along the Reading Railroad Line
© Sara Jane Elk, Workshop of
the World (Oliver Evans Press, 1990).
The high wire transmission
towers following the original PG&N rail lines through
Manayunk were designed during an era of innovation in
both transportation and power generation. The upper part
of the structures deliver high voltage power from
auxiliary generating stations for the Philadelphia
Electric Company, while the lower portions carry wires to
electrify the trains. Today this track serves the SEPTA
R6 regional line to Norristown.
The impetus for this cooperative arrangement between the
utility company and the railroad came in 1927 as the
Philadelphia Electric Company completed its new Conowingo
Dam at U.S. Route 1 across the Susquehanna River.
1
Transmitting the
power by aerial lines sixty-three miles to a substation
in Philadelphia posed a problem, as a significant portion
along the proposed route was already densely populated.
The solution evolved from a concurrent and similar
dilemma faced by the electric company as it also sought a
route to transmit power from the northwest into
Philadelphia, where the plans called for a new substation
upstream from Manayunk on the Schuylkill River at
Plymouth Meeting. 2
In pondering both
projects, the management of Philadelphia Electric
proposed directing the lines from Conowingo to the
Plymouth Meeting station and carrying all of the lines
together into Philadelphia. Although the plan presented
an efficient way to transmit the lines, a route through
an undeveloped region still eluded them. Spotting the
PG&N tracks, a route that followed the river valley
from near Plymouth Meeting into Philadelphia, and since
acquired by the Reading Railroad Company, Philadelphia
Electric began negotiations with the railroad to build
towers over its right-of-way. Because plans to electrify
that particular route had been contemplated by the
Reading Company, its management was amenable to the
proposal. After a period of discussion, engineers Clark
Dillenbeck for the railroad and N.E. Funk of the electric
company designed a tower to overcome the right-of-way
issue and to support the dual power lines. In July, 1927,
the two companies reached an agreement which allowed
Philadelphia Electric to construct its towers from
Shawmont to Westmoreland along the rail route. In
negotiating a tower design to bridge the railroad
right-of-way issue, the Philadelphia Electric Company
successfully engineered a technique for maneuvering high
power aerial lines among populated regions.
The original towers carried three 100,000-kilowatt,
66,000-volt aerial lines to a substation in Hunting Park
which transferred the power underground to 66,000-volt
cables to the company's main steam generating plants at
Richmond, Schuylkill and Delaware Stations.
Two types of towers occur along the route, both
observable in Manayunk. Each resembles human forms, minus
the arms, with the legs straddling the tracks. The towers
differ in the position of the legs. Standing at the
intersection of Cresson Street and Shurs Lane, observe
one type with a leg stepped to the side and the other
type with the legs positioned
symmetrically.
1 Nicholas B.
Wainwright, History
of the Philadelphia Electric Company
1881-1961 . (Philadelphia, 1961), pp.
179-82.
2 Wainwright, p. 181.
This project involved interconnecting the Pennsylvania
Power and Light Company with the Public Service Electric
and Gas Company of New Jersey.
Update May
2007 (by
Sara Jane Elk):
No change.