Metra Bilevel Assignment And Maintenance Changes

Car 7787, one of the cars Metra bought back from the UTA, is now running on the UP with the Metra paint scheme. It was the front car of UPN train 8010 (10/30/10).

Rode on car 7806 last Friday on UPNW. Fresh out of overhaul with sparkling new paint. Also running as the head car. Not sure if the UP just likes having the former CNW cars up front, or if it's just so they can swap them out as bad orders quicker...

7440 appears to be the first 7400 to undergo a rehab, running on RI this morning. Not sure which district 7440 'belongs' to, I'm guessing it came from the MD pool.

Rebuilt 8420 was on UP-NW line train 641 this evening - K3 and all. I also noticed that its new car numbers are a much rounder font than the original block numbers.

I've spotted more 8500 cabs on HC recently, seeing them as they head through the north end of CUS while walking toward the Madison St. exit to OTC on my way home. (A very nice underground shortcut by the way, comes in real handy this time of year...) But it appears that Western Ave. isn't done moving things around, although cab 8472 is still on UP, at least as of last week...

I recently spotted car 7794 (ex-CNW) on a six car train along with car 7836. Thus far, four of the cars that Metra bought back from the UTA last year are back in service (7787, 7794, 7806, 7811).

Seems like a few more 8400's than usual have been running on BNSF lately. 8473 and 8477 come to mind. Any extra 8500's on SWS to make up for this?

Recently i saw a picture of #8569 (Cab Car From The RI) on a MILW Train at union station

MetraBNSF wrote:Seems like a few more 8400's than usual have been running on BNSF lately. 8473 and 8477 come to mind. Any extra 8500's on SWS to make up for this?

I have noticed more 85/8600's leading on SWS for a few months now. I believe 3 of the 5 sets are currently led by an 8500.

This week I have seen 7425, 7448, and 8471 on the UP. They may have been brough over since UP seems to have a large number of cars out of serice. I have seen numerous trains running with less cars than normal.

MetraPace wrote:This week I have seen 7425, 7448, and 8471 on the UP. They may have been brough over since UP seems to have a large number of cars out of serice. I have seen numerous trains running with less cars than normal.

I've noticed that too. And I've also noticed that UP/W trains 32 and 55, like other Elburn-based rush hour sets, has a static consist assigned to it (i.e. generally runs with the same set every day); and until recently it was a nine car set with cab 8436, which included a Pullman car on the west end of the consist. However, the Pullman car was recently removed from that equipment, and from other six-car sets as well, so I wonder if a problem has developed with some of these re-acquired cars. Could be one possible reason behind the car shortage...

I worked downtown for a year, then became funemployed for two months. Now I'm working back downtown and there are no Pullmans left at 47th on the Rock, which is where they were storing/prepping the ones that were going down to KYD for their rehabs. Methinks that a trip past KYD would confirm whether this rehab project is still underway.

Rolling past Cal. Ave. this afternoon, I did see two Pullmans coupled together with a cab car, and I wonder if a few more may be in the shop, or out of view behind the shop. Didn't catch the numbers, but it was apparent they weren't going anywhere anytime soon, since the afternoon rush hour fleet had left the yard already. Meanwhile, still no Pullmans in revenue service, as most of UP/W's rush hour equipment continues to operate one car short, although another nine car set has been restored within the last day or so. That makes two...

I saw at least four Pullmans in service during my time down at OTC today. Car 7787 was on train 351 (North Line, eight cars) and car 7811 was on train 647 (Northwest Line, eleven cars) while a third one was on train 347 (I didn't catch the number). The fourth one was on a train being shoved into the depot by a switch engine.

byte wrote:Methinks that a trip past KYD would confirm whether this rehab project is still underway.

It looked like there were 6 Pullmans outside KYD this afternoon, each wrapped in plastic. Not sure if these are completed or not. These would probably be the last of the cars aquired from UTA.