Locomotive 4207, on the Rails for 60 Years and Still Hauling Commuters
Sixty years later, 4207 is still hauling New Jersey commuters where they need to go — making it not just the oldest locomotive on NJ Transit's roster but the oldest in regular passenger service in the entire country.
It may be an anomaly in American railroading, but not at NJ Transit. The commuter rail agency, the nation's third busiest, operates more than 20 similar GP40 diesel engines — also called 'Geeps' — the oldest of which were originally built as freight locomotives for the New York Central Railroad in 1965. The trains are almost two decades older than NJ Transit itself, yet there is no retirement party on the horizon.
'No matter what, you're always going to have a GP40 around here,' said Fred Chidester, the agency's recently retired deputy general manager of equipment. 'They are the backbone of our operations.'
Compared with NJ Transit's streamlined electric locomotives, the boxy Geeps look and sound a world apart. Their utilitarian design features plenty of right angles, and you can hear the howl of a Geep engine a mile away.
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