Electric Locomotives

Electric locomotives define efficiency. Even today, no other type can match their low operating costs, high tractive efforts, and swift acceleration.  However, they do carry a substantial downside; the implementation capital is so high railroads find the justification to do so difficult.  This sticking point has caused electrification to remain elusive more than a century after it was first employed despite talk it would one day reign supreme.  During its height patches of railroad across the country were energized, from Pennsylvania's Northeast Corridor to Milwaukee Road's Pacific Coast Extension.  The first electrics date back to 1879 when Werner Von Siemens successfully demonstrated the technology on a small railway in Berlin, Germany.  But here in America is where electrification was pioneered for use in main line/heavy haul applications.  The Baltimore & Ohio gained acclaim as the first Class I to electrify a short stretch of its Baltimore trackage in the 1890's.  Today, only Amtrak and light-rail-tran