What ever happened to New Jersey Central Railroad's Engine No 1706?

Answer 1

Engine 1706 was a Central Railroad of New Jersey ALCO RS-3 freight locomotive. In 1959 the locomotive became a runaway as it departed Jersey City Terminal (part of Liberty State Park today) by jumping a derail and passed through a closed switch! Moving west onto the mainline with no one aboard. As it approached Elizabethport Junction it was switched south by a quick thinking CNJ dispatcher onto the Perth Amboy Branch of the CNJ. The runaway engine continued south out of control at speeds averaging 40 miles per hour for about 36 minutes, until it was finally "caught" by another RS-3 locomotive, CNJ RS-3 1504, that was on the local drill which got up to speed ahead of the runaway and stopped it west of South Amboy, NJ. The crew on 1504 found that the throttle of the "ghost locomotive" 1706 was notched out to the wide open position, with the hand brakes on the locomotive still applied.

Later in its service with the Jersey Central engine 1706 suffered an electrical fire, deemed too costly to repair the locomotive was removed from the roster and scrapped. This took place prior to the merger of CNJ into Conrail in 1976.