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Metra, buying something without a 645 prime mover?

Let me get back into the chair I just fell out of.

The Highliners have been modified extensively since they were built. In order to do a true restoration job (justifying a repaint), many removed interior components would need to be located or recreated, and significant changes to the propulsion systems would also need to take place. Speaking as a vo...

FYI: IRM is having a Snowflake Special charter train on the MED (using the old Highliners, of course) on Sunday, November 9th. Tickets available here - http://www.irm.org/events/snowflakespecial.html Note that this will likely be the only Highliner fantrip undertaken by any organization before the l...

Metra has installed "extra" viaducts over some of the cross streets between La Salle and 35th street. Would seem that their intention is to have a third track go at least that far south.

Anyone know how many cars are the usual count for the Champaign/Carbondale trains as of late? When I was riding it to/from school (Champaign) you'd get a standard complement of 3 coaches + 1 cafe/BC, with the exception of busy Fridays (right before Thanksgiving, easter) which would have eight or nin...

Backshophoss wrote:But the question remains,where to put a yard to lay up trains?
Or how to service the equipment as well at LaSalle?

I like the high back but not the fixed position. Flipover seats are great. Compromise: Pivoting seats like they have on Amtrak cars (I think at Superliner and Horizon coaches, probably Amfleets as well). You step on a pedal somewhere under the seat and that unlocks it, and you can turn it around. B...

Take a ride on the Orange line from the loop to Midway and back. Passes by probably 5-6 different railroads. (there is a reason for this; the Orange line was built on R-O-Ws which the class 1s were no longer using.

Suburban stations generally fall under the jurisdiction of their respective suburb, whereas stations in the city proper are administered by Metra (actually their parking subcontractor, which right now I believe is CPS parking). My own personal experience is that the lots in the city are not maintain...

The two Talgo sets are in CUS right now, in the south side of the terminal. They're sitting on an eastern track which usually seems to have MOW equipment stored on it (I think one that might have been used for handling mail back in the day?), and not visible from public areas (aside from trains).

If you go visit the station at 63rd, yeah, the neighborhood isn't great but I'd be more worried about encountering unfriendly railroad police. That's not public property and if you get spotted around there it's within the rights of the railroad PD to intercept you.

I don't think the suburban building boom will ever be like it was before the bubble popped. Lots of developments were planned but either never built, or were "started" and now consist of 2-3 homes in a subdivision with 25-30 plots (complete with unused roads, and corny names like "Pin...

When were two car trains an issue ever? I've never seen such on the blue line. Perhaps a shop move between ORD and Rosemont shops? If it's during the day and there's an idle train sitting in the middle track at O'Hare, it's sitting there because it's a spare trainset, in case one comes in and has s...

The exact reason the operator was fired (per one of the news articles I read, which I'm too lazy to look up right now because it's 1 am) was that she was let go for not appearing at a disciplinary hearing. I'm guessing that she was advised to not show up as it would make appealing the inevitable ter...

Something big is on the horizon: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-chicago-transit-20140317,0,3006718.story In what would be the biggest reshaping of the Chicago region’s bus and train system in 30 years, a Public Transit Task Force is recommending abolishing the Regional Transpo...