Metra Makes Change to BNSF Railway

As a corporate logo it looks fine, but it is NOT a railroad logo.

A few questions......

Who owns the cars with the BNSF logo? Metra, BNSF, RTA, or WSMTD? What is the point in having the logo's? Why are there no UP logo's on cars assigned to UP?

If I'm not mistaken, the cars with the BNSF logos are owned by the West Suburban Mass Transit District. I don't know why the logos are there. Seems to simply be a throwback to Burlington Northern days when all the cars had BN logos (which made sense, as the service was operated by BN).

Why aren't there Union Pacific logos on UP-assigned cars? Probably for the same reason there aren't Milwaukee Road logos on Milwaukee District-assigned cars and Rock Island logos on Rock-assigned cars. The Burlington cars are the exception to the rule -- on all the other lines, the predecessor railroads' names and logos disappeared from rolling stock in the late '70s and '80s when the RTA repainted or relettered older equipment and brought in new equipment.

I agree with Mike, but I'm still puzzled why BNSF or Metra continues to put BNSF logos on Metra cars. Do these cars only operate on BNSF then? I seem to see them only on BNSF or in the BNSF yard south of CUS. Other cars such as 8400 and 8500 are seen all over. I'm just happy nobody as NICTD has decided to only put NICTD on CSS MU's. THat would be a crime.

Yes, the only cars with BNSF logos are the 700 and 800 series ex-CB&Q/BN cars, which only operate on the BNSF line.

A few of the 7100 series cars which are primarily on BNSF have been seen on SWS. Some of which have had the old BNSF logos removed and some have the new BNSF logo. Also in recent weeks, there have been two BNSF trainsets sitting at 179th St. over the weekend.

MikeF wrote:If I'm not mistaken, the cars with the BNSF logos are owned by the West Suburban Mass Transit District.

I was under the impression that the cars were owned by CB&Q/BN/BNSF and leased to WSMTD. But I could be wrong.

That's what I thought. There's a little plaque on the side of the car.

Ooops, had it backward. Come to think of it, there's a similar plaque on the former Milwaukee Road coaches.

The former Rock Island coaches have similar signs, as do the electric highliners. Up until the pullmans were retired, there were still a few signs that said "C&NW Owner" next to the doors.