As the remaining class Bs started approaching their eighties, the infirmities of decades of hard work started taking a toll on them and the shop yard in Portland started filling with gutted hulks (when a class B smoked it was most likely a truck failing, but at these ages the electrical systems became more and more unreliable as well) that had all internals salvaged or scrapped.

In the mid-1990s, the shops started a project to reuse these carcasses as parts of new road engines (using the class 273 motor as the design base) and by 1999 the head office approved the remanufacture of as many locomotives as were needed to clear the junk out of the Portland storage sidings.

And, happily, it turned out that most of the carcasses were actually usable; 5 intact B carcasses (plus half units 221R & 226F) were salvaged to make 6 new locomotives (leaving enough carcasses to make another 5, which were made into class N2 in 2005.)

Like the class 273 motor, they were remanufactured by stripping the carbodies off the frame and manufacturing a new crocodile carbody to take their place, but unlike the class 273 they had their original DC motors replaced with new (smaller & more powerful) AC motors.

These units produce 6600 HP and are capable of running under most of the tensions available on the PV&T

All of them are in operation, ranging from Chicago to St John & Baltimore.