By the summer of 1978 NJDOT's inherited fleet of ex Penn Central E8s an E7s were really worn out and unreliable. Seeing a freight engine on a Conrail passenger train was never a surprise, although, a bit of a disappointment (wanted that EMD Bulldog nose up front). At least the engineer was friendly.
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.
