Metra Locomotive Assignments And Maintenance

Not only has Metra been swapping engines between the SWS and BNSF lines, but the entire trainsets. It's not uncommon to see ex-BN cars on SWS trains anymore. This has been going on for at least a month now. Guess it's easier just to swap an entire train at Union Station.

Deval wrote:Not only has Metra been swapping engines between the SWS and BNSF lines, but the entire trainsets. It's not uncommon to see ex-BN cars on SWS trains anymore. This has been going on for at least a month now. Guess it's easier just to swap an entire train at Union Station.

Actually, that's been going on a lot longer than a month. Both routes are serviced at 14th St, and as such, cars and locomotives are shuffled between the two lines all the time...

Deval wrote:Not only has Metra been swapping engines between the SWS and BNSF lines, but the entire trainsets. It's not uncommon to see ex-BN cars on SWS trains anymore. This has been going on for at least a month now. Guess it's easier just to swap an entire train at Union Station.

As doepack stated, since SWS is serviced with BNSF, cars between the two lines get swapped back and forth on a regular basis. This has been the case since 2005 or so. There are times when all non-ADA cars in a SWS consist are ex-CBQ cars. On rare occasions, a complete SWS set is swapped with a BNSF set, difference is the placement of ADA cars in the consist.

I Saw #211 in Blue Island Pushing Train #510

F40PHM-2 no. 210 is (back?) in the Milwaukee District pool - it is the protector at CUS this evening.

112 was leading a outbound train at LaGrange today, I'm guessing that's 126's replacement. 183 is still on the BNSF as well. 611 was leading a outbound this evening on the MD-W.

F40PH-2 #137 is now off for rebuild; this marks the first UP-assigned unit to be rebuilt. Expect it back in March or April.

114 is trailing 404 on BNSF's double header this evening. It's really weird seeing all these 110 series F40PH-3s running on BNSF, as I also spotted 112 and 115 on separate trains.

Breaking news! 185 F40PHM-2 Village of Roselle is operating on the Union Pacific! The engine led west line train 59, the 5:13 out of downtown.

185 is indeed on UP-W, rather running train #51, not 59. If the trend continues, definitely a twist to district assignments. Wonder if this is a sign UP did not want the rebuilds.. or if Metra didn't want to give them to UP.

Woah....first the 113 and now this, crazy stuff going on. As long as whatever is sent to the UP has a 1 or 2 in the first digit and not a 4, its nice to get places on time

Woops, yes its train 51. This unit had wicked acceleration out of A-2 and Oak Park. I got home two minutes early; usually this train arrives Elmhurst four minutes behind schedule.

Is 185 going to stay on UP lines, or did they just move it over to fill in until their rebuilds are finished?

Any sign of 185 lately?

I know 185 had a problem with the ATC and it was bad ordered. Looks like M-19A shops fixed it though, it ran yesterday night on train 51, and is parked in Elburn.