The Alstom PL42AC is a class of four axle B-B

diesel-electric locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...

Alstom Alstom SA is a French multinational rolling stock manufacturer operating worldwide in rail transport markets, active in the fields of passenger transportation, signalling, and locomotives, with products including the AGV, TGV, Eurostar, Avel ...

in association with

GM-EMD Progress Rail Locomotives, doing business as Electro-Motive Diesel (EMD), is an American manufacturer of diesel-electric locomotives, locomotive products and diesel engines for the rail industry. The company is owned by Caterpillar through its s ...

. 33 were built between 2003 and 2006 for NJ Transit Rail Operations.

Description

The PL42AC is a diesel-electric 4-axle locomotive built by

with 16-710G3B prime mover for

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 bus, ...

. The first two locomotives were manufactured at the Meinfesa plant in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

in 2003. The 31 following units were assembled at the Alstom Transport plant in

Hornell, New York Hornell is a city in Steuben County, New York, United States. The population was 8,259 at the 2020 census. The city is named after the Hornell family, early settlers. The City of Hornell is surrounded by Town of Hornellsville. Hornell is abou ...

in 2004, and were produced through early 2006. The power rating of the PL42AC locomotives is 4,200 hp (3.1 MW) total for

tractive effort As used in mechanical engineering, the term tractive force can either refer to the total traction a vehicle exerts on a surface, or the amount of the total traction that is parallel to the direction of motion. In railway engineering, the term tr ...

and

head-end power In rail transport, head-end power (HEP), also known as electric train supply (ETS), is the electrical power distribution system on a passenger train. The power source, usually a locomotive (or a generator car) at the front or 'head' of a train, p ...

. The locomotive has a design similar to the

GE Genesis General Electric Genesis (officially trademarked GENESIS) is a series of passenger diesel locomotives produced by GE Transportation, then a subsidiary of General Electric. Between 1992 and 2001, a total of 321 units were built for Amtrak, Metro ...

, mainly due to the fact that both PL42AC and Genesis series locomotives were designed by industrial designer Cesar Vergara. This locomotive uses

IGBT An insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) is a three-terminal power semiconductor device primarily used as an electronic switch, which, as it was developed, came to combine high efficiency and fast switching. It consists of four alternating lay ...

technology with precise traction computers for tractive effort. The PL42AC has 800

kilowatt The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James Wat ...

s head-end power and WABCO's EPIC II braking system, along with an E-7 wheel slide device, made by

Wabtec Wabtec Corporation (derived from Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies Corporation) is an American company formed by the merger of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company (WABCO) and MotivePower Industries Corporation in 1999. It is headquartered ...

, preventing flats spots on the wheels through software and hardware. It has an Intelligent Display Unit (IDU) based on

Bombardier Transportation Bombardier Transportation was a Canadian-German rolling stock and rail transport manufacturer, headquartered in Berlin, Germany. It was one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industr ...

technology from which an engineer or technician can view data or download events and faults from the previous weeks or months. The technician can do a host of tests from the IDU to determine if a specific system is operating correctly. The PL42AC uses computer hardware and software to control functions and to protect the engine. For example, if the on-board computer detects too little oil in the system, it will shut down the engine to avoid damage.

Replacement

In July 2020, NJ Transit announced that older locomotives in the PL42AC fleet will be replaced by additional ALP-45A dual mode locomotives.

References

{{EMD misc Bo-Bo locomotives NJ Transit Rail Operations PL42AC Passenger locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 2003 PL42AC Standard gauge locomotives of the United States