When the PV&T purchased the D&H, it came with trackage rights on a short section of still-electrified mainline (The Columbia & Port Deposit, plus Amtrak’s NE Corridor), so the Conrail trackage rights agreement was quickly amended to sell the (unused since 1982) C&PD overhead (and a handful of E-44s to operate the line) to the D&H.

There was enough traffic across this line at the end of the 1980s to not just keep the electrification on the Conrail section but to extend it up to Sunbury (for eventual extension up to Schenectady), but Conrail wasn’t having any of this nonsense and it stalled until CSX & NS decided to cut up Conrail for spare parts.

The D&H’s branches to Newark, Philadelphia, and Washington would become much less competitive after this takeover, so the PV&T pushed hard for a couple of concessions during the takeover talks; converting the C&PD into a joint line with NS and authority to string wire from Harrisburg to Sunbury.

This gave the D&H the green light to electrify the rest of the way to Schenectady, all at 60 cycle 25khz, and those 13 elderly E-44s (as well the leases on the EMD GM10B, GM6C, and a few railroad museum owned E-33s & GG1s) were not going to do it.

Fortunately the Portland Shops had already designed a class J variant for the long-delayed Sunbury extension; The class JS (either J stretched or Super J, depending on who you talk to) are multi-system motors that are capable of running under 3kvdc or the C&PD/NE Corridor’s variety of AC tensions.

16 were ordered, and the first arrived at Harrisburg in the fall of 1999.

All are in service.