October 22, 1925
A technological milestone for locomotives in the United States took place when the Central Railroad of New Jersey (CNJ) began using diesel-electric locomotive No. 1000 to switch freight cars at the Bronx Terminal in New York City.
This 300-horsepower (304.2-metric horsepower) boxcab – also widely characterized at the time as an oil-electric locomotive – owed its existence to a newly imposed ban on steam trains in urban rail yards due to air pollution. CNJ 1000 became the first commercially successful diesel-electric locomotive on an American railroad and opened a new chapter for that type of rail vehicle.
CNJ 1000 was created by the industrial products company Ingersoll-Rand in partnership with both General Electric and the American Locomotive Company. The day after the start of regular operations for CNJ 1000, the Connecticut-based Journal reported on this locomotive and what made it unique.
The Journal stated, “The first oil-electric locomotive purchased in this country went into service yesterday in the switching yards of [CNJ] in the Bronx following tests which revealed that the cost of operation was about a fifth of the ordinary steam locomotive and that in performance the new engine was revolutionary.”
This article also included an update from George Doubleday (1866-1955), president of Ingersoll-Rand. He confirmed that the Long Island Railroad had contracted for a diesel-electric locomotive for use in its rail yard in Brooklyn. The Journal recounted, “Mr. Doubleday said yesterday that the sale of the two new locomotives marked the advent of a new era in railway operation, for not only is the cost of operation greatly reduced through the use of crude oil as fuel, but it is capable of great speed without sacrifice of load.”
CNJ 1000 would remain in use at the Bronx Terminal for more than three decades. In June 1957, it was finally retired and donated to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. The locomotive can still be viewed there today. (The accompanying photo of CNJ 1000 at that museum was taken in 2025.)
Photo Credit: Peaceray (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en)
For more information on CNJ 1000, please check out https://www.borail.org/collection/cnj-no-1000/ and https://www.flickr.com/photos/hardhatmak/46729490455/in/photostream/
A video about this locomotive can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLQJK7Ug7CU
Leave a Reply