Metra Bilevel Assignment And Maintenance Changes

7838 and 7840 were coupled behind the locomotive on a train deadheading into the yard this morning. When's the last time you saw two Pullmans coupled together?

Illinifan wrote:I saw at least four Pullmans in service during my time down at OTC today. Car 7787 was on train 351 (North Line, eight cars) and car 7811 was on train 647 (Northwest Line, eleven cars) while a third one was on train 347 (I didn't catch the number). The fourth one was on a train being shoved into the depot by a switch engine.

Old Pullman warhorse 7787, along with the rest of the consist on the aforementioned 351 from last week, has now wandered over to UP/W as part of its usual rotation, restoring one of the eight car sets. Some rush hour trains are still a car short here and there, but everything should be back to normal by the end of the week, I hope...

F40CFan wrote:7838 and 7840 were coupled behind the locomotive on a train deadheading into the yard this morning. When's the last time you saw two Pullmans coupled together?

This train is the 4:57pm UP-NW #635 to Crystal lake and the following day #614 (06.19 from Crystal Lake). It has been like it for a number of weeks.

For some reason, #8471, #8472 and #7425 are on the RI

metra104 wrote:For some reason, #8471, #8472 and #7425 are on the RI

Ah, so that's where 8472 went. It had been making the rounds on UP for months...

metra104 wrote:For some reason, #8471, #8472 and #7425 are on the RI

I remember seeing the 8471 in Blue Island a couple of weeks ago. It has since gone back to the UP (as of 4/29). I spotted it on the front of a nine car consist deadheading into OTC.

Cars 6141 and 6164 have migrated over from the UP to the Milwaukee District. The 6141 was on train North line train 2143 and the 6164 was on train 2141.

For some reason, #8471, #8472 and #7425 are on the RI

8472 is back on the UP now, I rode it on the Northwest line today.

Former refreshment 7304 has moved to UP from MILW/NCS. I saw it on a seven car train in Highland Park today. 8244 is also at UP. I saw it in Waukegan last week.

Former refreshment 7304 has moved to UP from MILW/NCS. I saw it on a seven car train in Highland Park today. 8244 is also at UP. I saw it in Waukegan last week.

Conversely, a handful of 6000/6100-series coaches have come over to the Milwaukee side. I suspect this is in preparation for system-wide quiet cars beginning June 6th. I will try to keep track and update with specific car numbers as I see them.

I had 6143 on my MDW train 2254/2255 this evening - this set turns as 2200/2201/2222 in the AM.

AMTKHawkeye wrote:

Former refreshment 7304 has moved to UP from MILW/NCS. I saw it on a seven car train in Highland Park today. 8244 is also at UP. I saw it in Waukegan last week.

Conversely, a handful of 6000/6100-series coaches have come over to the Milwaukee side. I suspect this is in preparation for system-wide quiet cars beginning June 6th. I will try to keep track and update with specific car numbers as I see them.

The 6183 was at Union Station last weekend as part of a six car Milwaukee District West Line Train. I rode on cars 6096 and 6164 on the Milwaukee District North Line this past week. Additionally, RTA built cars 8239 and either the 7287 or 7297 were on the UP Northwest Line train 647 (5:33pm departure).

Anyone know what schedule ( time table runs) the new BIlevels for the MED are running on weekdays. Im going to be coming into the city pretty soon and was planing on going to the museum of science and industry was going to ride the MED there if I can get one of the new Nippon cars on my schedule .

For the university park line.

The new stainless bi-levels are run only on rush hour trains. I never see them on off-peak trains or on the weekends. You would think that Metra would want to run the newer cars more often and let the 40-year-old Highliners get some rest, but I guess they don't want to pay anybody to clean the toliets on weekends.

Metra pays people to clean their toilets?! Well color me surprised!