Welcome / Culture / Metro-North Railroad. Anniversary livery for five locomotives
By: Samuel DELZIANI
The Metro-North Railroad network, a branch of the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA), has served the northern suburbs of New York and part of Connecticut since 1983. In order to celebrate these forty years of service, five locomotives operating on the network have received or will receive a new livery in the near future.
Skilled craftsmen at Metro-North’s North White Plains depot applied vinyl wrap to locomotive #208, the first locomotive to benefit from this anniversary livery. The silver, blue and red colors pay homage to Metro-North’s original design for the FL9 locomotives that hauled the first commuter line trains. They wore these colors until the last of them was retired from service in April 2007.
Metro-North Locomotive No. 208 is one of 31 P32 AC-DM (GE Genesis) the railroad uses to serve the Hudson and Harlem Northern Lines and Danbury and Waterbury on the New Haven Line .
Originally, this network was called the New York & Harlem Railroad, where rail service has existed since 1832, making it one of the oldest railroad lines in the United States. This line linked Lower Manhattan to Harlem by horse-drawn traction. In 1969, the private railway company Penn Central bought this small line and remained its owner until 1972. In that year, the MTA acquired the network of Penn Central, but the latter continued to operate these lines. In 1976, the company Conrail became the new operator. In 1983, the MTA formed the Metro-North network as we know it today when it took over passenger service from Conrail in the northern metropolis. In the last quarter of 2022, Metro North Rail carried over 210,000 passengers daily.