the units were seldom washed and became very grimy, due to the assignment of the units to diesel service facilities whose automatic car washers lacked overhead wiring. Penn Central and Conrail After the 1968 Penn Central merger, the E44s remained in freight service, over the same territory as before, and (unlike much of the Penn Central diesel fleet), as reliably as before. The paint scheme for most units was Penn Central black with the "worms in love" logo. At least one unit wore the short-lived "red-P" logo, with the 'P' in the logo red instead of white. Not all units received a full Penn Central paint scheme, mainly due to the cash-strapped nature of the railroad, which went bankrupt in June 1970. For example, some had white PC numbers and small "worms" on the ends, while a few never received any new lettering at all, instead having all their PRR markings simply patch-painted over except for their yellow numbers. In 1976, they were passed to the newly formed Conrail. However, things changed when Conrail eliminated their electrification in 1981. All 66 E44s were retired at that time, though some units were already stored due to economic downturn; no unit had ever been retired or seriously wrecked. Most, though not all, of the E44s got to be repainted blue with Conrail's white "wheel on rail" logo. Amtrak and NJ Transit Despite their versatility, the E44's were suddenly about to be used in something they were never intended for: passenger service. Amtrak and New Jersey Transit, both short of electric locomotives, saw in the E44's an opportunity to obtain needed power at bargain-basement prices. Amtrak painted them in its standard switcher paint (gray body with black lettering), and switching work was mostly what they ended up doing. They did this adeptly for some years, until Amtrak decided maintaining these aging locomotives was not worth it. The PCB-laden coolant in their transformers also cut short their lives. Many were stored at Wilmington Shops in Wilmington, DE during the early to mid-1990 and they were eventually scrapped. It is not certain what exactly NJ Transit was looking for, but it evidently was not the E44. All were sold to Amtrak. Like many of NJ Transit's second-hand locomotives, their paint scheme was the previous owner (Conrail)'s herald being painted out, and "NJDOT" (New Jersey Department of Transportation) written below the number. Preservation PRR 4465, the