In 1970 the Erie Lackawanna Railroad was doing it’s federally mandated duty running commuter services out of Hoboken Terminal to northern New Jersey and southern New York. Given the fact that the Erie Lackawanna and most other railroads were almost always on the brink of bankruptcy at the time, the service was unreliable, infrequent, and outdated. The New Jersey State government recognized the problem and began subsidizing the Erie Lackawanna and other commuter operations in the state.
The subsidy included the purchase of state of the art locomotives and coaches to replace the railroads older fleet of EMD E and F units and steam-heated coaches in commuter services. The government of New Jersey noted the efficient and modern commuter operations of the Chicago and Northwestern railroad out of Chicago. The railroad had gotten rid of steam heating on their commuter trains, replacing the steam generators on EMD E and F units with diesel generators. These generators could then supply electrical power for heat and lighting directly to a new fleet of Pullman standard galley bi-level railcars. Some of these new Pullman Standard Bilevel cars had been ordered as cab control cars by the Chicago and northwestern railway, which means that a train could operate in both directions without the need to turn trains or use extra locomotives. With cab control cars, the engineer switches from the locomotives to the control cab of a cab car to turn the train around.
In new jersey, the head-end power system would provide efficient heating during the cold northeast winters and push-pull operation would significantly increase the efficiency of commuter services. At the time when a train reached the end of the line, there was no way to turn the train around with all turntables, wye, and loop tracks removed as lines were cut back to save costs. Crews would have to uncouple the locomotive from the consist and run it around the train and couple it to the other end. This necessitated the need for dual cab locomotives such as the E60 and alp44 or to have two diesel locomotives coupled rear to rear and run that whole set around the train.