page_title: Erie Lackawanna MU Cars
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Erie Lackawanna MU Cars / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A photo of a Lackawanna MU taken at Mountain Station in South Orange, NJ in 1982.
context_page_description: The Erie Lackawanna MU Cars were a fleet of electric multiple unit commuter railcars used by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad and successor railroads in the state of New Jersey. The D&LW undertook electrification of its Morristown Line and related branches in 1929–1930, and purchased 141 motor cars from Pullman to operate it. These were supplemented by 141 unpowered trailers of various types which were converted from existing rolling stock. The multiple units were successful and remained in service into the early 1980s.
context_section_description: The MUs were inaugurated with fanfare on September 3, 1930, when the aging inventor Thomas A. Edison, a key proponent of DC current (the source of electric power for the MUs), drove the first train for the first mile along its 13-mile trip from Hoboken to Montclair, New Jersey. The service was extended in phases to other towns that would have yards to store the trains: South Orange, Summit, Gladstone, Morristown and Dover. Plans to extend electrified service west, for freight service, possibly as far as Scranton, PA, were investigated by the Lackawanna. The plans were abandoned due to cost, particularly since the timing of the extension coincided with the arrival of the Great Depression. The MUs did travel beyond the electrified district on occasion, particularly after World War II when there was a shortage of rail cars available. Unpowered MUs, pulled by steam locomotives, travelled on the Sussex Branch to Branchville, New Jersey, for instance, during the immediate post-war timeframe.
  Over the years, the distinctive Pullman green cars were considered to be extremely reliable. Thomas T. Taber, in his book on the DL&W, called the Lackawanna MUs "...probably the finest multiple unit electric cars ever constructed." Their reliability remained excellent into their fourth decade of service, but suffered during the final years of their 54-year tenure in service.
  During their 54-year tenure, the cars were run by four different railroad companies: the Lackawanna Railroad (1930–1960); the Erie Lackawanna Railroad (1960–1976); Conrail (1976–1982); and finally, NJ Transit (1983–1984). The cars were retired after their final runs on August 24, 1984. The DC power distribution system was retired at that point and a 25,000 volt 60 hertz AC power distribution system, which had been installed and tested over the previous several years as part of the re-electrification project, was switched on. Arrow III MU cars, which continued to run to and from Hoboken, initially replaced the Lackawanna MUs. The introduction of Midtown Direct service to New York City in 1996, however, would prove problematic as the Northeast Corridor Line into Manhattan still used the original Pennsylvania Railroad 12,000 volt 25 hertz AC distribution system. Given that the Arrow III cars were not engineered to easily switch from one voltage to another, it was necessary for NJ Transit to acquire new locomotives, ALP-44s, to handle the new service.
  The Lackawanna MUs were built from a combination of new motorized units (built by General Electric and Pullman) and converted coaches as trailers. These cars were semi-permanently attached to each other in pairs (trailer car-power car), with the trailer car on the westbound (Dover-facing) end of the train. Most of the trailer cars were built by Pullman. Typically, trains were limited to 6 pairs of these units, i.e. 12 cars. Although, due to the loss of a trailer car in a 1962 accident, its unmatched power car was placed into the middle of a 13-car train that was run during rush-hours only during the Erie Lackawanna years, the Tom Taber Express. New Jersey state law restricted the length of commuter trains to a maximum of 13 cars. Although with the unmatched power car in the pool of available cars, it was theoretically possible to have every combination of train length from two to 13 cars, the most common train lengths seen were 2 and 4 car trains off-peak and 6 and 8 cars during the rush hour. Three-car sets (two power cars plus a single coach) were used rarely, mostly as shuttle trains east of Newark, and were noted for their faster acceleration and higher top speeds, which may explain their limited use.  Although matched sets were not over-powered, it was possible for MU trains to pull an additional freight car (most often milk cars), which would be coupled to the rear-end of the MU train.  In later years, the 2-car off-peak configuration was abandoned in favor of a 4-car configuration for reliability purposes.
  Outbound from Hoboken, commuters could ride on the Morristown Line (the mainline) to Dover, New Jersey, a trip of 
caption: A westbound Lackawanna MU shown here stopping on the express track (Track 1) at Mountain Station in South Orange, New Jersey, in 1982. Note the repainted lead car which was part of a minor refurbishment carried out on some cars during the late 1970s and early 1980s due to delays in the re-electrification of the line.
exif: {}