The United Railroad Historical Society of NJ announced today that NJ TRANSIT has donated ALP-44M No. 4424 to the URHS for historic preservation.
This donation to URHS was made by NJ TRANSIT to commemorate the 40th anniversary of NJ TRANSIT Rail Operations. By preserving this locomotive, and many others from NJ TRANSIT’s history, URHS and NJ TRANSIT hope to use these living artifacts to educate the public for decades to come.
The locomotive will be available for public viewing at URHS’s Railroad Museum [for a day] festival on September 24, as well as other special 40th Anniversary events throughout the year.
The ALP-44 holds a special place in the heritage of NJ TRANSIT and was integral in the agency’s most formative years. It was the very first model of electric locomotive purchased new by the state of New Jersey. It represented the agency’s first foray into the global marketplace, with all 32 units being built in Sweden. Most notably, that same batch of ALP-44s made possible NJ TRANSIT’s extraordinarily successful MidTOWN DIRECT Service.
“We are honored that NJ TRANSIT would trust us to be custodians of their corporate heritage,” said URHS Executive Director Kevin Phalon. “Most people, even NJ TRANSIT riders, will probably not know what an ALP-44 is, but they certainly understand what it means to have modern, reliable transportation to and from work every day. That is what this locomotive represents.”
“Inspiring the next generation of customers, employees, ‘rail buffs,’ and other stakeholders is what NJ TRANSIT is all about,” said NJ TRANSIT President & CEO Kevin S. Corbett. “We appreciate all the labor of love that URHS performs to preserve New Jersey’s significant rail history. This special donation will be a living testament to the hard work of our Rail Operations team over the last 40 years, and I look forward to visiting locomotive No. 4424 early and often during the next 40 years as well!”
No. 4424 is one of 32 ALP-44s built for NJ TRANSIT by ABB (Asea Brown Boveri) in Sweden between 1989 and 1997. Until 2011, these locomotives hauled daily commuter trains on the Morris & Essex, Gladstone, Montclair-Boonton, and Northeast Corridor lines. No. 4424, built in 1996, is now the youngest artifact in the URHS collection.
“It may be young, but that doesn’t make this locomotive any less historic,” said Phalon. “This locomotive helps us complete the story of railroading in New Jersey. New Jersey is the birthplace of the railroad industry, and is, in many ways, the birthplace of the commuter. In the early 20th century, eight competing railroads made up one of the most robust commuter rail systems in America. By the 1960s, every single one of them had gone bankrupt. The state then took the remnants of those railroads and combined them into one, cohesive commuter rail system. The ALP-44 was an integral part of the infrastructure that brought all of these systems together.”
The preservation of an ALP-44 was a mutual decision between URHS and NJ TRANSIT. No. 4424 was chosen as it was deemed to be in the best condition for preservation of all the remaining units. The engine will come to URHS in near-complete, original condition.