In 1908 twelve more S-class motors, numbered 3235 through 3246, were ordered from GE and added to the roster in 1908-9. They were slightly longer and heavier than the earlier group and given the more specific designation of S-3. The original motor, Old 6000 or Maude as it came to be known, was designated S-1 and renumbered 3200, while the remainder of the first group were designated S-2 and renumbered 3201 through 3234. Thereafter, existence for the S-motors was routine, punctuated mainly by changes in numbering and ownership.

In 1917, the S-motors were renumbered 1100 through 1146; in 1936 100 through 146; and in 1969, those still around had 4600 added to their numbers to put them in new owner Conrail's 4700-series numbering system for electrics. Before Conrail, of course, Penn Central took a turn at owning the S-motors from 1968 to 1975.

S-motor 1115 backs a string of empty passenger cars from Grand Central Terminal to Mott Haven Yard, 29 June 1926. Kevin T. Farrell collection.

Few stories about the S-motors have made it to print, but one from the early days bears retelling. Track workers along the elevated mainline approach to Grand Central, near 125th Street, one day dropped their tools in place as they stepped away from a passing train headed by S-motors. When the train had passed, their tools were nowhere to be found. Upon the train's arrival at Grand Central, and the shutting off of its power, the clatter of picks and crowbars falling to the ground solved the riddle. The engine's intense magnetism near the track had snatched and held the tools. The problem was solved by adding steel plates to limit the scope of the magnetic pull.[27]

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27. Night Ride. Trains, February, 1944; 35, 36 (Reprinted from The Monogram, General Electric Company).
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In 1913 the Central's need for greater hauling power to meet a growing demand for service led to the building that year of a larger, more powerful class of locomotives. These were assigned the Class T designation vacated earlier when the original T's were redesignated S. This was the same year that the new Grand Central Terminal was finally completed, a full decade after the great electrification project was begun. The S-motors were thereafter relegated to yard duty and light or occasional suburban use. Their durability has become legend, as has that of the T-motors, which also used the Batchelder bipolar motors.

As long-haul passenger business declined into the dark years of the '60s and '70s, and the New York Central was merged into the Penn Central before dying, the entire electric fleet began to disappear. Most New York area passenger business on the former New York Central lines is now handled by Metro North multiple-unit cars in place of locomotive-drawn trains. The few longer-distance trains in and out of New York are usually handled by Amtrak's French-built turboliners or rebuilt former New Haven FL9s. Both are diesel-electrics equipped for third-rail pickup. By 1955 all the S-3 motors had been retired and scrapped. Old 6000 was retired in 1965 to the Mohawk & Hudson Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, where it is now stored. The S-2s were gradually retired and scrapped, with number 115, the last, retired in 1981. This was the same year the Northeast Rail Services Act of 1981 was passed permitting Conrail to shed commuter service at the end of 1982. Former number 111 is preserved at the Illinois Railway Museum in Union, Illinois, with its last number, 4715. It has been equipped with a South Shore pantograph for operation with the museum's overhead distribution system. Another S-2, number 113, resides at the National Museum of Transport, in St. Louis.

This is the fifth part of an article written in 1992 for Electric Lines magazine, just before it ceased publishing.