just wondering...

During the past 4 months I've taken Metra into the city about twice per week. I usually ride BNSF train 1216 or 1226 in the morning and come home on train 1241, 1245 or 1249, depending on when I finish my work.

What I've noticed is that, especially in the afternoon, the train does not always pull up all the way to the bumper. Sometimes it stops at about the 100 (foot) marker. I always make a point to get on board at least 5 minutes before departure time, but some people get to the platform with seconds to spare and that extra distance has cost a number of passengers a ride. The doors closed before they made it to the first available car.

I realize this is hardly a life altering issue, but it seems to me that the practice is inconsistent from train to train and sometimes from day to day for the same train. Is there a practical reason for not stopping at the bumper? Can it be train crews having a bit of fun at their passengers' expense? As the subject line states, just wondering...

The reason I can think of why some BNSF trains don't pull all the way up to the bumping post is because of cab car clearance issues. All of the former CB&Q and BN cab cars are being replaced by newer Metra cab cars. 10 brand new cab cars have come to BNSF since May and more are still to come. The newer cab cars appear to be a little higher than the older cab and trailer cars. Which explains why on the 8400-series cab cars, there are chimes removed from the K5LA horns. There are two tracks where I have seen trains stop well short of the bumping post, tracks 4 and 8.