I did not think I would be the first post about this topic. About 2 hours ago I was traveling through West Allis WI, and noticed a Union Pacific engine (I dont know what kind might have been an sd40) pulling about 8-10 Metra passenger cars coming from the Butler railyards and heading towards downtown. These cars were carrying passengers and looked fairly used. I know there has been talk about Metra service around here off and on, and was just wondering if anyone else knows about this?
Well I know when UP opened Global III in Rochelle, IL they were using old Metra cars (though with Metra engines) for the little public excursions they were running bewteen Rochelle and Nelson, IL.
Maybe I’m wrong but doesn’t UP own the old Metra cars through the purchase of C&NW (I know they own the stations along their routes). Putting unused cars to temporary work?[?]
Mark Hintz (forum member here) can give you the full report, as he saw them(or at least I think the same) in the UP Mitchell yard. He said they were new(from his post on the wisrail yahoo group). I’m sure he’ll get along sooner or later to posting here.
If they were new cars there is a good chance that they were from Super Steel in Milwaukee. METRA has a contract with Super Steel to construct new bi-level cars at their plant on the Northwest side of Milwaukee. The body shells and trucks come into the plant and then final assembly is done. Then every so often a train of 8-10 new cars heads south from the Super Steel plant through Milwaukee to Chicago. This train usually is run with locomotives on both ends.
I don’t know anything about their being passengers on the cars, but I know the windows are very heavily tinted.
Yea they were the bi-level cars. I was driving on Miller Park Way right near the Jackson Park bridge, I got the beginning and was trying to go slow to watch the whole thing. I was kind of in an awe, but was realizing that I needed to keep my eyes on the road or I would have become good friends with the bridge [:D] .