In 1980 my family moved to the Northwest side of Chicago. From my bedroom window, I could see CNW commuter trains cross Pulaski Ave. just East of the Irving Park station. I believe this is the Northwest Line. I remember seeing, once maybe twice, a light blue RTA EMD covered wagon. My father never saw it. He did see the RTA F40’s painted that color. Within a year we moved to Mount Prospect, Ill. All the time I spent waiting at the station, there, for my mom, I saw CNW E units in green and yellow or the F40’s.
The question is, does my childhood memory serve me correctly? If it does, which locos got the blue paint?
You’re correct about it being the NW Line. Es and Fs in CNW colors ran there, alongside the Metra F40PHs. Some of the Es got repainted into the RTA light blue, brown and orange scheme and a couple of the Es (514 among them) also made it into the Metra dark blue and red. One of those was used on the Milwaukee district for a while, BTW (515, I think…). A couple of ex-CNW Fs made into the dark blue and red scheme, but normally were only used on work trains by that time. Art
Rock Island had about 20 smooth-sided Pullman gallery cars that may have been a follow-up to either a C&NW or SP (San Francisco) order.
Bill Vandervoort’s Chicago Transit & Railfan site used to have current and historical equipment rosters. Sadly, these appear to have fallen victim to the new and limited web host.
(Can someone tell me how to post a photo? The message toolbar has icons for “insert/edit image” and “content selector.” Is one of these part of the process?)
The Rock Island bought Budd stainless steel bi-levels first, then bought P-S smooth side bi-levels painted in the ‘Chicago Red’ paint scheme with the yellow stripe. Here is the roster info:
I’m not sure that ALL stainless steel cars have (or had) fluted or corrugated sides. But all of the stainless steel cars used in Chicago area commuter service do.
The Butler, you’re absolutely correct that the UP lines run fluted side cars these days. However, FWIW, yesterday morning on the UP-N line I witnessed a single smooth-sided coach tucked in immediately behind the engine in an otherwise all fluted-side consist.
It was nice to have a little variety.
Separately, here’s a pic of an F in the blue/red Metra colors:
Was the smooth sided coach you say a single level car or a bi-level? For many years, C&NW and Metra ran special “members only” cars on the North line, inbound in the morning and outbound at night, which were old single level intercity cars refitted to be compatible with commuter trains. Last I heard (which was a couple of years ago), there was still one of these left.
It was a bi-level in Metra silver paint with blue and red stripes.
I’ve seen the single-level ones you are talking about, but similar to you, it’s been a few years (to the point that the last time I saw one, it was in RTA light grey paint with a brown stripe; I’ve never seen one in Metra colors).
I am under the impression that Metra had quit running the members only cars, perhaps someone else knows something definitive?
The single-level charter car, xCNW (7901 or 7902?) barbershop-lounge for Streamliner service, is still in service on #326 & #341.
My understanding is a half-dozen recently rebuilt “smooth-side” (Pullman) gallery cars were returned, possibly from Virginia, and can be seen singly on various trains. This was done to add fleet capacity to relieve crowding; but not necessarily for the trains to which they are assigned.
There was talk by Metra of discontinuing the service due to demand for capacity on trains.
Platform tracks were cut back one car length when the Ogilvie Center was built, limiting most trains on the east side tracks, for North Line trains to Kenosha, to seven cars or less. The “Banker’s Special” used to use the longer center tracks typically assigned to Northwest Line trains to Harvard; but that has been “simplified” with the new interlocking configuration.
Station stops could be adjusted to keep demand within seating capacity limited in part by fleet size and in part by terminal track length without obliging the termination of the charter car; after all, it does add ~30 very pricey seats.
North Line scheduling has been a long series of band-aid adjustments over the years. One of the larger stations, Wilmette, has an hour gap in service between the 3:37 and 4:35. No one on the North Western side seems to have any idea what the real market is or what service means.
