I think this is just the symptom of our crumbling inner city infrastructure. I imagine a lot of this equipment is pre-WWII and has been patched, jumpered out and generally ignored until it failed.
<opinion bit on>
This is just an HO guage version of the 77 blackout. Something failed and when they started switching loads around trying to save as many customers as possible, they took out other marginal parts of the plant, until the whole thing was fried.
