Harsimus Branch Update

In doing research for an upcoming post on the section of the PRR Main Line to Jersey City (referred to as the Jersey City Branch in employee timetables after the opening of New York Penn Station), more information about the electrification of the Harsimus Branch has been compiled.

It can be inferred that the Harsimus Branch was electrified on January 16, 1933. In his 1981 book “The Port of New York”, Professor Carl W. Condit dedicates a section to the PRR’s overhead electrification program. On page 165, Condit writes, “The trackage that was to be placed under wire comprised the following segments: the New York extension (Manhattan Transfer to Sunnyside Yard); the combined freight and passenger line extending from Jersey City and Manhattan Transfer to Wilmington, Delaware…”. Considering that both the New York Tunnel Extension and the main line branch to Jersey City were specified as separate extensions beyond Manhattan Transfer, it can be inferred that these segments were electrified at the same time. Flipping over to page 166, Condit states, “The new service [from New York] to Philadelphia was inaugurated on 16 January 1933, when overhead wires and alternating current replaced the original third-rail, direct-current installation on the New York extension…”. Despite the explicit reference of the New York Tunnel Extension, the fact that service began as far south as Philadelphia infers that all segments of the main line electrification north of Philly (specified earlier as including Jersey City) would have been completed at the same time. This is further reinforced by a 1934 employee timetable for the New York Division, which reveals that trains scheduled in and out of Exchange Place terminal as using MP54 electric multiple units. As the Harsimus Branch split from the section of the PRR’s Main Line at the Waldo Avenue Yard, and Harsimus Cove Yard had a connection to the terminal on its southern end, it would yet again make sense that the Harsimus Branch was electrified at the same time as the line to Exchange Place.

The original post has been updated to reflect this.

Keep an eye out for the new Exchange Place post soon!