Metra F40PH Rebuild Program

Atleast it doesnt have an ebell.

Well I haven't run this thing yet, but it looks so far like a major let down. They could have made some monumental changes but did not.

Ist - Why aren't they painting these like the 400's? Blue and orange together are disgusting. If you mix these two
colors together it would be about the same shade as puke.
2nd - Why are they sticking with these junk P5's that don't last. within a year this will sound like 184, which is one
reason I am for quiet zones. Why didn't they move the horn to the middle of the unit, away from the cab?
3rd - Why didn't they go with Q fans? We're stuck with the original noisy obnoxiuos fans.
4th - I hoped they would get a real airconditioner. These Walmart airconditioners don't condition anything.
5th - I noticed there is still a camera behind the fireman's door for the monitor. Bombshell - NOBODY USES THEM!
6th - Does anybody know what kind of control stand it has? I have a bad feeling they went with a desktop. It's funny
how most of the class 1 railroads are getting away from desktops. Why? THEY ARE UNCOMFORTABLE!
7th - Did I mention the same ol' putred paint scheme? Oh yeah I did. The original RTA scheme was better then Blue
and orange.

I know alot of you folks out there are excited to see this thing run. All I see is a rebuilt F40 with a paint scheme that looks like a bad LSD trip. Maybee it's just me but I don't see what all of the excitement is all about.

it still has a standard control stand.

Why u hatin on the P5?

EDIT: Youtube is my friend METRA 184s horn is horrible! The east coast locos with these horns sound better!

You know Bones, 5 of your 7 complaints can be easily solved by just ordering more 400's rather than rebuilding the 100's...so be careful what you wish for

I don't know, I still like the orange and blue. And as far as horns it seems like there is an invisible line between the UP-W and the BN, from the BN on south all the horns are apparently garbage. The P5's that I've heard up north sound good. As long as it didn't come back with a K3LA I'm happy.

Anyways, railfan mumbojumbo aside, any word on how it loads since it received its computer? Does it now load like a tortise? Sounds like it also retained its 26L air?

Hi everyone, I don't login too often but let me offer my two cents on the paint scheme. As a die-hard Metra railfan all these years who once knew Chris Knapton, it has impressed upon me that the agency traditionally runs budgets pretty tight. Those of you who work on the inside these days might beg to differ and I can appreciate that. However, given their publically known current budget issues, it's only logical to assume they're going to want to simplify things as much as possible and keeping their vintage paint scheme would be the logical first step.
As flashy as the MP paintjob is, the design appears to be very complex and expensive in comparison, especially the morphing two-tone blue/silver. As the agency does almost all of its midterm overhauls inhouse I can't imagine that they want to spend extra time and money where they don't have to, repainting units in such a complex scheme. They could subcontract that out but once again I'm not sure that will save any money there. Not only with the F40s but given the current trend I can only conclude that when the 400's are up for their turn in the shops that Metra's brass will likely also be questioning continuing with their "racing scheme"on those units. I had also hoped for the new scheme on the F40's because like many of you it would've given me something new to snap shots of when I'm home visiting.

Exactly. If they wanted to replicate that paint job locally, I think the closest shop that could do it is owned by the WSOR in Janesville. And if you send it up there to get it done, you're talking twice as much downtime for the unit and it'll probably cost twice as much too.

metraupwest I get what you're saying. What I'm saying is that they need to decide on one paint scheme. Either paint everything like the 400's or paint everything in two colors that don't go together, including switchers. Actually if they painted the F40's solid blue like the switchers, they would look a heck of alot better. Conrail got waway with it. When you have several different color schemes out there, it looks like you have a confused management. I'm not saying that management is confused, but it looks that way. Look at how mant schemes it took CSX to make up thier minds. Then recently they went with the "dark future" scheme. Look at BNSF. First they had the orange and green, dark green and creme for th AC's, then the warbonnet for the superfleet. Even though they now settled on one scheme have you noticed that all of the safety cab units have silver trucks, and the SD40 / GP38 type units have green trucks? Why?

Attn decision makers: Pick out on scheme that fits all.

byte wrote:If they wanted to replicate that paint job locally, I think the closest shop that could do it is owned by the WSOR in Janesville.

For the record, the Wisconsin & Southern paint shop is in Horicon, Wis., not Janesville.

As for the paint scheme, I'm glad to see they stuck with the simple blue and orange. Bad LSD trip? I think the awful scheme on the 400's better fits that description.

I thinke the scheme on the 400's is more like a good LSD trip.

102 ran in testing today on the UP North Line to Kenosha. It is going to be moved back to Western Avenue tonight and it is very possible that it may run on Milwaukee West Line train 2237 (the double header) tomorrow night, according to my sources.

As far as the P5A's go...they can last a long time if they are properlyl maintained. We'll see how they did cleaning up 102's horn but I would think that they did a complete rebuild of the horn. As far as putting the horn further back on the unit, remember what happened to Amtrak's horns when they tried that?

Oh, one last thing about the fans: if I want to hear a lawnmower ensemble, I have several neighborhood lawn services to choose from. I wouldn't have minded seeing it come back with the newest type of Q fans, as found on engines 137, 139, 164, 185, and 198.

102 was in the lead of 2237 tonight, MD-W's usual double header... who knows how long it will stay over on MD. 100 should not be too far behind at this point.

103 will be the next unit out for rebuild. 102 is also rumored to be moving to the BNSF/SWS pool.

Thanks MetraRI, your info may be better than mine, and I work for Metra. I wish they would send 106 next. That is the worst unit we have out there.

103 made its way onto CSX yesterday. 100 is also waiting to leave Progress, so its quite possible it could be here as early as this week. 111 is said to be awaiting paint...