#New Jersey Transit

[newarknjhijrah]

Flickering Lights Aboard NJ Transit

[aryburn-trains]

Metro-North FL9 No. 2020 and a borrowed NJ Transit F7 emerge from the tunnel under the Bear Mountain Bridge with a GCT-Poughkeepsie commuter train on 10 July 1992.

[20th-century-railroading]

Disco Stripes

New Jersey Transit EMD E8A 4334 (ex-Southern Railway) sits forlornly out back of the Elizabethport shop. It's wearing an odd white paint job with classic NJT "disco stripes".

Elizabethport, New Jersey November 1983

[1863-project]

NJ Transit 40th Anniversary Weekend Extravaganza!

Pay your engineers and give them a contract.

Okay, now that that's out of the way...

This weekend I got to spend some time with my dad aboard NJT's 40th Anniversary Express, a special train they put together in conjunction with the United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey to commemorate 40 years of NJT's rail service. Normally I'd have just been content to watch, but they hooked me with a GG1 reference so naturally I had to go because I will do anything for a GG1.

The URHS of NJ loaned the Hickory Creek out for the event, along with a few other passenger cars they own. It was weird to see it at Penn Station instead of in Grand Central Terminal, but they still rolled out the red carpet for it as if it was attached to the 20th Century Limited. (This is where we get the phrase "red carpet treatment" from, by the way. It has nothing to do with Hollywood and everything to do with one crack passenger express train.)

I did not ride in the Hickory Creek itself because I do not have that sort of money, but Dad and I were in the Tavern Lounge No. 43, another New York Central car. It was a lovely ride.

The highlight of the trip was in South Amboy. Historically, electrification of the North Jersey Coast Line ended here. Today, it ends in Long Branch. Here's where the GG1s come in. There would be an engine change at South Amboy. The GG1s, electric locomotives, would be switched out for other locomotives to go further south. It was steam at first, and sadly became diesel later. Yesterday, they recreated this engine switch for us, complete with an NJT heritage unit painted to look like a GG1. This is the closest I'll likely get to seeing one running within my lifetime, so I'll cherish it.

The engine change. NJT 4636 stood in for my beloved GG1s, and two of the first locomotives built for NJ Transit, a pair of F40-PH2s (4119 and 4120), took over. You rarely see the latter in passenger service these days because they usually pull work trains, but they're the last two members of their class in NJT service.

Much to everyone's delight, we got to watch some brakeman work in action, because they manually flipped the switches. Note the heavy-duty gloves the conductor is wearing for this purpose.

It takes quite a bit of setup...

All clear!

Once the locomotives were swapped, we all boarded again and went on down to Bay Head. Since it was cold and rainy out, a few of us had some hot chocolate, which hit the spot and was incredibly wonderful.

Eventually, we made it to Bay Head. This is how I found out the president of NJ Transit was on the train with us, because the NJT engineers are ready to strike because there's no contract right now, and a group of them were protesting down at Bay Head because they knew he'd have to see them. Excellent move.

At Bay Head, we got to go around the loop in Bay Head Yard, something passengers don't normally get to do.

So we had views that most people don't get to have, and that was really cool.

At Bay Head, they fed us and gave us NJT swag. There were also some vintage buses from Public Service there, which was great because nobody stopped me from getting into the driver's seat of them.

My right hand is on the gearshift in this photo - it was huge and came out of the floor. Neither bus had power steering - that's a relatively new feature in motor vehicles.

I can and will attempt to drive anything.

Back to trains - after lunch, everyone got back aboard and the 40th Anniversary Express made its way back up north to Newark Penn Station. Whilst we were at Newark, we were allowed to get out and take some photos, so I investigated the staff car and was delighted to see that it had a conference table with a PRR K4 pictured above it.

You know me, I love my 4-6-2 Pacifics.

Eventually, the train came into Hoboken Terminal, and that was the end of day one.

Today, the entire heritage fleet was on display at Hoboken Terminal, so I made my way back for more photos.

I love GG1s and wanted to thank my new friend for giving me the opportunity to come so close to that experience yesterday.

4101 and 4109 are the surviving sisters of NJT 4100, a locomotive I'm rather attached to. It was nice to get good photos of them instead of the ones I usually have to snap through the window when I'm actually out on the rails!

Erie-Lackawanna 3372 is a labor of love for the URHS of NJ. They've done a beautiful job restoring her so far, but there's still a lot of work left to do.

The thing that really did me in was this old Pennsy diesel here, an E8A numbered 5711. She's in incredible condition for something built in 1952, and they had a cast of an old Penn Station eagle next to her, too, just to break my heart into a million pieces because I'll never be over what happened to Penn Station.

In all, I had an amazing weekend, and NJT and the URHS of NJ knocked it out of the park with this. It was just wonderful to be surrounded by other railfans for a couple of days.

Some other highlights:

Talked about trains the entire ride with the folks in our car. At one point we all got to sharing cat photos. An older couple had a cat named Lake, short for Lake Shore Limited. I cannot tell you how much that delighted me.

I love being around other railfans. It's one of the rare places I can be myself, since there's inevitably going to be a lot of other autistic people there besides me so I don't have to mask. I cannot even begin to articulate what it means to me to be in a place where I don't have to mask.

The hobby has actually changed a lot since I was a little kid - and in a good way. I wasn't the only woman there, for one. I was still greatly outnumbered gender-wise, but there are a lot more women in the hobby now, and it's also a lot more racially diverse than it was back then. Additionally, I saw a LOT of young people - it's going strong! It doesn't feel like it's being gatekept by the old white men anymore. It's really wonderful. Trains are for everyone. They always were, but now you can visibly see it.

When we were on the platform at South Amboy getting set up to take photos, someone yelled "Everybody smile!" behind me and I nearly died. Because, you know:

Whoever you are, give me your phone number.

As a final addendum, of course I brought them with me, as per usual when I go out to do railroading stuff. Here they are seated in Tavern Lounge 43!

This was just an absolute banger of a weekend and I hope more events like this happen because it's so fun to engage with history hands-on and see other people who care about it as much as you do. It's the best! Perfect!

[uh-grif]

trip from newark airport to nyc on digicam

[gopissgorl-dot-twitter]

[amantha-again]

Train fans, look at what I got my hands on!

[rockhyrax]

The passing of the night train on lonely roadways stops only the traffic of spirits.

[supertrainstationh]

Garden Service by amtraknortheast1 Via Flickr: After NJ Transit train 3733 broke down in the North River Tunnels, Amtrak “Empire Service” GE P32ACDM 711 found its way out of the Empire State and into the Garden State. Passengers on 3733 (like myself) sat in blistering heat with no air conditioning and limited lighting for 2 hours after a pantograph on the second Arrow III married pair apparently collapsed and began arcing. After waiting for 711 to couple and the Arrow set’s brakes to release, the dead set was shoved into Secaucus Junction’s Track 3 around 9:35 PM, just over 2 hours after its originally scheduled 7:29 PM stop at the station.

[thetransitgirl]

View in full resolution

After almost six months of work, I'm proud to finally present my integrated commuter rail map of New York City and Philadelphia!

Showing five different commuter rail systems (CT Rail, Metro-North, LIRR, NJ Transit, and SEPTA), this map depicts everywhere a passenger can get to by train from NYC or Philadelphia without using Amtrak.

This is by far the most complicated map I've ever made, but I'm incredibly happy with the result! I'm planning to write some notes on the process of making this, but for now, I'm just proud that it's finally done.

[mapsontheweb]

Maps for NJTransit (New Jersey) and MTA Railroads (New York) combined into one.

[aryburn-trains]

19931109 17 Amtrak The Bankers & NJT Princeton Jct., NJ by David Wilson

[20th-century-railroading]

EMD SD40 Friday Part II

A pair of Conrail EMD SD40-2's have New Jersey Transit EMD GP40FH-2 4135 (ex-Conrail, exx-PC, exxx-NYC) DIT (dead in tow) as they head West with OIAL (Oak Island-Allentown). No clue where the NJT unit was going, but Juniata is a good guess. Just wonder why they didn't put it on OIPI (Oak Island-Pittsburgh) where it could be set out at Altoona.

South Plainfield, New Jersey May 1990

[1863-project]

Free pass to talk about the affectionately named "Old Fuck".

Yes yes thank you I love talking about the Old Fuck!

I'm the only person who refers to the locomotive by this name, but New Jersey Transit has a few old locomotives left that actually predate NJT itself - three EMD GP40PH locomotives that were built in 1968 and originally worked on the Central Railroad of New Jersey. In the early 1990s, they were rebuilt as GP40PH-2s. The three survivors are NJT 4100, NJT 4101, and NJT 4109.

NJT 4101 is a heritage unit now, painted in NJDOT livery. NJT 4109 is also a heritage unit, wearing the colors of the CNJ.

NJT 4100 is The Old Fuck.

The oldest locomotive in the entire NJT fleet, the Old Fuck still runs regularly, and I spend a fair deal of my time keeping an eye out for her because I want to get her earmarked for preservation if they ever decide to pull her. She works just fine, and as of now there don't seem to be any plans to retire her. I've spent most of my adult lifetime commuting into NYC and around New Jersey, and many times I've been pulled by the Old Fuck. Usually I spot her on the Bergen Line or Main Line these days or hanging around in the yard at the end of the line.

Sometimes I'll go a while without seeing her. Recently, I went without a sighting for over a year, and I was getting nervous. But then in April 2023 she popped up in the yard near the engine shed. I wonder if she's having work done or being prepped with new heritage colors.

My most recent Old Fuck sighting was in June 2023.

Here she is by the engine shed with some younger locomotives.

I've gotten pretty good at getting my camera lens to peer right through holes in the fence to get shots without trespassing. Note the discarded Wawa coffee cup in the bottom left of the photo to remind you this was taken in New Jersey.

I couldn't tell from this angle if she was coupled to the locomotive in front of her or not, so I had to move to the left...

One more wide shot from that angle first, though.

Further inspection shows they were coupled together! For what purpose, however, is unknown.

A shot more focused on her and her cab.

And lastly, a shot from the back.

Normally, I'm not too keen on diesel locomotives post-1960. Their designs feel uninspired to me, and they're more or less used because they're cheaper to operate and easier to maintain than steam or even electric even though both outperform them (steam locomotives can pull significantly heavier loads - it takes multiple diesels to match one steam locomotive's strength - and electric locomotives can outspeed them and the GG1, the best American electric of all time, was also stronger). But I have a huge soft spot for the Old Fuck. She's been here for so long now doing a wonderful job, and she's such a comforting, familiar sight. I know she won't run forever, but I think she needs to be earmarked for preservation when she's retired.

In the article I linked above, there's a short video on her. Here it is:

Many happy returns, Old Fuck.

[sysig]

Incomplete exchange (Patreon)

[sen-ya]

I haven't touched life after in like 2 weeks but also in that time I've finished a 20pg comic for summer of lawlu so also I think I'm gonna stop being precious with life after and doing quicker pages cuz I did 31 pages of it in 2 months being precious which is.......so much longer than this comic took me lmao