The curve at Frankford Junction was designed and built for the Connecting Railroad in 1864 and opened for service in July of 1867. The Connecting Railroad was later absorbed into the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was aptly named as it connected PRR tracks with railroad company tracks crossing New Jersey to the Port of New York. Operations were possible over the slightly wider gauge of the new Jersey Railroads using cars with wide treads. The PRR was standard gauge of 4 feet 8 and a half inches. The New Jersey roads were 4 feet 10 inches.
The historical civil engineering represented by the curve is totally inadequate for today or the future.
(See Churella, The Pennsylvania Railroad Volume I at page 299.)
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Did the railroad ever have a plan to straighten out the curve? Is it technically feasible to improve the curve now, assuming funding was available?
ReplyDeleteThe Pennsylvania Railroad did not have a plan to ease the curvature. Given the nature of the real estate: deteriorated, functionally obsolete, vacant industrial structures; abandoned and vacant houses, low value scrap businesses, etc. the cost of lad acquisition wold be reasonable. The cost of actual line relocation would be surprising but justifiable as it would be in place for ten decades or more creating a schedule improvement and a curve less prone to disaster.
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