What I remember most vividly about the U34CHs was being roused out of bed
on a Saturday morning when they started running these beasts on the
Morristown Line in the early 1970s. In anticipation of the
re-electrification, the state was taking down the pedestrian bridges along
the line and they had to de-energize the wires on weekends in order to do
so. This continued on and off for years. During the summer it was great
since on a hot day you could get air conditioning. But...for those of us
who lived along the line--I lived about 3/10 west of Mountain Station in
South Orange--the locomotive starting up from a dead stop could almost wake
the dead. I don't know if this is true, but I've heard that they were
amongst the loudest locomotives ever produced. That I can confirm from
first hand experience. I can just imagine what a TRIO of those units must
have sounded like tackling a heavy grade...perhaps the impetus behind the
Night of the Living Dead.
"Tupaczewski, Paul
R (Paul)"
<paultup_@_lucent.com To: "'Joel Long'" <el2401@willoughbyinc.com>
> erielack_@_lists.railfan.net
Sent by: cc:
erielack-owner_@_list Subject:
s.elhts.org RE: (erielack) EL Motive power arrangements
08/01/2005 11:58 AM
Please respond to
"Tupaczewski, Paul
R (Paul)"
Joel Long asked:
> If the EL ran this service and the units were dedicated to
> this service.
> Why were the units painted in the Black and Silver Scheme
> instead of GMY or
> some other scheme? Joel
The dark blue (not black) and silver scheme was NJDoT's paint scheme, and
they paid for the units, so their colors were applied.
- Paul
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