In this post, my first ever long-form post, I’m going to break down the long story of rail electrification that I summarized in that animated map posted a few days ago on twitter. It’s not an exhaustive description of all the minutiae, but a broad depiction of the macro trends. The periodization has been organized in nine main periods, each characterized by some specific trend. The end-begin years of each period are somehow arbitrary, just as any periodization tends to be. Take it as a way to organize the information in a readable format.
Great first post! As I was getting to the end, I was planning to comment that it would be great to see the length electrified by year, but you got there first. From a UK perspective, always interesting to see that most European networks were electrified continuously, rather than in a few large projects as in the UK
My late father in law served with the 153 Railway operating company in WW2, and was in Sicily in 1943 working supply trains to the front line. I have a photo of a group of people standing in front of an E636 electric locomotive labelled "Catania Sicily 14-9-1943." however, according to your maps there were no electrified lines in Sicily at that time. Was there an electrified line there at that time? I would like to know.
Great first post! As I was getting to the end, I was planning to comment that it would be great to see the length electrified by year, but you got there first. From a UK perspective, always interesting to see that most European networks were electrified continuously, rather than in a few large projects as in the UK
My late father in law served with the 153 Railway operating company in WW2, and was in Sicily in 1943 working supply trains to the front line. I have a photo of a group of people standing in front of an E636 electric locomotive labelled "Catania Sicily 14-9-1943." however, according to your maps there were no electrified lines in Sicily at that time. Was there an electrified line there at that time? I would like to know.