Is AC Power used to run locos?

[The signalman]

I'll defer to you on the traction power. I only handled switching/signal equipment.

[aegrotatio]

Those lines carry 25 Hertz from the turbine at Safe Harbor dam. Over the years Amtrak has had to file a sort of "amicus brief" to keep the energy company from decommissioning the turbine, which costs more and more to maintain every year.

I found it quite odd that Amtrak elected to replace the two 25 Hz feeders, indeed, one of them is over a railroad right-of-way abandoned several decades ago. They must think that it was so over-engineered that, given the proper amount of maintenance, the turbine will survive indefinitely. The New York subway felt the same about their 60 Hz motor-generator DC converters which have similar engineering quality.

[The signalman]

Well--I do know that on the New York Division--commercial 60HZ power comes in and is converted to 25HZ and 100HZ at the substations for Railroad use

[bjhansen]

I can't speak for the canternary and rail feed locos of the NE USA.  Main line locos from EMD and GE both ran on DC traction motors up to the time of the AC4400 and comparable EMD loco of the time period.  Most Traction motors were rated at near 1,000 hp each.  When I was hauling prime mover engines out of Grove City, Pa. I saw a 16 cylinder proto type test engine with a dual alternator being tested for 10,000 hp.  These were to replace the 6000 hp engine then designed, but fuel economy won out and the new generation locomotive engines came to be.