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 or a supercapacitor. Locomotives with on-board fuelled prime movers, such as diesel engines or gas ...

which was built by

Asea Brown Boveri ABB Ltd. is a Swedish-Swiss multinational corporation headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The company was formed in 1988 when Sweden's Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget (ASEA) and Switzerland's Brown, Boveri & Cie merged to create ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

between 1989 and 1997 for the

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

and

SEPTA The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...

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 The Kearny Connection is a railroad junction in Kearny, New Jersey that allows passenger trains from New Jersey Transit's Morris and Essex Lines to enter Amtrak's Northeast Corridor (NEC) and travel to and from New York Penn Station. The junctio ...

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 SNC-Lavalin Rail & Transit (Interfleet Technology until 2015) is an international rail consultancy company headquartered in Derby, England. It was founded in 1994. In October 2011 the company was acquired by SNC-Lavalin. In January 2016 the com ...

. 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 Nos. 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. Unit Nos. 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 inter-city 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 then were returned. During 2012, the ALP-44s were prepared for storage in groups of 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 Stanhope is a borough in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 3,610,SEPTA The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) is a regional public transportation authority that operates bus, rapid transit, commuter rail, light rail, and electric trolleybus services for nearly 4 million people in five coun ...

received a single ALP-44M 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 Norristown High Speed Line (NHSL), also called the Purple Line, the P&W, or Route 100,) is a interurban light rapid transit line operated by SEPTA, running between the 69th Street Transportation Center in Upper Darby and the Norristown Tran ...

. It was replaced, along with the AEM-7s, with the

ACS-64 The Siemens ACS-64, or Amtrak Cities Sprinter, is an electric locomotive designed by Siemens Mobility for use on the Northeast Corridor (NEC) and the Keystone Corridor in the northeastern United States. The design was based on locomotives Sie ...

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, and often shortened to NJT, is a state-owned public transportation system that serves the U.S. state of New Jersey, along with portions of New York State and Pennsylvania. It operates bu ...

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 for scrap.

Specifications

The ALP-44 was based on the

Rc6 In cryptography, RC6 (Rivest cipher 6) is a symmetric key block cipher derived from RC5. It was designed by Ron Rivest, Matt Robshaw, Ray Sidney, and Yiqun Lisa Yin to meet the requirements of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) competition. ...

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 B-B electric locomotive built by Electro-Motive Division (EMD) and ASEA between 1978 and 1988. The locomotive is a derivative of the Swedish SJ Rc4 designed for passenger service in the United States. The ...

electric locomotive, used by

(until June 2016),

MARC Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system o ...

(until April 2017), and

(until December 2018). ALP-44 stands for American 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, trolleybuses or trams. It is known variously as: * Overhead catenary * Overhead contact system (OCS) * Overhead equipmen ...

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 are 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 a 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

NJT ALP-44.jpg, NJT ALP-44O #4408 NJ Transit EWR.jpg, NJT ALP-44E #4416 NJ Transit ABB ALP-44M 4430.jpg, NJT ALP-44M #4430 Lackawanna Cut-Off - storage of rolling stock Apr 3 2013 at Port Morris.jpg, Retired NJT ALP-44s stored on the Lackawanna Cut-off

References

External links

New Jersey Transit

SEPTA
*

New Jersey Transit rail operations NJ Transit Rail Operations is the rail division of NJ Transit. It operates commuter rail service in New Jersey, with most service centered on transportation to and from New York City, Hoboken, and Newark. NJ Transit also operates rail service i ...

Unofficial NJT locomotive roster
{{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