News & Reviews News Wire NJ Transit reveals heritage locomotives

NJ Transit reveals heritage locomotives

By Trains Staff | October 5, 2019

| Last updated on October 6, 2024


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Tuscan Red electric locomotive with gold stripes
NJ Transit ALP-46A No. 4636, wearing a Pennsylvania Railroad heritage scheme, was unveiled at the transit agency’s Family Days event Saturday in Kearny, N.J. Anthony M. Bonelli

KEARNY, N.J. — NJ Transit unveiled three heritage locomotives Saturday at its annual Family Days event at its Meadows Maintenance Complex, and is scheduled to debut the locomotives for the general public on Tuesday.

The three locomotives are GP40PH-2 No. 4109, repainted to a version of the Central of New Jersey livery it wore when first delivered in 1968; Bombardier ALP-46A No. 4636, an electric locomotive painted into a Pennsylvania Railroad scheme; and dual-mode Bombardier ALP-45DP No. 4519, with an Erie-Lackawanna paint scheme.

NJ Transit, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary, initiated its heritage program earlier this year with the debut of a set of bilevel coaches wrapped to honor its predecessor railroads. [See “NJ Transit unveils six heritage commuter cars,” Trains News Wire, July 17, 2019.]

Trains News Wire plans to attend Tuesday’s public unveiling.

PRR heritage electric with Central of New Jersey diesel
NJ Transit’s Pennsylvania heritage unit is posed with United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey’s Central of New Jersey GP7 during Saturday’s Family Days event. Anthony M. Bonelli
Electric locomotive in maroon, yellow, and silver paint scheme
Bombardier ALP-45DP No. 4519 has been painted in an Erie Lackawanna heritage scheme. Anthony M. Bonelli
Blue diesel with yellow trim and lettering
NJ Transit GP40PH-2 No. 4109, delivered to the Central of New Jersey in 1968, has been repainted to a replica of its original color scheme. Anthony M. Bonelli

22 thoughts on “NJ Transit reveals heritage locomotives

  1. Before there was the Erie-Lackawanna, some of us still remember the Erie and the DL&W (Lackawanna) as two separate railroads. Would have been nice to paint two engines for each one.

  2. Nice, hope some Taxpayer Advocate doesn’t latch on to this as some kind of wasteful spending of Taxpayer subsidies NJ Transit receives. Us Railfans like this.

  3. While this is nice for railfans, don’t underestimate the impact on NJT employee morale. After years of mismanagement and political hacks running the show, this may be the “light at the end of the tunnel” that employees have been looking for. And yes, if the light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train. that’s a good sign.

  4. Well isn’t this a great surprise, I had no idea this was coming!

    And doesn’t that PRR scheme translate well to that ALP-46A? Looks like the people who came up with it all those years ago did their jobs even better than they thought!

    Thanks so much NJT! Keep ’em coming!

  5. ROBERT – Does the PRR unit look like a cat? At first I didn’t notice. Now that you say so it does look like a cat.

    My cat Burlington likes the new METRA locomotive much better.

  6. Fantastic. And to think other railroads are creating more heritage units. Kenosha has a PCC streetcar that the streetcar mechanic would love to see painted in the North Shore Electroliner paint scheme. Stay tuned. Great work, love it.

  7. Mr Sprenger I agree with you. Should have carry the colors all the way around. Not have that big black stripe breaking the color scheme up like that.

  8. I’ve been waiting for this a long time! Now if they’re smart about things they’ll put the 4636 on the NJCL, the EL on any line, and the CNJ on the RVL!

  9. I’ve been seeing leaked photos on Instagram for a while. Glad to see it really happened, I was starting to doubt it!

  10. Wow!!! Awesome. Love the CNJ and PRR locos! I wish they had done both an Erie and a Lackawanna. But I guess NJT started up during EL. But probably also was PC by then as well. And I like they are doing PRR. It would have been interesting to convert the EL to Lackawanna and do an EL scheme like the U34CH.

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