The ABB ALP-44 was an

electric locomotive An electric locomotive is a locomotive powered by electricity from overhead lines, a third rail or on-board energy storage such as a Battery (electricity), battery or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime mover (locomotive), ...

which was built by

Asea Brown Boveri ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, and the SIX Swiss Excha ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

between 1989 and 1997 for the

New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. It ...

and

SEPTA SEPTA, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly four million people througho ...

railway lines.

Service

New Jersey Transit

acquired 32 ALP-44s for use on its electric railway lines. The first fifteen, numbered 4400–4414 and designated ALP-44O (Original), were delivered in 1990 (prototypes 4400 and 4401 in late 1989). Five additional units, numbered 4415–4419 and designated ALP-44E (Extended), were delivered in 1995. The final 12 locomotives, numbered 4420–4431 and designated ALP-44M (Microprocessor), were delivered in 1996 for the new Midtown Direct service. NJT's ALP-44s were to be overhauled for a cost of $2 million during a two-year period by Philadelphia-based Interfleet Technology. A car builder had not yet been selected to carry out the overhaul. However, by June 2009, NJT decided that it would be more efficient (economically and physically) to replace the ALP-44s rather than overhaul them, and exercised an option of 9 additional ALP-46A's to enable the replacement to take place. By late 2011, all NJ Transit ALP-44 O, E, and M locomotives had been retired, having been replaced by the ALP-46 and ALP-46A locomotives. The exceptions were units 4405, 4407, and 4409, which were assigned to the Atlantic City Express Service (ACES); however, these remaining units were also placed into retirement with the cancellation of ACES service in early 2012. Units 4402, 4403, 4408, and 4410 were leased by

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

for work train service through the Hudson River tunnels for a period of time during summer 2011, but were returned. During 2012, most NJ Transit ALP-44s were prepared for storage in groups of at most five at a time. This work included the removal of pantographs and having the cab windows covered with steel plating. These units were then moved to Port Morris Yard and the Lackawanna Cut-Off stub track for storage in Stanhope, New Jersey, where they are now stored. Four ALP-44M units numbered 4421, 4424, 4429, and 4430, remained stored at the Meadowlands Maintenance Complex; in July 2023, one of the units (4424) was donated by NJ Transit to the

United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey The United Railroad Historical Society of New Jersey, Inc. (or URHS of NJ) is a non-profit educational organization directed at supporting the preservation of New Jersey's historical railroad equipment and artifacts for the proposed New Jersey Tra ...

(URHS) in Boonton, NJ.

SEPTA

received a single ALP-44S unit, #2308, from ABB, which was part of a damages settlement for a lawsuit stemming from the late delivery of N5 cars for the

Norristown High Speed Line The M, formerly known as the Norristown High Speed Line (NHSL), is a interurban light rapid transit line in the SEPTA Metro network, running between the 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby and the Norristown Transportation Center ...

. It was replaced, along with the AEM-7s, with the ACS-64 in October 2018, with a farewell trip on December 1, 2018. After the farewell, 2308, as well as seven AEM-7's, were leased to

NJ Transit New Jersey Transit Corporation, branded as NJ Transit or NJTransit and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey and portions of the states of New York and Pennsylvania. I ...

to help alleviate a locomotive shortage due to

positive train control Positive train control (PTC) is a family of automatic train protection systems deployed in the United States. Most of the United States' national rail network mileage has a form of PTC. These systems are generally designed to check that trains a ...

installation on their locomotives. However, they were never used for New Jersey Transit and returned to SEPTA in May 2019. The AEM-7s and the ALP-44 were eventually reassigned to SEPTA work service until 2021. In February 2022, the AEM-7s and ALP-44 were withdrawn and sold off. As of late 2022, all AEM-7s and the ALP-44 have been scrapped.

Specifications

The ALP-44 was based on the Rc6 model and designed specifically for New Jersey Transit as a variant of the

EMD AEM-7 The EMD AEM-7 is a twin-cab four-axle AAR wheel arrangement#B-B, B-B electric locomotive manufactured by Electro-Motive Diesel, Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and ASEA between 1978 and 1988. The locomotive is a derivative of the Swedish SJ Rc4 d ...

electric locomotive, used by

(until June 2016), MARC (until April 2017), and

(until December 2018). ALP-44 stands for ASEA Locomotive Passenger 4-Axle 4.32 MW. The ALP-44 is powered by

overhead lines An overhead line or overhead wire is an electrical cable that is used to transmit electrical energy to electric locomotives, Electric multiple unit, electric multiple units, trolleybuses or trams. The generic term used by the International Union ...

through one of the locomotive's two pantographs and can produce up to 7000 hp (5.2 MW) with a top speed of up to 125 mph (201 km/h). In commercial use, however, both New Jersey Transit and SEPTA ALP-44s were only cleared for speeds up to 100 mph (161 km/h).

ALP-44M

The ALP-44M is a variant of the original ALP-44 design. It includes microprocessor control for functions such as braking and the then new EPIC brake control stand. These locomotives were notorious for their faulty software, which frequently caused problems and kept them out of service for maintenance.

Gallery

File:NJT ALP-44.jpg, NJT ALP-44O #4408 File:NJ Transit EWR.jpg, NJT ALP-44E #4416 File:NJ Transit ABB ALP-44M 4430.jpg, NJT ALP-44M #4430 File:SEPTA ALP44 2308.jpg, SEPTA ALP-44S #2308 File:Lackawanna Cut-Off - storage of rolling stock Apr 3 2013 at Port Morris.jpg, Retired ALP-44 locomotives and

Arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...

railcars stored on the Lackawanna Cut Off.

References

External links

NJ Transit – ABB ALP-44 Locomotive Operating Instructions (Rev. 0, November 1990)

New Jersey Transit

SEPTA

{{DEFAULTSORT:Abb Alp-44 NJ Transit Rail Operations SEPTA Regional Rail 11 kV AC locomotives Passenger locomotives Electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 1990 Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States ABB locomotives