BOONTON, N.J. — With persistent rain canceling both the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey’s annual Museum-for-a-Day event and the town’s street fair, the group quickly shifted on Sunday, Sept. 24, to a no-frills open house, showing off two newly painted historic diesel locomotives in their first public display.
Live music and other attractions were gone, but URHS still welcomed several hundred visitors to see its former Erie Lackawanna General Electric U34CH No. 3372 (built 1971) and NJ Transit’s visiting Electro-Motive GP40PH-2 No. 4101 (built 1968), among many other pieces of rolling stock.
Both diesels were part of fleets that were bought to haul local passenger trains over New Jersey’s network of commuter lines feeding into the New York metro area — No. 3372 on former EL non-electrified routes in Northern New Jersey, and No. 4101 over Central Railroad of New Jersey’s Raritan Valley Line and NJT’s North Jersey Coast Line.
The group also welcomed visitors to its 8,000-square-foot shop building, newly renovated and updated at a cost of $100,000.
Cosmetically restored for now, the EL locomotive will eventually be returned to operating condition. A mechanical and electrical assessment by FMW Solutions — better known for its steam locomotive work — found that the unit, though weathered and vandalized, can run again [see “Restoration effort begins for last surviving U34CH,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 23, 2022].
Purpose-built for the New Jersey Department of Transportation for commuter work on EL lines, it’s the last remaining example of 33 of its type. It’s also the first locomotive to be painted under the group’s management in the shop — previously, URHS had hired contractors to carry out such work. The six-axle, 3,600-hp U34CH ushered in a modern era for commuting on ex-EL lines, producing head-end power to heat, cool, and light a new generation of passenger cars, replacing 50-year-old open-window coaches.
Numbered 3351-3382, the first 32 of the fleet were assigned to commuter runs out of EL’s Hoboken Terminal, occasionally pulling freight duty on weekends. A later conversion of a U30C for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority added one more to the count.
Still in active service, No. 4101 was repainted last year into a retro interim NJDOT heritage scheme. It was among 13 GP40P units built for CNJ in 1968 with steam-heat capability, later converted to provide head-end power.
Kevin Phalon, executive director of URHS, said the group is just as proud of the Boonton workshop as it is of No. 3372, whose intended Saturday debut was held up by delays in painting. (The application was so fresh that URHS decided to hold off on conducting tours of the unit’s cab.)
“Two years ago, we didn’t have the means to do this,” Phalon said. “This is our proof of concept — we have the people, we have the money and we have the technical skills.
The group conducts popular Hudson River Rail excursions and other charters over Amtrak lines that highlight its former New York Central Twentieth Century Limited 1948 observation-sleeper-lounge car Hickory Creek. URHS also operates excursions over NJT, and maintains working ties with the Morristown & Erie and Chesapeake & Delaware regional lines in New Jersey and the Naugatuck Railroad in Connecticut. The Naugatuck, operating its own tourist passenger service, is highly skilled in mechanical and historic-restoration work.
Moreover, Phalon said, URHS is affiliated with the Tri-State Railway Historical Society, which put up a matching grant of half the $20,000 cost of the first round of U34CH work.
Next year, he said, URHS hopes to begin conducting public tours of its facility, which comprises the shop and a four-acre, two-track yard holding a 60-piece collection of locomotives and cars. Some of the items are owned by Tri-State, including Hoboken Manufacturers Railroad GE 44-ton switcher No. 700 and Raritan Railroad caboose No. 10, both displayed inside the restoration shop at Sunday’s event.
Outside, a growing queue despite the rain proved that the most popular attraction was a visit to the cab of retired ALP-44 electric locomotive No. 4424, a member of the first electric-locomotive fleet bought new by NJT. Between 1989 and 1997, Asea Brown Boveri built 32 of the 7,000-horsepower, 125-mph units for the agency. NJT retired all of them by late 2011, and earlier this year it donated No. 4424 to URHS [see “NJ Transit donates ALP-44 …,” News Wire, July , 2023]. Built in 1996, it’s the newest unit in URHS’s collection.
Among other attractions were two Pennsylvania Railroad streamlined GG1 electric locomotives, Nos. 4877 and 4879, built by PRR’s Juniata (Pa.) Shops in 1939. Both ran on the final day of GG1 operation, Oct. 29, 1983, and they are among 16 surviving GG1s out of a fleet of 139 units built 1934-1943 for passenger service between New York and Washington and Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pa.
Also featured were jade-green-painted NYC E8-model passenger diesel No. 4083; NJT-painted E8-model passenger diesel No. 4253 (built for the Pennsylvania Railroad), Morristown & Erie Alco C-424 diesel freight road unit No. 19; and various cabooses and passenger and freight cars.
For more on the URHS, visit its website.
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