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RE: (erielack) U34CH sound

> The locomotives were in NJDOT colors, but the cars were 
> co-branded E-L and
> NJDOT (E-L diamond decal towards the rear by the windows, NJDOT arrow
> forward) Many people still said they were riding the Erie 
> Lackawanna, out of
> habit, or not realizing after 1976 that it was really NJDOT.  
> When I was
> younger, I was under the mistaken impression that E-L still 
> existed but was
> controlled  by NJDOT because of this co-branding, probably 
> because someone
> told this unknowing young railfan that.


I had the same problem when I was young, thinking the EL was still around when it wasn't. Conrail didn't touch the EL diamonds on the locomotives or the cars during their operation of the commuter service. When NJT finally came around, the EL diamonds were removed (as well as the NJDOT "arrows"), leaving the locomotives with absolutely no identification of their owner. Some were repainted into NJ Transit colors (I think 8 of them), and eventually (1987 timeframe) the blue U34CH's were given solid silver noses with the NJT logo on them. Unfortunately, the silver paint did not wear well at all, and usually the units ended up reverting to the regular blue-with-silver-stripe scheme.

One of a kinds: U34CH 3351 was repainted into a Bicentennial scheme under Conrail, and was renumbered 1776. Eventually it was repainted back into the blue/silver scheme, but oddly enough, they used the paint diagrams for EL freight units, and so its silver stripe was narrower.

U34CH 3354 was one of three leased to SEPTA in Philadelphia in the early 1990s, and it was the only one to received a medium blue paint scheme with SEPTA logos.

	- Paul

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