KEARNY, N.J. — NJ Transit has unveiled its newest heritage locomotive, GP40PH-2 No. 4101, repainted into the “Bluebird” paint scheme used by New Jersey Department of Transportation’s Commuter Operating Agency, a predecessor of the current transit agency.
The locomotive is one of 13 3,000-hp EMD GP40P units specifically designed for the Central Railroad of New Jersey but funded by NJDOT in 1968 by NJDOT. It was intended to be able to be integrated into the GP40 fleet of CNJ parent Baltimore & Ohio if CNJ ended commuter rail operations.
Originally equipped with steam generators, these units were converted to head-end power in the late 1980s and received a full rebuild under a contract with Conrail in 1991 and 1992, leading to their current designation as a GP40PH-2. Three remain in use in revenue passenger service, with the others seeing drill and work-train duties.
The repaint continues a program that began as part of NJ Transit’s 40th anniversary in 2019, which saw GP40PH-2 repainted in Central of New Jersey colors and two Bombardier units, a dual-mode ALP46DP and an electric ALP46A, wrapped for Erie Lackawanna and the Pennsylvania Railroad, respectively [see “NJ Transit provides more details on heritage units,” Trains News Wire, Oct. 8, 2019]. It honors both the legacy of the Commuter Operating Agency, and the NJDOT employees who became NJ Transit employees in 1979 and 1980, the last of whom retired this year.
Yes. Note how NJ DOT’s “interim” paint scheme resembled EL’s paint scheme, but using different colors. The U34CH’s introduced HEP to NJT and the accompanying Pullman-Standard cars introduced the Comet design car, used by multiple agencies and also by Amtrak as their Horizon cars.
Note the two engines next to each other. They’re from the same EMD order, delivered in 1968.
4109 has been in the as-delivered 1968 CNJ paint scheme for a number of years. Now 4101 is in NJ DOT’s paint scheme. NJT’s Facebook page describes:
“an interim NJ DOT paint scheme that this and other locomotives wore from about 1979 until NJ TRANSIT created its own identity in the early 1980s. “
“[A]n interim NJ DOT paint scheme that this and other locomotives wore from about 1979…” The U34s powering the NJDOT funded Dieseliners on the Erie Lackawanna came in those colors starting in 1970. Most would be retired in those colors 25 years later.