No. 7000 was the first production model of what became the Pennsylvania Railroad’s most versatile workhorse. Author Paul K. Withers referred to the GP9 as “the locomotive of choice for the ‘Standard Railroad of the World.’” The coming of diesels, GP9s especially, to the PRR was the death knell for railroad’s vast fleet of steam locomotives. By the end of the 1950s, steam power was all but gone, and the GP9 was the most numerous model on the PRR, one of the country’s largest railroads.

No. 7000, built in October 1955 outlived the PRR itself, hauling freight east and west across a system that spanned from New Jersey to Illinois. The locomotive was inherited by the federally-created Conrail in 1976, and later by NJ Transit, where it worked as a lowly shop switcher. The final assignment for No. 7000 was at NJ Transit’s Meadows Maintenance Complex in Kearny, NJ. It was retired in 1995 and donated for preservation to the United Railroad Historical Society of NJ.

Of the 310 GP9s that were built for the PRR, only three still exist today: one in the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, PA, one displayed at the world-famous Horseshoe Curve in Altoona, PA, and the 7000 preserved here in New Jersey.