BNSF Coaches

So I rode BNSF for the first time today, and apart from the man at the throttle holding back on the real speed, it was a great ride. I took the 3:15 outboud express to downers, and returned on another train that came thru downers five minutes later and made every darn stop on the run in.

Some observations:
1. I like LaGrange, I might move there.
2. I rode in 814 on the way out there, and although neat for flavor, the interior is a little rough and the car definitly rides rougher.
3. Metra may have clean trucks, but they lack in other ways, IE flat wheels (not this time), creaking bolsters... I had an 8400 on the way back and the bolster would not stop creaking and groaning.
4. Amtrak Cali 451 (F59 in blu/wht) is at the coach yard, get your pics fast.

Tadman wrote:I had an 8400 on the way back and the bolster would not stop creaking and groaning.

I think that's a special trait for the 8400s or something - almost every time I've ridden one on the RI, it's always a noise-fest.

Maybe it's just a fortunate coincidence, but from what I've noticed, the 8400 cabs on UP aren't that noisy, except for intermittent flat spots, the ride is fairly smooth on all three lines for the most part. And this was before the Harsco rail grinder train made its bi-annual appearance on the Geneva sub last week, so I expect the overall ride quality to remain good, at least for the time being, until summer's heat and humidity starts beating up the rails. The train was reported on UP-N this week; I wonder if it's just making the rounds on UP, or if it's going to cover the rest of the system...

Everyone: Is BNSF putting their new logo on their assigned bi-levels? Does anyone know what has happened to the Burlington 50s bilevels and has METRA retired them all? I noticed that you now can tell the bilevels apart by just their window size - where are the late 70s/early 80s Budd cars mostly used if anyone knows? Off-topic Amtrak 451 is a Pacific Surfliner unit-perhaps getting assigned at it may have been needed for the SW Chief-or going to EMD or Beech Grove for work maybe? MACTRAXX

Yes, the new BNSF logo is replacing the old one on the cars assigned to that district.

Many of the old ex-CB&Q and ex-BN cars have been retired and were sold to Federated Rail, a leasing company. They are currently in storage at two locations in Wisconsin on Wisconsin & Southern Railroad trackage. Some of the 700-series trailer coaches, however, were rebuilt not long ago and are still in Metra service.

The late-'70s/early-'80s Budd trailer cars purchased by RTA are still in service. The cab cars have all been "demoted" to trailer service. For the most part, those "RTA cars" are assigned to the Milwaukee and Rock Island districts, with a handful floating around on the other lines.

You're correct, there are four distinct window sizes on Metra's fleet, with the original CB&Q/BN cars having the smallest windows, the former Milwaukee Road and Rock Island cars and the "RTA cars" having the next size larger, the early-'90s "ADA cars" next, and the newest 6000/8500-series cars having the largest windows.

Your Amtrak question could surely be answered in the Amtrak forum.

I think only cars both assigned to BNSF and once-owned by the CB&Q get the BNSF logo, as they might still own the fleet - not sure on that one, but the 8400/8500 do not get BNSF logo.

As to the 451, they beat the snot out of them on the west coast and it was likely making a Beech Grove pilgramage.

Tadman wrote:I think only cars both assigned to BNSF and once-owned by the CB&Q get the BNSF logo, as they might still own the fleet - not sure on that one, but the 8400/8500 do not get BNSF logo.

That is correct and I should have been clearer -- only the former CB&Q and BN cars have BNSF logos; all the newer equipment has only Metra and RTA logos.

As for ownership of the cars, if I'm not mistaken the cars in question are owned by the West Suburban Mass Transit District. I believe only cars 700-795 were actually owned by the Burlington; the later cars were purchased by WSMTD.

Does anyone know approximately how many of the 700/800 cars of CB&Q heritage still remain in Metra service? I thought the most recent purchase of the newer Nippon-Sharyo built cars would've forced all of them into retirement, but that doesn't seem to be the case...

Well, they did pretty thorough rebuilds on a lot of them a few years ago, so apart from having wheelchair lifts, those cars' interiors are pretty much as new as the 8500s. As long as the frames haven't been bent or anything, I don't foresee them retiring the rebuilds anytime soon. (If anyone can get ahold of the foamer, um, I mean railfan DVD "Chicago's Metra," they have a little segment on there about rebuilding a BN bilevel. It wasn't a "put in new seats and light bulbs and call it a day" type of a deal - they basically stripped out the entire interior and replaced the old fittings and paneling with new.)

doepack wrote:Does anyone know approximately how many of the 700/800 cars of CB&Q heritage still remain in Metra service? I thought the most recent purchase of the newer Nippon-Sharyo built cars would've forced all of them into retirement, but that doesn't seem to be the case...

Most of the cab cars numbered from 798-815 still remain in service, but there's a sticker on the cab compartment door that says, "Non-controlling cab". The 8200's also have this sticker as well.

byte wrote:Well, they did pretty thorough rebuilds on a lot of them a few years ago, so apart from having wheelchair lifts, those cars' interiors are pretty much as new as the 8500s. As long as the frames haven't been bent or anything, I don't foresee them retiring the rebuilds anytime soon. (If anyone can get ahold of the foamer, um, I mean railfan DVD "Chicago's Metra," they have a little segment on there about rebuilding a BN bilevel. It wasn't a "put in new seats and light bulbs and call it a day" type of a deal - they basically stripped out the entire interior and replaced the old fittings and paneling with new.)

I have the "Chicago's Metra" DVD and its pretty cool how they went inside a bilevel that had the inside ripped out. I think most of the coaches 750 and higher are/have been rebuilt.

Tadman wrote:2. I rode in 814 on the way out there, and although neat for flavor, the interior is a little rough and the car definitly rides rougher.

Some of the really old 8200s are REALLY rough on the inside.

What's the deal with the BNSF cars on the Southwest? Seems like most of the cars sport the orange BNSF logo.

Kablam76 wrote: What's the deal with the BNSF cars on the Southwest? Seems like most of the cars sport the orange BNSF logo.

I ride the southwest service, and that the train sets are serviced at the 14th st. yard, and the BNSF swamp those cars, that why some of the SWS sets has almost a BNSF car set with either 8400's, or 8500's cabs.

The HC is serviced at the Western Ave. Yard

Today on the Burlington, I saw a six-car set made up of four 700-800 series cars, plus a 7100, with an 8500 cab, didn't get exact numbers. Someone had mentioned earlier that a solid set of the old Budd cars (excluding the cab car of course) were spotted on SWS awhile back; has anyone seen a similar set on the Burlington lately? The one I saw today was close, but not quite...

Great sighting - too bad we don't have some of the rabid photo-takers the MNCR forum has - there's about 3-4 guys there that take mad photos and post most of them. I've seen lots of Burlington coaches on SWS this year - I figure Metra is pooling the fleet for the two lines. Makes sense if the whole fleet is based at 14th, probably lightens the switching load. Now if we could just stop using direction names and call it the Wabash District - isn't there three lines that actually serve the southwest part of Chicagoland?

Except for the midday 5-car Burlington set, which I believe is cut daily from an inbound 10 or 11 car train, with the cars then reattached in the afternoon for the PM rush, there doesn't seem to be a lot of switching going on at 14th St., sets tend to stay together awhile, especially on SWS (er.. Wabash district), but I think our esteemed moderator Kyle (aka MetraRI) can provide the skinny on that...

Not a bad idea to refer to SWS as the Wabash district though, always like a nod to a line's history. Then perhaps we can rename the HC the "Alton" district, which is the only other Metra route that truly runs S/SW, albeit with a lot fewer stations, none of which are within Chicago's city limits. As for the other diesel lines, there are those that referred to them by their outbound terminals, like the Geneva district, Fox Lake district, etc. And there's one route that older folks especially simply refer to as just a letter: The "Q" (Burlington, of course...)