GE U34CH

The GE U34CH is a 3,600 horsepower passenger diesel locomotive that General Electric built between 1970 and 1973. Thirty-three were made: 32 for the New Jersey Department of Transportation, run by the Erie Lackawanna Railway and later Conrail and New Jersey Transit, and a last unit rebuilt from a GE U30C for the New York MTA. It was the first GE locomotive to use steel crowned pistons to reach 3,400 horsepower plus 200 horsepower for head-end power, and the first commuter locomotive with shaft-driven head-end power. Railfans called the blue and silver units Bluebirds. They left passenger service in 1994, and number 4172 has been cosmetically restored by the United Railway Historical Society of New Jersey.