Metra Bilevel Assignment And Maintenance Changes

Another BNSF set was sitting in 179th Street yard this weekend, this time it was the 7 car set...which was the only "normal" SWS set last weekend.

6184 was on a BN Run Yesterday are there anymore of the 61xx to come?

The rest of the 6100's should be here by the end of the month. I believe 6192 is the last on the list...It's my best guess that the rest will go to BNSF.

What 8400 or 8500's are currently on SWS/HC?

I ask this because there's still a handful of 8400's on BNSF. Last night, I saw 8471 leading (nice sounding K3 too), 8472 in front of 8590, and 8476 in front of 8600.

8473 leading 8475, 8474, and another 8400 are sitting in 179th Street yard. SWS has not had an 8500 in a while. There are probably a few extra cab cars around BNSF/SWS/HC until Metra starts to put together SWS's new sets, which shouldn't be too far away.

8467 was on the rear of a 7-car MILW trainset tonight. Its interesting to note that this car still has ladders intact, plow painted silver, and has two bells removed from its K5. Additionally, a few of the 8400's that are assigned to HC/SWS now have silver plows.

BNSF switched up some equipment for SWS tonight, as SWS's 9 car train ran with a 9 car BNSF set. It also seems that BNSF likes to keep 8500's off SWS, even with numerious BNSF trains having 8500's trailing. There has been an 8500 assigned to SWS for the past week or so, back to a 8400 today.

8592 was the control car that was on the SWS set. 8473 is the car that replaced 8592. I wonder where SWS's 9-car set went, as BNSF has only one 9-car set now and afternoon train #1269 has the 9-car set, which is a BNSF set.

I can't say for sure, but i think BNSF used an 8-car SWS set for one of its trains tonight. don't know what power it had. So, a BNSF set might be laying over at 179th this weekend.

There was indeed a BNSF set on SWS. The 8 car train was laying over in Manhattan rather than 179th. I don't know why BNSF switches the equipment, but it doesn't look like it is a last minute thing...as BNSF sets used on SWS always have SWS power.

More and more 700's have been turning up on SWS. On the two sets I saw today, 8 out of 15 cars were 700/800's.

That's strange... I would think that Metra would want to run more of the newer equipment on this route, given the recent service expansion and such...

I would have thought the same thing. On the expanded service's first day of service, train #829 was an 8 car train with three 6100's and an 8500 leading, this was the train that 162 lead for its day on SWS. Over the next few weeks, the train was shortened to 7 cars (lost one 6100), then lost the 8500 for an 8400...and finally the last two 6100's were replaced with another 8400 and a 7400.

If Metra had more control of what was assigned to SWS, I would imagine newer equipment would be used. I wouldn't be suprised if the last 2 remaining 6100's on SWS get traded for 7400's.

Replacing the 6100s with 7400s plus 8400 cabs on SWS isn't necessarily a bad thing, at least we're still talking about modern equipment. However, the 700/800 Burlington era cars currently there are definitely NOT modern, yet there was a time not so long ago that Metra wouldn't have dreamed of placing older equipment on any of its new, or expanded routes. Part of the reason why some F40PHM-2's are still roaming on the Milw/NCS lines is because Metra wanted to showcase its newest power (at the time) and coaches when the NCS service began 10 years ago, and as a result, many of those trains ran with 7400 coaches and 8400 cabs in the beginning. Now for some reason, SWS doesn't rate newer equipment at all times, even though it received the largest service upgrade. A change in operating philosophy, perhaps?

I do see what you mean by the 700's not being modern, but considering that there has to be at least one 7400/6100 and one 8400/8500 on each train...using the oldest of the two isn't what I would have thought to see one the new sets Metra added to SWS.

I don't know how much control Metra has over what shows up on SWS, since trains layover at 14th street. It seems to me that whatever BNSF doesn't want to use, they throw on SWS.