PRR "Silver Meteor" Coaches from Golden Gate Depot

RoyBoy posted:

PRRTrainguy posted:

the original electrification for Penn station was 3rd rail.  when the prr decided to do mainline electrification with overhead catenary (11.000 v ac) they lowered the tracks in the tunnels, which allowed catenary, but very close clearances. there is no room to lower the tracks further.

mikeg

That is interesting. Why is there no room to lower the tracks further? Is there a subway or some other tunnel below the ground?

I believe it has more to do with the material well below the base bed of the Hudson River.

under the north and east rivers were constructed tubes lined with concrete and iron? steel?  they have a fixed diameter.  this is the restricting dimension that you must fit inside. within these limits you were free to do whatever you wanted.  you could not penetrate this tube without leading to disaster.  there were several blowouts in construction of the east river tune, with fatalities.  this is why the tracks and trains had to fit in this restricted area.  i am confident that the engineers who designed this, felt comfortable, that the dimensions they selected would be adequate for all future possibilities.  as in all things they underestimated.

mikeg

These bores are over a hundred years old.  There are plans in the works to add new tunnels under the Hudson but apparently Governor Christie won't support them soooo.....  I guess he's really mad everyone found out his buddy buddy head of the Port Authority was a crook.