Yesterday while visiting my regular haunt at the BNSF Eola yard in Aurora, I noticed they had brought in (as part of a regular freight) seven flat cars with what were obviously double decked passenger cars on them. Needless to say I was intrigued so I ventured into BNSF land to see what I could see. My clear line of sight was blocked by another cut of cars on the next closer track to where I was so I could not see all that well, but between two of the cars blocking my sight I could see that the passenger-on-flat-cars were all wraped in blue plastic sheeting and each car had a small sign on the side of the blue plastic that said “MERA PROJECT” and a lot of other stuff I could not see or decipher.
When I went back today these cars were long gone…does anybody know anything about what it was I saw? Many thanks!
What’s really puzzling is that whatever is under the tarps is being shipped on flat cars. New passenger cars for North American service are usually shipped on their own wheels.
Unless they where for say the Washington DC Metro Subway which is built to 5’6" gauge and can not have anything recived via the Normal way. The DC Metro is about the Only system Big enough with Tall Enough Clearnance to run a Double Deck Car and being they run on 3rd Rail Overhead wires are Not going to be an Issue.
Not really…Metra’s most recent cars (all of the 6000-series cars and the 8400- and 8500-series cab cars, as well as the first of the new electrics and the South Shore bilevels) were delivered as shells from a southeastern port (Savannah?), with trucks and other appurtenances installed in Milwaukee at Super Steel. I’m not sure where the electric cars are being finished (UP handled the other cars for Metra and South Shore–on their own wheels–from Milwaukee), but this is not unusual.
These may be the first shells going to the new assembly plant in Rochelle for completion. The manufacturer of the cars built a brand new assembly plant in Rochelle to complete the cars. The plant is right at the intersection of I-88 and I-39. The name of the manufacturer escapes me but last time I was out at the railroad park the little hobby shop there had an article about posted on the wall. IIRC the article said the first shells were going to arrive this month. Also the plant is served by the BNSF.
The plant at Rochelle is Nippon-Sharyo, USA. According to their web site they have the contract for 160 Metra Electric cars. For those not familiar, Metra Electric is the ex-IC electrified suburban service running from downtown Chicago to the Chicago Southside and South suburbs.
Driving down I-39 today I was able to see three loads wrpped in blue sitting outside the plant, likely either the same or similar to the cars spotted by Jim at Eola.