Railway power supply (40–4): Power supply for railroad electrification and fundamentals of power contracts (40–27)

Sidney Withington (New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company, New Haven, Conn.): The papers by Messrs. Torchio and Hill cover in an interesting manner the salient requirements of railroad power supply. Mr. Torchio points out that where the railroad operates its own generating station, jointly with purchase of power, the less-efficient railway plants may be operated for a minimum number of hours, as is the ease with utilities owning generating capacity of older vintage. This may be advantageous if the price of energy in connection with purchased power is sufficiently low. It is, however, often the fact that even in the case of a relatively inefficient railway plant, as modern plants go, the incremental or energy cost may be less than the incremental or energy charge of purchased power. This removes the incentive for the railroad to take all the energy possible through its purchased supply.