Metra Electric Train Car Model

[qwantae]

I take the Electric Metra almost everyday for awhile now. I was curious about what year are those oldest cars, include the ones that had orange stripe? I suppose that they're about 30 years old because I remember as a kid back in late 80s, those are the same ones. And What year are the new ones (1200s) I been seeing few of them since 2006 so I assume that they came from that year. So far, I seen only 26 of them, Are they expecting more soon for replacement of rest of the old ones? And when?

[Busjack]

I take the Electric Metra almost everyday for awhile now. I was curious about what year are those oldest cars, include the ones that had orange stripe? I suppose that they're about 30 years old because I remember as a kid back in late 80s, those are the same ones. And What year are the new ones (1200s) I been seeing few of them since 2006 so I assume that they came from that year. So far, I seen only 26 of them, Are they expecting more soon for replacement of rest of the old ones? And when?

The oldest ones are about 1971, and St. Louis Car, and owned by South Suburban Mass Transit District. Anyway, they were well in service by the time of the 1972 crash at 27th St., where a new set backed up over a signal block and was wiped out by an old green train.

The first set was not enough to replace all the old cars, which still were used on South Chicago and Kensington Local trains well into the 70s. They got more cars from Bombardier, since, as became typical for Chicago, the SSMTD order was about the last for St. Louis Car. Bill V. says that 1631-1666 were received in 1978-1979.

The 1200s are Nippon Sharyo (shells)/Sumitomo (trading company)/SuperSteel (Wisconsin assembler), and the "two floor building streetcars" (as the Japanese page then translated*) were received in 2005, at the tail end of the order for the trailer 6000 and cab trailer 8500 cars for the "diesel" lines.

When the 2009 Capital Bills were passed, it was announced that the Metra Electric would get another 160. However, since only half of the first bill was disbursed, and the second bill was tied up in litigation until last month, only 40 have been ordered so far. Gov Protoplasm announced that the cars will be assembled in Rochelle, Ill., which I guess is fair since it is state money

BTW: Bill's photos indicate the two paint schemes, but the "orange in the middle," while essentially the original, was modified three times before Bill got the shot. Originally, the car ends were black, but because of the crash, were repainted fluorescent orange to make them more visible. The original had a circle logo with a white split "I" for Illinois Central, and said Illinois Central in the orange area. A round RTA logo was then placed over the "I" one. Then it appears that Metra was like Pace with the 8000s, and put its logo over something that looked like the existing paint job, although the orange seems to extend closer to the cab door. The current paint job is Metra, and the same as were used on the steel C&NW cars.

_________

*Apparently the link in that post is dead after 6 years.

[qwantae]

The oldest ones are about 1971, and St. Louis Car, and owned by South Suburban Mass Transit District. Anyway, they were well in service by the time of the 1972 crash at 27th St., where a new set backed up over a signal block and was wiped out by an old green train.

The first set was not enough to replace all the old cars, which still were used on South Chicago and Kensington Local trains well into the 70s. They got more cars from Bombardier, since, as became typical for Chicago, the SSMTD order was about the last for St. Louis Car. Bill V. says that 1631-1666 were received in 1978-1979.

The 1200s are Nippon Sharyo (shells)/Sumitomo (trading company)/SuperSteel (Wisconsin assembler), and the "two floor building streetcars" (as the Japanese page then translated*) were received in 2005, at the tail end of the order for the trailer 6000 and cab trailer 8500 cars for the "diesel" lines.

When the 2009 Capital Bills were passed, it was announced that the Metra Electric would get another 160. However, since only half of the first bill was disbursed, and the second bill was tied up in litigation until last month, only 40 have been ordered so far. Gov Protoplasm announced that the cars will be assembled in Rochelle, Ill., which I guess is fair since it is state money

BTW: Bill's photos indicate the two paint schemes, but the "orange in the middle," while essentially the original, was modified three times before Bill got the shot. Originally, the car ends were black, but because of the crash, were repainted fluorescent orange to make them more visible. The original had a circle logo with a white split "I" for Illinois Central, and said Illinois Central in the orange area. A round RTA logo was then placed over the "I" one. Then it appears that Metra was like Pace with the 8000s, and put its logo over something that looked like the existing paint job, although the orange seems to extend closer to the cab door. The current paint job is Metra, and the same as were used on the steel C&NW cars.

_________

*Apparently the link in that post is dead after 6 years.

Thanks for reply.

[Busjack]

Apparently related to this topic, and not especially clear, is that the Rochelle plant got an order for Amtrak high speed passenger cars, if I am reading these tea leaves property.

[sw4400]

Gov Protoplasm announced that the cars will be assembled in Rochelle, Ill., which I guess is fair since it is state money

Gov Protroplasm??? I remember what you called former Mayor Daley(Da Mare), I can't remember your name for Ex-Gov, Mayor of Prisons, Rod Blagojevich(mine were Gov. Froot Loops and Nuts & Bolts) and I'm sure you have a nickname for Mayor Emanuel, though I probably can't remember it. You must have a soft place in your heart for politicians, Busjack.

[Busjack]

Gov Protroplasm???

18 month necropost.

Emanuel I haven't named, mainly because he hasn't proven himself incompetent yet. However, I made a lot of references to F. Gump Claypool on the CTA Tattler. I did say that Emanuel is turning himself into the unDemocrat.

Probably more up to date, and related to my post of yesterday, is how the federal government could designate the most corrupt state possible to be the lead on the high speed locomotive and car procurement. But at least the Rochelle factory gets some more jobs.

And you certainly don't want to hear about what I call Beavers. This still is a family board.

[qwantae]

For what I've seen in the past months, I've seen more like 15-20 St. Louis 1500s Cars sitting on Rock Island Line Track at 51st with "Metra and series" written off. And I did seen few Newer 1200s in Electric Service (1230 as highest number) so is this mean that rest of the newer cars are coming in progress now for replacement the entire 1500s at this moment?

[Busjack]

For what I've seen in the past months, I've seen more like 15-20 St. Louis 1500s Cars sitting on Rock Island Line Track at 51st with "Metra and series" written off. And I did seen few Newer 1200s in Electric Service (1230 as highest number) so is this mean that rest of the newer cars are coming in progress now for replacement the entire 1500s at this moment?

They said 160 new cars, which would be more than enough. There were 160 steel cars (plus or minus), but add to that the 26 1200s received in the mid 2000s.

And between the article saying that 4 were already there in Nov. and the number you saw on the storage track, one would think that the number of new ones must be higher than 4 now.

[chgofan78]

I was on that line about 3 weeks back and they were already into the deliveries of the 1240s.

[trainman8119]

We are up to 1248 as of last Thursday. Nothing else so far this week.

[chgofan78]

1249 and 1250 are in the 123rd Street yard today.