The Bombardier ALP-46 is 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), ...

built in Germany by Bombardier between 2001 and 2002 (and 2009–2011 for the ALP-46A) for use in the United States. It is derived from the German Class 101.

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 ...

(NJT) is the only railroad to operate this locomotive model, which is used across the electrified NJT system, specifically on the

Northeast Corridor The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, Rhod ...

, North Jersey Coast, Morris & Essex, and Montclair-Boonton lines. These locomotives replaced the

ALP-44 The ABB ALP-44 was an electric locomotive which was built by Asea Brown Boveri of Sweden between 1989 and 1997 for the New Jersey Transit and SEPTA railway lines. Service New Jersey Transit New Jersey Transit acquired 32 ALP-44s for use on its ...

locomotives, which were all retired by 2012.

Orders and delivery

NJT ordered 29 locomotives: the first 24 ALP-46 locomotives in December 1999 and an additional five locomotives in September 2001. They were built by Bombardier (formerly ADtranz) at their Kassel, Germany plant. The first two locomotives were built as preseries locomotives for testing—4600 was tested on the TTCI test plant in

Pueblo, Colorado Pueblo ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Home rule municipality, home rule municipality that is the county seat of and the List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous municipality in Pueblo County, Colorado, United States. The ...

, 4601 was sent to Kearny for testing on the NJT network. All locomotives were transported via road to the port of Bremen and shipped on Roro-ships of

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics was a privately owned Norway, Norwegian/Sweden, Swedish shipping company, established in 1999 and co-owned by the two shipping companies Wallenius Lines and Wilh. Wilhelmsen. Overview Prior to the restructuring and ...

to Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, New Jersey. In February 2008, NJT ordered twenty-seven top speed ALP-46A locomotives from Bombardier, which were to haul

Bombardier MultiLevel Coach The MultiLevel Coach is a bi-level passenger rail car for use on commuter rail lines. Originally built by Bombardier Transportation beginning in 2006, they are now built by Alstom since 2021, who markets the coaches as part of their Adessia ...

es. The estimated value of the order was €155 million (approximately $230 million). In June 2009, NJT took up an option for a further nine locomotives, and spare parts, at a cost of $72 million. On November 12, 2009, Bombardier ceremonially handed over the first two completed ALP-46As to New Jersey Transit over at their Kassel plant in Germany. They arrived on NJT property on December 13. Locomotive 4629 was shipped by rail to a testing facility in

, while 4630 was placed on the rails at the Meadows Maintenance Complex in Kearny for testing on property and maintenance training. All locomotives were delivered by April 5, 2011, and by May 7, 2011, all locomotives have entered regular revenue service. In October 2019, as part of New Jersey Transit's 40th Anniversary, locomotive No. 4636 was wrapped into a

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

scheme. In September 2023, locomotive 4640 was wrapped in a heritage disco stripe scheme, in preparation for the 40th Anniversary of NJ Transit Rail Operations.

Variants and operations

Both the ALP-46 and ALP-46A have been used to haul NJ Transit's

Comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

IIM, IV, V, and Multilevel fleet. The ALP-46 was also used to pull

Amfleet Amfleet is a fleet of single-level intercity railroad passenger car (rail), passenger cars built by the Budd Company for American company Amtrak in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Budd based the Amfleet design on its earlier Budd Metroliner, Me ...

consists on

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 ...

's Clocker service in its final days of operation.An ALP-46 4610 Hauling one of the last Amtrak Clockers

ALP-46

The ALP-46 locomotives produce and are powered by overhead catenary. They can reach a top speed of . The ALP-46 is derived from the DBAG Class 101 locomotive, of which the operating speed is . The locomotives use Bombardier's MITRAC 3000 electric propulsion system. The system consists of a

polyol In organic chemistry, a polyol is an organic compound containing multiple hydroxyl groups (). The term "polyol" can have slightly different meanings depending on whether it is used in food science or polymer chemistry. Polyols containing two, th ...

ester In chemistry, an ester is a compound derived from an acid (either organic or inorganic) in which the hydrogen atom (H) of at least one acidic hydroxyl group () of that acid is replaced by an organyl group (R). These compounds contain a distin ...

cooled

transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

to reduce the catenary voltage which feeds two polyol-ester cooled GTO based traction converters (Bombardier MITRAC TC 3100 AC series). Each traction converter feeds the motors (Bombardier MITRAC DR 3700F series) of one

truck A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame construct ...

ALP-46A

The ALP-46A locomotives use Bombardier's MITRAC 3000 electric propulsion system. The traction converters (Bombardier MITRAC TC 3360 AC series) are from a newer generation based on

IGBT An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a three-terminal power semiconductor device primarily forming an electronic switch. It was developed to combine high efficiency with fast switching. It consists of four alternating layers (NPNP) that ...

technology. The converters are water cooled and have individual inverters for each traction motor (Bombardier MITRAC DR 3700F series). Power at rail is increased to and top speed is increased to , though NJ Transit limits them to 100.

Images

File:ALP-46 with NJ Transit Midtown Direct Service entering South Orange, NJ.JPG, ALP-46 entering South Orange, New Jersey File:NJ Transit train with an ALP-46 leaving of South Orange.JPG, NJ Transit train with an ALP-46 leaving South Orange File:ALP-46A 4629 at Convent Station.JPG, ALP-46A 4629 at Convent Station File:ALP-46A HEP Transformer.JPG, ABB HEP transformer on ALP-46A 4637 File:ALP-46A 4636 Convent.jpg, ALP-46A 4636 wearing the PRR heritage scheme File:4640 at Millburn, NJ.jpg, ALP-46A no. 4640, wearing the Disco Stripe heritage scheme, on an eastbound

Morristown Line The Morristown Line is an NJ Transit commuter rail line connecting Morris and Essex counties to New York City, via New York Penn Station or Hoboken Terminal. It is one of the two routes that make up the Morris & Essex Lines, alongside the Gl ...

service to

New York Penn station Pennsylvania Station (also known as New York Penn Station or simply Penn Station) is the main intercity railroad station in New York City and the busiest transportation facility in the Western Hemisphere, serving more than 600,000 passengers ...

References

Literature

External links

Bombardier ALP-46(A)

New Jersey Transit

NJ Transit ALP-46 Locomotives (4600–4628) Operating Instruction Manual
{{DEFAULTSORT:Alp-46 Bombardier Transportation locomotives NJ Transit Rail Operations 11 kV AC locomotives 25 kV AC locomotives Bo′Bo′ electric locomotives Passenger locomotives Electric locomotives of the United States Railway locomotives introduced in 2000 Standard-gauge locomotives of the United States