611 & 614 Mothballed. Again!

As of today 611 & 614 were taken out of service and put on the dead line once again. However, do to the track record of our 400's, I would GUESS that the F40C's will be turning wheels in another couple of weeks. I don't BELIEVE that we've seen the last of the 600's quite yet.

Albuquerque, if you buy hte MP36 you'll be sorry! Consider rebuilding E9's. They'll never let you down.

Well that suck i saw them allmost everday i got alot of pic and video of them lets just hope the mps mess up more so there take the cs out to run

I HATE MPI

Albaquruque should buy some of the Spare Amtrak P40's. Hopefully these units WILL BE back in Service.

Metra should hang onto 611 and 614 for as long as the 400s are in service. They'll be needed to sub.

I've got a postcard/fact sheet that was given out when the F40Cs were new. I remember the conductors handing them to everyone. If someone tells me how to save an image here, I'll post it. (Be kind, I'm a mainframe guy).

Its funny, the NWSMTD was proud of their new locomotives. Apparently, Metra doesn't feel the same way about the MPs.

AmtrakFan wrote:Albaquruque should buy some of the Spare Amtrak P40's. Hopefully these units WILL BE back in Service.

I wonder how many railfans remember how troublesome the P40/42/32's were when they entered service. Now they are as good as anything

I trust same will be true of the MP36's given some time.

The mps will never be a good unit all there do is brake down ever day and there had them for a year now and look there have to keep the two f40c so ween the mps goes down there have them to used them i think there there can sell all the mps to whos getting them and get the other f40cs back then nothing will brake down as much and to me metra wish there never got them mps now

metra 613 wrote:The mps will never be a good unit all there do is brake down ever day and there had them for a year now and look there have to keep the two f40c so ween the mps goes down there have them to used them i think there there can sell all the mps to whos getting them and get the other f40cs back then nothing will brake down as much and to me metra wish there never got them mps now

The 40c's are worn out, at very least to keep operating for any period of time they need overhauls. And they represent several generations old technology. While the F40C's are great locomotives, they have just about run their course in full time operation.

The F40Cs may be tired and in need of re-hab, but their purchaser must have though it was worth it.

I think Metra just wanted some new modern looking junk. If they cared about quality, they wouldn't have gone with the lowest bidder.

F40CFan wrote:The F40Cs may be tired and in need of re-hab, but their purchaser must have though it was worth it.

The purchaser is not going to run these day in and day out on commuter trains on a tight schedule, and they'll not be rebuilding them to the standards Metra would have to in order to continue reliable timely service with them.

F40CFan wrote: I think Metra just wanted some new modern looking junk. If they cared about quality, they wouldn't have gone with the lowest bidder.

Who else bid? As far as I know it was GE and MPI, EMD did not bid. GE was not chosen as Metra didn't like/want the P42AC probably for parts compability reasons.

Of course, in many cases, goverment agencies are required to chose the lowest qualifying bidder, I don't know if this is the case with Metra. And if Metra were to chose a higher bidder, they'd have to have a solid justification for doing so, otherwise everyone would be crying that Metra was wasting money.

Alstom, General Electric, and MotivePower Industries bid on Metra locomotives according to http://www.elburn.il.us/Metra.

Don't forget the MP36PH-3C that Caltrain and Albuquerque bought are more reliable than the -3S. Believe it or not, some Caltrain engineers would rather take an MP36 over an F40. Caltrain's MP36's have also been used to help Amtrak with failed F59PHI HEP problems.

metraRI wrote:Alstom, General Electric, and MotivePower Industries bid on Metra locomotives according to http://www.elburn.il.us/Metra.

Don't forget the MP36PH-3C that Caltrain and Albuquerque bought run a lot better than the -3S. Believe it or not, some Caltrain engineers would take an MP36 over an F40. Caltrain's MP36's have also been used to help Amtrak with failed F59PHI HEP problems.

Ok, didn't know Alstom bid, I assume it was with the PL42AC that they are building for NJ Transit right now?

Caltrains MP36's have a seperate HEP engine, and a different braking system IIRC - anything else different between them? And aside from snow ingestion, are the 3S's failures attributable to the portions that are specific to Metra? If not, I wonder why Caltrans is not experiencing the same issues.

Ok, how can the cost of a brand new locomotive be cheaper than just overhauling an existing unit? All you have to do is gut it, put in new components. No new steel, everything is still there.
I regularly drive my 69' vw bus to the end of the earth, still solid, still runs like a champ. Of course it's on it's 3rd engine, but what the hell?
Someone clue me in!

Just let California get a significant snowfall and their MPs will be biting the dust also.

F40CFan wrote:Just let California get a significant snowfall and their MPs will be biting the dust also.

Snow ingestion should be resolved, this being the first winter the MP36's have been through, it's not surprising - many other locos/MU's have suffered this in their first winter as well.

I believe this is the second winter. There were some MPs last year but they were almost always running around with F40s.

I know at least one failure during the summer, I believe it was unit 415 at Galewood that tied things up for a while. I'm sure there were more.