Metra Locomotive Assignments And Maintenance

115 was leading a doubleheader on the Southwest Service today. Some of these shuffles recently are actually pretty amusing. First off 114 (Tinley Park) unit running on the BNSF is kinda odd, and then of course seeing PHMs on the UP!

119, fresh from rebuild, is running on UP/W today, doubled up with 162. Also, there may be some mechanical problems with 185, OTC's "stand-by" equipment (usually parked on track 9, and otherwise used for UP/NW 651) ran last night's UP/W 51...

185 is in the Elburn coachyard now. It wasn't doubleheaded either, so if it did go down again it's running now. Does anyone know if it's here to stay, or is it just around until the UP rebuilds are done?

I would guess the latter, it'll probably go back to the Burlington side (or elsewhere) eventually. But with Metra, you never know...

I agree, wish they could keep it though. Kinda neat seeing a Winnebago on a different line. I've always liked them for some reason.

I was out at La Fox on Friday night, and #185 led a doubleheaded train #49. We weren't 100% sure as to what the second unit was but it appeared to be the 113. So I would hazard a guess that there was a problem with the equipment for #49, so they took #51's trainset and then took the standby set for #51.

I went out to see the 119 today on the train it was supposed to run but got the 151 instead--not sure what's up there. By the way, which unit was leading the 119 doubleheader?

This morning 185 was on a trainset by itself, and 119 was running doubleheaded with 162 leading it.

I heard the 113 had an ATS shoe on it, do either of the other two visitors have ATS shoes?

119 didn't have one before it was rebuilt, not sure if it got one during the rebuild or not. 185 doesn't have one at all either.

185 and 113 are supposed to be on #51 again tonight. 119 is apparently downtown.

185 was running on its own again today. Not sure about 119.

113 should be solo on #51 tonight. It ran solo on #49 last night. 185 is in the shop.

119 was the lead unit on UP-NW line trains 625/658 this evening.

146 is the next contestant for rebuild.

Is there any rhyme or reason that determines which units get sent down next, or is it, as I suspect, just determined randomly?