In October 2019 New Jersey Transit (NJT) announced its own entry into the popular “heritage locomotive” program in the US. A vinyl wrap was applied to two locomotives, representing liveries of two NJT predecessors – the Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and Erie Lackawanna Railway (EL). ALP-46A 4636 was chosen to receive the PRR wrap, and ALP-45DP 4519 got the EL wrap. These locomotives debuted on 5 October 2019 during an open house event at NJ Transit’s Meadowlands Maintenance Complex in Kearny, NJ.
Text and pictures by Robert Pisani, a.k.a. Erie Limited – Rob is an expert railroad photographer and long-term friend of Railcolor – check out his beautiful and inspiring pictures here.
A bit of history
New Jersey Transit (NJT) was formed in 1979 to take over the operation of multiple private bus operators in the state of New Jersey. In January 1983 NJT assumed operation of all commuter rail operations in the state from Conrail. Conrail itself had been formed in 1976 as a merger of seven bankrupt railroads in the Northeastern US. NJ Transit now operates over lines that trace their lineage to several Conrail predecessors, including Erie Lackawanna (a merger of the Erie and Delaware Lackawanna & Western railroads), Penn Central (a merger of the Pennsylvania and New York Central railroads), Pennsylvania-Reading Seashore Lines, and the Central Railroad of New Jersey CNJ).
Two Bombardier-built locomotives now have a special design:
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