Freight under wire: Electrified freight service is scarce

Electrified freight service

Hauling freight in the United States is almost exclusively a diesel locomotive affair today. However, a century ago, pockets of territory existed where freight was pulled by electric locomotives.

Electrification began in the late 1800s, and by the early 1900s was expanding, primarily in locations where the switch from steam locomotives to electric would benefit high-density freight and passenger operations — for instance, routes with tunnels, or to reduce excessive smoke from steam operations in and around large population centers. The two largest electrified operators were Pennsylvania Railroad in the east and Milwaukee Road in the west.

Each had over 600 miles of electrified track, with Milwaukee Road ending its freight service when electric operations ceased altogether in 1974. The Pennsylvania trackage ended freight service in 1981 under Conrail ownership. Over the decades, the remaining locations of regular electrified freight service have dwindled to just two: Iowa Traction in northern Iowa and Deseret Power Railroad straddling the Colorado/Utah border.

Deseret is isolated from the rest of the U.S. rail network near Dinosaur, Colo., and feeds a power plant with coal mined barely over 30 miles away. Hauled by massive General Electric E60C-2 locomotives producing 6,000 hp each, the line is the last example of heavy-haul electric railroading in the U.S.

In contrast to Deseret is the tiny Iowa Traction Railway running west from Mason City, Iowa. Stretching roughly 10 miles, this former interurban has its regular operations centered on just a few miles of trackage in and around Mason City, where it interchanges with Union Pacific and CPKC. Rostering four steeplecab electrics, the youngest of which is 100 years old this year, the railroad shuffles cars from interchange to its customers largely along public roads on the southwest side of the city.