New State-Of-The-Art Railcars

[ajay]

I don't know if anyone made a topic on this or if this has been mentioned but Metra has approved a contract for 500 railcars from Alstom. Here the Instagram post for more information.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKABOiGliwt/?igshid=jn4tm57hs23r

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

16 minutes ago, ajay said:

I don't know if anyone made a topic on this or if this has been mentioned but Metra has approved a contract for 500 railcars from Alstom. Here the Instagram post for more information.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKABOiGliwt/?igshid=jn4tm57hs23r

Do u know the fleet numbers of em yet

[ajay]

19 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

Do u know the fleet numbers of em yet

No

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

1 hour ago, ajay said:

No

Oh it probably could be like a 7500 after the previous fleet ended at the 74's

[busfan2847]

59 minutes ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

Oh it probably could be like a 7500 after the previous fleet ended at the 74's

The last cars delivered were 6001-6194, the last cab cars 8501-8608

[BusHunter]

Are the liveries gonna match the locos?

[NewFlyerMCI]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

Are the liveries gonna match the locos?

Hopefully they look like the ones in the video. And I really hope they don't look anything like the refurbished, repainted ones with the painted black top, those deserve to be scrapped.

[NewFlyerMCI]

5 hours ago, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

Oh it probably could be like a 7500 after the previous fleet ended at the 74's

Interesting enough, with the exception of one set, Metra's coach cars have always started 7##(#) or 8##(#). I wonder why that is

[busfan2847]

21 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Interesting enough, with the exception of one set, Metra's coach cars have always started 7##(#) or 8##(#). I wonder why that is

Why not! 7000 series are for cars and 8000 for cab-cars. All of the early cab-cars 8200-8275 have been downgraded to coach only and the few C&NW painted ones have also been downgraded. In most cases the cabs are just locked up. On some cars they have been rebuilt without them.

7000-7099 were not used but I believe allocated to the ex-BNSF steel cars 700-787 and 816-820 (the locomotives were also not renumbered but 500-524 were allocated to 9900-8/10-25)

7100-7121 are the West suburban MTD ordered steel cars for the BNSF

7200-7283 are the ex-MILW (except 7242-56 ex-RI) steel cars. 7382 is a rebuilt RI Cab car which was 8222

7284-7381 are the 1978-80 steel cars

7400-7497 are the 1996-8 steel cars

7600-7613, 7650-7681 were C&NW painted cars,

7700-7866, 7880, 7900, 7901 were C&NW painted cars,

7867-7871, 7881-7885 were RI painted cars

8000-8025 were not used but I believe allocated to the ex-BNSF steel cab cars 790-815

8200-8238 are the ex-MILW (except 8220-4 ex-RI) steel cab cars. (matching 7200 series)

8239-8275 are the 1978-80 steel cab cars

8400-8478 are the 1995-7 steel cab cars (matching 7400)

8501-8608 are the 2002-5 steel cab cars

8700-8763 were the C&NW painted cab cars (matching 7700)

8764-8768 were RI painted cab cars.

There was not a gap of 194 in the 7000 series for cars when the 6001-6194 series arrived so a new series started. On this basis the new cars will probably start at 6201, the cab-cars I have no idea unless they go for 8801!

 

 

[BusHunter]

5 hours ago, busfan2847 said:

Why not! 7000 series are for cars and 8000 for cab-cars. All of the early cab-cars 8200-8275 have been downgraded to coach only and the few C&NW painted ones have also been downgraded. In most cases the cabs are just locked up. On some cars they have been rebuilt without them.

7000-7099 were not used but I believe allocated to the ex-BNSF steel cars 700-787 and 816-820 (the locomotives were also not renumbered but 500-524 were allocated to 9900-8/10-25)

7100-7121 are the West suburban MTD ordered steel cars for the BNSF

7200-7283 are the ex-MILW (except 7242-56 ex-RI) steel cars. 7382 is a rebuilt RI Cab car which was 8222

7284-7381 are the 1978-80 steel cars

7400-7497 are the 1996-8 steel cars

7600-7613, 7650-7681 were C&NW painted cars,

7700-7866, 7880, 7900, 7901 were C&NW painted cars,

7867-7871, 7881-7885 were RI painted cars

8000-8025 were not used but I believe allocated to the ex-BNSF steel cab cars 790-815

8200-8238 are the ex-MILW (except 8220-4 ex-RI) steel cab cars. (matching 7200 series)

8239-8275 are the 1978-80 steel cab cars

8400-8478 are the 1995-7 steel cab cars (matching 7400)

8501-8608 are the 2002-5 steel cab cars

8700-8763 were the C&NW painted cab cars (matching 7700)

8764-8768 were RI painted cab cars.

There was not a gap of 194 in the 7000 series for cars when the 6001-6194 series arrived so a new series started. On this basis the new cars will probably start at 6201, the cab-cars I have no idea unless they go for 8801!

 

 

Is it true some cars really date back to 1950!! Looks like the BNSF, CNW and Milwaukee road will all be in line for new cars. I'm trying to find the age of the Rock Island cars, but wikipedia doesn't really say.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metra#Coaches

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Is it true some cars really date back to 1950!! Looks like the BNSF, CNW and Milwaukee road will all be in line for new cars. I'm trying to find the age of the Rock Island cars, but wikipedia doesn't really say.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metra#Coaches

Wait, so there are cars still in revenue service that are ~70 years old?

[busfan2847]

Here is a listing of car build dates from my records. The oldest in service are BNSF cars delivered in 1953 from the 741-759 batch. The earliest bi-level cars were built for CB&Q in 1950 (700-729). The earliest CNW painted bi-level cars were from 1955 (CNW 1-16 became Metra 7600-7606, 7900/1, 7607-7613). non of these batches remain with Metra.

Only 292 of 674 cars are less than 50 years old. All 187 operating cab cars are from 1994-2005 giving a total of 861 cars

741-759 (1953-7), 760-787 (1965), 796-814 (1973), 816-20 (1973) - BNSF steel cars (796-814 were cab cars, deactivated)

6001-6194 (2002-5) - Metra steel cars

7100-7121 (1978) - Metra steel cars (ordered by West Suburban MTD for BN)

7200-7231 (1961), 7232-7241 (1964), 7257-7283 (1974) - Milwaukee steel cars #300-368

7242-7256 (1965), 7382 (1964) - RI steel cars #140-154, 112 r/n 8222 rebuilt as car

7284-7381 (1978-80) - Metra steel cars

7400-7497 (1996-8) - Metra steel cars

7650-7681 (1956) - CNW painted car #17-48 - all sold; 7653/7-9, 7661/3/4, 7675 reacquired

7700-7801 (1960/1) - CNW painted cars #49-150 - all sold; 7787-9, 7791/4/5/8. 7801 reacquired

7802-7811 (1963) - CNW painted cars #201-210 - all sold; 7804/6, 7810/1 reacquired

7812-7837 (1965-7) - CNW painted cars #211-24/6-237 - all sold 7816, 7822/5, 7836 reacquired

7838-7866 (1970) - CNW Painted cars #301-329 - all sold; 7838, 7840/3/7/8, 7862/4 reacquired

7867-7871 (1970) - RI painted cars #155-159 - all sold; 7867-9, 7871 reacquired

7881-7885 (1969-70) - RI painted cars #115-9 (former cab cars 8764-8 r/b 1980s) - all sold, 7881-3/5 reacquired

8200-8207 (1961), 8208-8219 (1964), 8225-8238 (1974) - Milwaukee steel cab cars #380-413, cabs de-activated

8220-8224 (1964) - Rock Island steel cab cars #110-114 (112/8222 r/b as 7382), cabs de-activated

8239-8275 (1978-80) - Metra steel cab car, cabs de-activated

8400-8478 (1994-7) - Metra steel cab cars

8501-8608 (2002-5) - Metra steel cab cars

8700-8749 (1959-60) - CNW painted cab cars #151-200, cabs deactivated - all sold, 8701, 8718, 8730/1/8/9, 8740/2/3/9 reacquired

 

 

[artthouwill]

On 1/13/2021 at 4:06 PM, ajay said:

I don't know if anyone made a topic on this or if this has been mentioned but Metra has approved a contract for 500 railcars from Alstom. Here the Instagram post for more information.

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CKABOiGliwt/?igshid=jn4tm57hs23r

 

On 1/13/2021 at 4:23 PM, Erin Mishkin Jr. said:

Do u know the fleet numbers of em yet

I don't know, but 6200s would make perfect sense.  Also, 2000s, 3000s, 4000s,5000s, or 9000s would work also.  I gmhope they don't switch to Pace:'so new numbering system.

[Pace831]

Deleted my previous comment because I was wrong about the heritage of the oldest cars. (I remembered 1953 from the RTAMS report, but their website update seems to have removed that data. I'll start a new topic about that.)

3 hours ago, busfan2847 said:

8700-8749 (1959-60) - CNW painted cab cars #151-200, cabs deactivated - all sold, 8701, 8718, 8730/1/8/9, 8740/2/3/9 reacquired

In the MTDX thread it was found that some of these may not have been reacquired. Do you have more recent information?

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I don't know, but 6200s would make perfect sense.  Also, 2000s, 3000s, 4000s,5000s, or 9000s would work also.  I gmhope they don't switch to Pace:'so new numbering system.

I was about to say they'd have to renumber some MoW cars for each of those, but perhaps not. There are flatcars with the same numbers as passenger cars in the 6000 series (example: 6014)

[Eric95]

2 hours ago, Pace831 said:

In the MTDX thread it was found that some of these may not have been reacquired. Do you have more recent information?

I can confirm through my own observation as well as official documentation I received from Metra through a FOIA request (within the last few months) that only 8718, 8738, 8743, and 8749 have been reacquired of the ex-CNW cab cars.  The others (8701 and a few in the 8730-40s were mentioned) were only anecdotally reported (several years ago at that) and never verified.  I'll concede it's possible they were bought for parts or something of that nature; if so, they've done a darn good job of keeping them out of sight.

[Sam92]

On 1/14/2021 at 6:19 PM, NewFlyerMCI said:

Interesting enough, with the exception of one set, Metra's coach cars have always started 7##(#) or 8##(#). I wonder why that is

Metra so far in replacements the same number slot is always open. If the 1000’s were to get all replaced at once it woulda possibly be with another 1000 series since that’s the only thing left with enough free numbers. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 hours ago, Sam92 said:

Metra so far in replacements the same number slot is always open. If the 1000’s were to get all replaced at once it woulda possibly be with another 1000 series since that’s the only thing left with enough free numbers. 

1000s? The buses? CTA has options there, they could do 2000-3029 or 5000-6029 or 8500-9629, etc. It is interesting to me that Metra chooses to replace the numbers instead of using new ones

[MetroShadow]

The darn things aren't built (and four years out) and we're speculating over car #'s....

[Sam92]

12 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

1000s? The buses? CTA has options there, they could do 2000-3029 or 5000-6029 or 8500-9629, etc. It is interesting to me that Metra chooses to replace the numbers instead of using new ones

2000-3029 and 5000-6029 wouldn’t be options due to the numbers being used for rail cars

[NewFlyerMCI]

18 minutes ago, Sam92 said:

2000-3029 and 5000-6029 wouldn’t be options due to the numbers being used for rail cars

Ohh, didn't realize they wanted to avoid overlap that much ?

[busfan2847]

22 hours ago, Pace831 said:

 

In the MTDX thread it was found that some of these may not have been reacquired. Do you have more recent information?

 

No, I was going by what had been posted before. The only four I have seen in service are the four Eric95 mentioned.

[Pace831]

4 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Ohh, didn't realize they wanted to avoid overlap that much ?

The fleet number is an “asset inventory number” that should be unique to any equipment owned by CTA, not just the type of asset. CTA has never had buses and rail cars with the same numbers at the same time. CTA and Pace vehicles have a small metal tag inside to mark its “official” asset number. As I recall, it is usually on the partition behind the driver’s seat on buses, and near the doors on rail cars.

Metra seems to do things differently, as I noted above that 6000-series passenger cars have the same fleet numbers as MoW flatcars. The displayed number is not necessarily the asset number, which was also the case for some locomotives acquired from predecessor roads.

[NewFlyerMCI]

Looks like VRE is also getting the same railcars (looks like they even just reskinned the metra video lol). Caltrain, Metra & VRE were the only users of the Nippon Sharyo low-levels in the US and since Caltrain seems to be transitioning to the Stadler MUs, that leaves just VRE & Metra. Off dome, I know SEPTA & NJTransit are getting more Bombardier MultiLevels in MU format, and MTA is going to do their own things, but it'll be interesting to see if anyone else taps the Coradia to replace their fleets, almost everyone is running around with Bombardier BiLevels. I imagine they're probably going to wait and see how Metra's will turn out.

I will also say once again, having now seen both Metra's & VRE's mock-ups, the livery is just going to look terrible on stainless steel or whatever that material is. Metrolink's also looks terrible and NJTransit & MARC just barely made it not look bad. Especially considereding some of Metra's recent choices for passenger car livery (that awful gallery car with the black and blue) they just really just stick the logo on it and call it a day.

[artthouwill]

21 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Looks like VRE is also getting the same railcars (looks like they even just reskinned the metra video lol). Caltrain, Metra & VRE were the only users of the Nippon Sharyo low-levels in the US and since Caltrain seems to be transitioning to the Stadler MUs, that leaves just VRE & Metra. Off dome, I know SEPTA & NJTransit are getting more Bombardier MultiLevels in MU format, and MTA is going to do their own things, but it'll be interesting to see if anyone else taps the Coradia to replace their fleets, almost everyone is running around with Bombardier BiLevels. I imagine they're probably going to wait and see how Metra's will turn out.

I will also say once again, having now seen both Metra's & VRE's mock-ups, the livery is just going to look terrible on stainless steel or whatever that material is. Metrolink's also looks terrible and NJTransit & MARC just barely made it not look bad. Especially considereding some of Metra's recent choices for passenger car livery (that awful gallery car with the black and blue) they just really just stick the logo on it and call it a day.

I watched both videos.  It's the exact same script, except replacing VRE  with Metra.  Ugly livery aside, I can't wait to ride them in Metra service 

 

I guess this means Nippon Sharyo is about done in the U.S.   They have closed the Rochelle plant a fee years ago 

  The design is totally outdated as the design is a minimum of 70 years old.  Somehow I think Metra will try to make the interior as bland as possible. 

[strictures]

12 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I watched both videos.  It's the exact same script, except replacing VRE  with Metra.  Ugly livery aside, I can't wait to ride them in Metra service 

 

I guess this means Nippon Shapiro is about done in the U.S.   They have closed the Rochelle plant a fee years ago 

  The design is totally outdated as the design is a minimum of 70 years old.  Somehow I think Metra will try to make the interior as bland as possible. 

"Nippon Shapiro"???

It's Nippon Sharyo.