strictures

Interesting, as I reported 4375 about 10 days ago for no A/C.

While on the Dan Ryan L, I see that there's almost always at least one Metra coach sitting on the west side of the 47th St. Rock Island shops with it's doors open, often for months at a time.

Kill it & let the incompetent county run a really small shuttle bus from Old Orchard to the courthouse, like the ones Niles used years ago for its free shuttle. It's the county that put the courthouse in such a stupid location & then had to completely tear down & rebuild the parking garage, because the incompetent builder did such a rotten job, it fell apart in about 15 years. The courthouse should've been near the Dempster Swift station, there was a bankrupt & vacant car dealer just west of it then.

Thanks.

I've seen photos of special C&NW bilevels that were used on the Flambeau 400 in Northern Wisconsin. Did they have similar interiors to the commuter coaches & what happened to them when the C&NW shut down its passenger service by 1971?

Burlington required that their bilevel coaches have much stronger anti-telescoping strength in the coach ends than any of the other railroads here. I'm not sure why, but probably due to the higher speeds on the Burlington, along with all the freight traffic it carries west of the Hawthorne Yard in Cicero.

Both Crain's & the Tribune are reporting that Mayor Emanuel is going to China next week, in an attempt to salvage the deal to build the 7000s in Chicago. Apparently there are serious concerns that Trump's tariffs will kill the deal due to Chinese retaliation. Part of me would like to see it killed, because the 7000s won't be compatible with the 5000s & the rehabbed 3200s.

The train with the private car is #320 in the morning & leaves Kenosha at 6:53 & arrives at 8:26. Only one platform is long enough for it, which is tracks 7 &8. It's #341 in the evening & leaves at 5:03 & arrives Kenosha 6:27. At one time, it ran express from Madison St. to Highland Park, but now makes a few intermediate stops. There used to be three private cars, one of which was I believe 6300 & originally had the name "Deerpath" painted on the side in a flowing script, but it was removed, possibly because the other cars got the nicknames "Cowpath" & "Psychopath"!

A couple of years ago, I saw a UP business consist roll through Rogers Park going north. It was a lot shorter than the one you photographed.

Greg Hinz at Chicago Business has an article that the Chinese deal could be iffy due to new legislation in Congress & Trump's tariffs. https://goo.gl/XxY69b

The 290 in rush hour could use artics. It's always standing room only leaving Howard westbound in the PM rush & the same EB in the morning east of McCormick. I'm sure there are a few other routes that have the same problems, but I doubt they would buy even a dozen artics to solve this problem. After all, wasn't it Charles Yerkes who said that it was the standees on the streetcars who made him money?

Maybe some alleged genius at Metra thinks that the passengers are stupid & need a way to find the center of the coaches, where the doors are?

It wasn't a cab car, it was the second car behind the engine. I rode it on Tuesday. It also didn't have the old flip over C&NW seats that had a metal back & upholstery on just one side, but the current seats that just flip back & forth with upholstery on both sides. I just don't get why Metra didn't totally sand down & completely eliminate the VRE number which was at the coach end & not near the doors like Metra does it.

A bit OT, but I got on a UP North train & I could still read a VRE coach number under the repaint, as V440. I think Metra's number is 8415.

Pace's audio announcements are also bizarrely abbreviated on some routes. For example: On the 290, Birchwood is just said by the automated voice as "Birch" & East Prairie is just "Prairie". Updated. I believe on the 215, the announcement calls the street by its full name, Birchwood. Consistency isn't something Pace believes in!