New Metra and South Shore Gallery MUs.

[ApproachMedium]

OK so I finally got to chicago after wanting to go for a few years, and I seen that the South Shore had a train that looked like married pairs of gallery cars, but were MUs, I also spotted one Metra electric train that had the same. As I tried to search the web for info I could not find anything about it other than Nippon Sharyo built the cars. There are plenty of photos and from all of the details, they look to be exactly the same as the gallery cars except for the center door arrangement being that one door provides low and high level boarding and the other provides just high. Question is are these cars being re-built from old gallery car shells or are they of new construction using the gallery cab car tooling?

[cobra30689]

I'm pretty sure they are of the same design as the Nippon Sharyo gallery cars I run on the VRE.....ours were new when built...I think both the electric and regular versions of the Chicago cars are built from the same basic mold, so to speak.

[justalurker66]

All of the new Metra Electric and South Shore cars are new builds, not rebuilds of non-electric cars. Metra got their first batch in 2005 with NICTD (South Shore) getting theirs in 2008. There is a plant under construction in Rochelle Illinois that will be building 160 more of these cars for Metra.

The Metra Electric version is all high level boarding with a half size trap step in the center door for emergencies and yard use. The NICTD version added a second vestibule placed at the non-cab end of the car with a trap door for low level boarding. There are also less obvious differences such as different toilet systems.

The cars are from Nippon Sharyo, created in Japan with final assembly in Wisconsin. The Rochelle plant will be the final assembly point for the next order of cars (and hopefully more orders of cars for systems across the US).

[ApproachMedium]

Cool thanks for the info! I was looking at them and I said gee this looks like the same thing but powered?

[Tadman]

It's a darn similar bodyshell. That's done on purpose, as Metra originated the design and they're the most conservative transit agency in the world. They still order locomotives with the 645 powerplant. That's not a criticism, just an observation. You'll notice that other than the usual Chicago politics, they run a darn efficient operation. Little of the rebellious discussion that surrounds the DE/DM, M8, or SL-V makes it out to Chicago, because Metra buys really proven technology.

The CTA is usually the same way, but they take a giant leap every 40 years or so. Right now they're in the middle of such, with the 5000 cars, but they're handling it fairly well.

[justalurker66]

Using the same basic design is a money saver. Besides, what is wrong with the diesel trailer/new electric design? If there is something broken, fix it. If not, run with a proven design.

[ApproachMedium]

That is excellent thinking, I wish that NJT and the other eastern commuters here thought this way. It seems every time we build a new train we have to re-invent the wheel over here. The PL42AC diesel was a great example. All that hard work and for nothing, we got 32 pieces of crap that took 5 years to work the bugs out of and they never got what they wanted. They hoped that they would buy 60 something and be able to sell the design to other commuter railroads and make money. Shoulda just got the MPI engines or rebuilt the F40s/Geeps.

Id also hate to tell you how many problems they have with trucks on all of these new designs, like the Multilevels, the M7/8 and the PL42. Could write a book about it. Its nice to see that Chicagoland still uses tried and true technology of the simple commonwealth truck design that has been used since the first lightweight cars. When I rode the trains out there at the beginning of the month it was quite a pleasure to have such a great ride on a double level car packed full of people over diamonds and everything with little discomfort in the cars.