Nearly 40 years ago, while a 15-year-old pup, I got up early one morning and went into work with my dad. He dropped me at Penn Station Newark and I rode a Conrail North Jersey Coast Line train to South Amboy. The next train to arrive at the station after I got off my train was this one, with a pair of Penn Central E8s leading the ragamuffin string of coaches.
Thanks largely to mergers and bankruptcies, New Jersey's commuter railroads underwent profound changes between the end of steam and the takeover by NJ Transit in 1983.
