NEC work

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The work started this week with the replacement of a transformer in Landover, Maryland, that has been in operation since 1934, the railroad said in a statement. The stimulus funding will accelerate a program begun by Amtrak in 2002 to upgrade 82 substations along the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington.

The need for improvements to the corridor’s electrical system was highlighted by a power failure in May 2006 that stranded nearly 40,000 riders on the 456-mile (734-kilometer) route, the first rush-hour incident of such magnitude in U.S. railroad history.

Substations take 138,000-volt electricity from transmission lines and lower it to 12,000 volts, then send it to overhead catenary wires that power trains on the corridor, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boardman said in the statement.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aAqYpgVAtE5A

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Amtrak is replacing 70-year-old transformers and other electrical equipment on the Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington as part of a plan to improve travel and reduce delays on the busiest U.S. rail route.

MrEd said:

~~~~~~~The work started this week with the replacement of a transformer in Landover, Maryland, that has been in operation since 1934, the railroad said in a statement. The stimulus funding will accelerate a program begun by Amtrak in 2002 to upgrade 82 substations along the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington.

The need for improvements to the corridor’s electrical system was highlighted by a power failure in May 2006 that stranded nearly 40,000 riders on the 456-mile (734-kilometer) route, the first rush-hour incident of such magnitude in U.S. railroad history.

Substations take 138,000-volt electricity from transmission lines and lower it to 12,000 volts, then send it to overhead catenary wires that power trains on the corridor, Chief Executive Officer Joseph Boardman said in the statement.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aAqYpgVAtE5A

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Amtrak is replacing 70-year-old transformers and other electrical equipment on the Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington as part of a plan to improve travel and reduce delays on the busiest U.S. rail route.

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Great, glad to hear of the upcoming work. If you want to see how far the NEC has come, check out the "Northeast Corridor Improvement Project" of 1979. Some interesting reading if you are a fan of the NEC.

NECIP 1979

MrEd said:

~~~~~~~...The need for improvements to the corridor’s electrical system was highlighted by a power failure in May 2006 that stranded nearly 40,000 riders on the 456-mile (734-kilometer) route, the first rush-hour incident of such magnitude in U.S. railroad history.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...id=aAqYpgVAtE5A

~~~~~

Amtrak is replacing 70-year-old transformers and other electrical equipment on the Northeast Corridor between New York and Washington as part of a plan to improve travel and reduce delays on the busiest U.S. rail route.

Click to expand...

Of course, the May 2006 NEC blackout was cause by the failure of a new facility - the Richmond (Philadelphia) converter station. The old stuff worked just fine.

PRR 60 said:

Of course, the May 2006 NEC blackout was cause by the failure of a new facility - the Richmond (Philadelphia) converter station. The old stuff worked just fine.

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Wasn't it a failure followed by a bit of astute "pilot error"?

More hype than substance.

jis said:

PRR 60 said:

Of course, the May 2006 NEC blackout was cause by the failure of a new facility - the Richmond (Philadelphia) converter station. The old stuff worked just fine.

Click to expand...

Wasn't it a failure followed by a bit of astute "pilot error"?

Click to expand...

The failure was preceded by pilot error. A clamp on the output of the Richmond SSSFC, properly set by a contractor for routine work, was inadvertently left in place after the work was completed. The Amtrak power dispatcher thought it had been cleared. So when the power supply to the Lamokin converter (Chester PA) was lost, the power dispatcher thought all was well since Richmond could carry the load. It couldn't, and after a roller coaster ride for the voltage, the power system collapsed like a wet noodle.

I don't think the point is that it was a newer station that caused the failure. The point is that the equipment is aging, and if one of the systems were to fail the results would be similar.

battalion51 said:

I don't think the point is that it was a newer station that caused the failure. The point is that the equipment is aging, and if one of the systems were to fail the results would be similar.

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Actually not, at least as far as this specific item is concerned. Step down transformers are localized pieces of equipment. There is no chance that a failure of a 138 / 11 kv transformer would dump the NEC. It would be like the power company changing the pole-top transformer in front of your house and claiming the work will help prevent a state-wide blackout. It is a good thing that they are replacing old transformers (most have been replaced already), and it is a good use of the stimulus money, but claiming that changing that transformer will help prevent another NEC power failure is PR spin.

Converter stations are a different story, and that is where Amtrak is working to correct a major blunder made about ten years ago. The new Richmond solid-state static frequency converter (SSSFC) station is huge. Too huge. The station over-centralized the power supply for the NEC, and solid-state stations are unforgiving of power anomalies. A supply power blip that a rotary station would ride through without an issue can easily trip a solid state station like Richmond. And since Richmond is so large that it is carrying a major portion of the entire NEC, its loss is enough to drop everything - witness May 2006

Amtrak, to its credit, it doing something about that. They are using stimulus money to modernize and uprate the Lamokin rotary converters in Chester PA. They now realize that they put too many eggs in the Richmond basket, and that basket is very fragile. They are correcting that to a degree with the Lamokin work which will permit them to de-emphasize Richmond. So, yes, Amtrak is using stimulus money to help reinforce the NEC power supply. But, no, changing step-down transformers is not a system issue.