature]] passed the [[Kaufman Act]] in 1923, mandating the electrification of all railways in New York City, including the freight routes on the Hell Gate Bridge, by January 1, 1926.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=June 9, 1923 |title=New York Law Calls for Electrification Throughout N. Y. City |magazine=Railway Age |page=1364 |volume=74 |issue=27 |id={{ProQuest|873955742}}}}</ref> The freight tracks were still not electrified in late 1925,<ref name="p511729023" /> but the NH was allowed to continue using the bridge<ref>{{cite news |date=December 31, 1925 |title=Court Enjoins Electrifying Roads in City: U. S. Judge Knox Stays Operation of Kaufman Act Temporarily on Railways' Plea of Impracticability |work=The New York Herald, New York Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |page=1 |id={{ProQuest|1112886116}} |postscript=none}}; {{Cite news |date=December 31, 1925 |title=Roads Obtain Stays on Electrification; Temporary Injunctions Given New York Central and New Haven in Federal Court |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1925/12/31/archives/roads-obtain-stays-on-electrification-temporary-injunctions-given.html |access-date=March 3, 2024 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and was given until mid-1928 to fully electrify the line.<ref>{{cite news |date=July 21, 1926 |title='New Haven' Gets Two Years More To Electrify Lines: Public Service Commission Grants Extension of New York City Order |work=The Hartford Courant |page=4 |issn=1047-4153 |id={{ProQuest|557218041}} |postscript=none}}; {{Cite news |date=July 21, 1926 |title=2 Railroads Gain Extension of Time For Electrification: New Haven Gets Two Years for L. I. Changes; Pennsylvania Wins Yard Delay; Three Pleas Denied |work=New York Herald Tribune |issn=1941-0646 |page=9 |id={{ProQuest|1112994213}}}}</ref> Electric freight service began in July 1927.<ref name="REE1928 p. 397" /> As a result of electrification, freight trains from [[Bay Ridge, Brooklyn|Bay Ridge]] could travel as far east as [[Cedar Hill Yard]] in [[New Haven, Connecticut]], without stopping.<ref name="p896297024" /><ref name="REE1928 p. 398" /> The freight route was de-electrified in 1969, and the overhead wire above the freight tracks was removed.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F-Y0AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA10 |title=Cross Harbor Freight Movement Project in Kings, Queens, Richmond Counties, New York, and Hudson, Union, Middlesex, Essex Counties, New Jersey: Environmental Impact Statement |year=2004 |page=10}}</ref> The passenger tracks were originally electrified using a 11 kV, 25 Hz [[overhead catenary]] traction power system, as they were part of the [[Electrification of the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad|NH's electrification system]].<ref name="RA1918 p. 1367" /> Freight trains used the same 11 kV, 25 Hz traction power system when the freight tracks were electrified.<ref>{{harvnb|Railway Electrical Engineer|1928|ps=.|page=399}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lZYlAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA1099 |title=Railway Age |publisher=Simmons-Boardman |year=1928 |page=1099 |access-date=March 1, 2024 |issue=v. 85}}</ref> After Amtrak took over the Northeast Corridor in the 1970s, it announced plans to [[Amtrak's 60 Hz traction power system#History|upgrade the line]] to a [[25 kV AC railway electrification|25 kV, 60 Hz]] traction power system.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QvA2MF9ov_8C&pg=PA61 |title=Congressional Symposium, Railroads—1977 and Beyond—Problems and Promises |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1978 |page=61 |access-date=March 3, 2024}}</ref><ref name="p877749828">{{cite magazine |last=Sawyer |first=Kenneth T. |date=October 11, 1976 |title=DOT ready to get moving on $1.9-billion Corridor upgrading: Engineering How the $1.9 billion will be spent |magazine=Railway Age |page=33 |volume=177 |issue=18 |id={{ProQuest|877749828}}}}</ref> Ultimately, the section of track over the Hell Gate Bridge was upgraded to 12.5 kV, 60 Hz electric traction.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bradley |first=R.P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=b5gQAQAAMAAJ |title=Amtrak: The US National Railroad Passenger Corporation |publisher=Blandford Press |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-7137-1718-1 |page=99}}</ref><ref name="Dover Printing. 1994 p.">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_zhWAAAAMAAJ |title=Extra Twenty-two Hundred South |publisher=Dover Printing. |year=1994 |page=29 |issn=0014-1380 |issue=nos. 102-111}}</ref> Just south of the bridge's Queens terminus, the Hell Gate Line transitions to [[Amtrak's 25 Hz traction power system|Amtrak's 12 kV, 25 Hz traction power system]], as that part of the route was electrified by the PRR.<ref name="Dover Printing. 1994 p." /> While NH trains were capable of operating on [[third rail]] power through the East River Tunnels to Penn Station, there was no third rail on the bridge.<ref name="Ammann p. 1657" /><ref name="RA1918 p. 1367" /> Overhead catenary poles are instead installed along the length of the Hell Gate Bridge.<ref>{{harvnb|Railway Age|1918|ps=.|page=1368}}</ref> Power is supplied by substations along the Hell Gate Line. During the winter, the catenary wires could be defrosted by increasing the current coming from the substations.<ref name="p879782454">{{cite magazine |date=August 15, 1942 |title=Sleet Removal on Electrified Roads |magazine=Railway Age |page=276 |volume=113 |issue=7 |id={{ProQuest|879782454}}}}</ref>
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