Metra Locomotive Assignments And Maintenance

doepack wrote:

Metra210 wrote:Today, while riding the Milwaukee District West Line, I saw the 144 in CP's Bensenville Yard. I'm not sure what the story behind that may be.

Was it alone? It may have been heading out for repairs (or coming back from same...)

Yes, it was alone, and it was facing west.

Saw a news item in the January 2014 Railfan and Railroad magazine that stated that Metra was indeed going to repower the F40Cs with Tier III prime movers and new electrical systems. It also is going to remove the static inverter HEP units on the MP36s and replace them with separate motor/generator sets. Additionally, it will order 25 new Tier III compliant locomotives to replace F40PHs 100-127. Finally, some of the Winnebago's are going to get a rebuild. If the article is correct, it should make for some interesting happenings around here.

Weren't 100-127 rebuilt? Replacing them doesn't make sense. Rebuilding Winnebagos while retiring locomotives that were similarly rebuilt not too long ago makes even less sense (assuming Winnebagos will get a comparable "-3" rebuild).

Putting new power plants in the F40Cs doesn't really seem worth the expense when they will still be the odds in the fleet but it is not as bad as retiring locomotives that were just rebuilt.

The explanation given for replacing 100-127 is that they would have to be rebuilt next time to tier III standards and that would be more expensive than buying new.

Well, I would not have expected any of the rebuilt F40PH-3s to go through another rebuild because components will be so different by then, and 645 power would be even more obsolete than it is now. But the F40PH-3s are not required to meet tier III as long as they are in use in their current form, and since they were rebuilt somewhat recently, they should still have at least a decade of service life left. Replacing them seems premature with the money that was already spent rebuilding them. So why not keep them until they wear out, and then buy new locomotives?

And since Metra agrees that buying new locomotives is more cost effective than rebuilding old ones, why not start replacing the unrebuilt F40PHs (150-184) and F40PH-2Ms with new locomotives instead of rebuilding any of them?

I agree. They didn't give a timetable for purchasing the new locomotives, but reading further it did say that the F40PHs would have to be made Tier III compliant at the next major rebuilding. It also said that SW1500s 6 and 7 were going to be rebuilt into gensets. That would explain 7 being stored with 611 and 614.

"Trust less than half of what you read on the internet and Railfan and RR Mag" - Abraham Lincoln

Here's my take:

From a logical standpoint, it is extremely unlikely that Metra will retire the newly-rebuilt F40PH-3's any time soon. If any locomotives were to be retired, they would likely be engines 174-184, which have gone the longest without an overhaul. The Winnebagos would be next on the list, assuming years since last overhaul is the only factor involved in determining what locomotives to replace.

I also think getting funding for the 25 new locomotives is going to be an issue. Sure, new engines are on the wish list...but how realistic the idea is I'm not sure.

I think the only project we will see take place in the near-future is to convert the MP36PH-3S's to MP36PH-3C's. It will be very interesting to see if this conversion improves reliability, as a lot of the issues with the 400's are said to have been caused by the excessive vibrations of running the HEP at notch 3 while the locomotive is stopped.

My railfan wish is that they would they would rebuild the rest of the F40PHs and F40PHM-2s to "-3s", and upgrade the MPs, and just retire the F40Cs rather than putting them through Pimp My Ride. The fleet would probably be good for at least a decade. But I think tier III happens too soon for more than sixty "-3s" to be finished by sending out two or three units at a time to be rebuilt. After tier III takes effect, basic overhauls without compliant heavy rebuilds is still a legal option. What will Metra do if they don't get any funding for new locomotives or rebuilds?

Milwaukee_F40C wrote:What will Metra do if they don't get any funding for new locomotives or rebuilds?

Handcars?

I agree about the F40Cs. If they have to butcher them, I'd rather see them go to a museum. Take one of the MPs for the Frankenstein experiment......

179 Finally got it's P5 tuned

416 and 418 are out of service for unknown mechanical reasons. While it's kind of unlikely, perhaps at least one of these is for a -3C conversion?

418&419 were coupled together outside of WACY outside of door number 5 in the west yard.

I've noticed 163 parked outside the Rocket House the last few days as well. Not sure what happened to it.

Noticed today that 419 and 401 were both sitting parked outside at 47th. 401 is going to be transferred to KYD, and supposedly right now has no engine in it. Not sure why 419 was there with it.

Also, 207 had a pretty major mechanical problem on train 419 during the evening rush. It died out at 35th Street and couldn't be restarted. Passengers were transferred to a different train which was pulled by 202.

This winter has been horrible on Metra. The F40PH-2s and F40PHM-2s seem to be getting pretty long in the tooth now. They have been having trouble more and more frequently the past few months.