I live on the BNSF “racetrack” in Aurora, IL which hosts about 100 daily Metra commuter trains. For a number of years we saw (approx.) 30-40% of those trains pulled by the newer MP36 units and the rest of the trains pulled by the older EMD F40 variants. It has been over a year (perhaps two years) since we saw our last MP36 unit here and we now see only the F40 units. I am wondering what happened to the MP36’s. I’m thinking that when the rebuilt Amtrak F40’s appeared here that Metra may have reassigned the MP36’s to another Metra service line? Anybody know for sure?
As far as I can tell, Metra’s MP36’s have been re-assigned to the Milwaukee District. There may still be a handful assigned to the Rock Island District.