New Cars

8577 was on a Blue Island train that I passed today, it also looks like 3 8500's were sitting in 47th Street Yard. RI has not added cars to trains, RI still has four 9 car trains, four 8 car trains, two 7 car trains, and three 6 car trains. As an 8500 goes into service on RI, an 8200 or 7300 is taken off and most likely taken to BNSF, UP, or MILW.

8580 was on a milw noth line train last night

I'm told that the BN will be next for new cars. So 8580 shouldn't be here long.

metraRI wrote:As an 8500 goes into service on RI, an 8200 or 7300 is taken off and most likely taken to BNSF, UP, or MILW.

I'm starting to see a lot more 7300s on BNSF trainsets. The highest I've seen is 7369.

Metra613, you sure you didn't see the 8508? An equipment line-up from Friday morning indicates no 8580, but 8508 is running with 8521 behind it. But the idea of us giving our 8500's to BN is cool, though.

MP36 416 wrote:But the idea of us giving our 8500's to BN is cool, though.

So far, no 8500s have been spotted on BNSF. I wonder if 8580 will be the first of the series to be sent to BNSF or if 8575 and higher will be sent from RI. With 791, 792, 796, and 806 gone, and possibly 799 could be heading to the dead line, BNSF will need the new control cars.

8578 is in service on RI. I don't think Metra would send 8500's to RI then from RI to BNSF like the MP36's did. It might be possible that BNSF has gotten 8400's from MILW.

Wow,

791 was a spectacular car. My first and only recording of it was in February 04. The highlight, is that it had a very rair high-pitched bell. Those cars will be missed.

8580 and 8581 are on the milwaukee district I saw both of them last week

It seems that 8500's are now going to UP instead of BNSF. There has also been reports of UP 8400's on BNSF. Has anyone seen an 8500 running on UP? I hope if BNSF is getting 8400's instead of 8500's that they will not ruin the K5 by taking chimes off. I wonder if that means SWS will not get 8500's for its additional trains later this year.

metraRI wrote:It seems that 8500's are now going to UP instead of BNSF. There has also been reports of UP 8400's on BNSF. Has anyone seen an 8500 running on UP? I hope if BNSF is getting 8400's instead of 8500's that they will not ruin the K5 by taking chimes off. I wonder if that means SWS will not get 8500's for its additional trains later this year.

As of last Friday, 8450 and 8458 were at the 14th St. facility. Both units were not there that morning, but they were under the Roosevelt Rd. overpass in the afternoon. I cannot confirm for sure, but it appeared that 8447 was positioned mid-train on an 11-car consist as of last Thursday.

I'd assume BNSF needs 25 cab control cars to replace 790-815. One scenario that would seem most likely would be to assign 8462-8478 to HC and SWS and then give 8583-8608 to BNSF.

8581 was at the rear of an 8-car UPP West Line train pulled by 138.

As far as the assignments go, I was informed by a UP West engineer that UP is in fact getting 8500's; and we are giving up our 8400's to BNSF. I'd say its roughly 8435 and up for BNSF, although given that 8581 was at the back of that 8-car set I wonder what happened to the METX8400, which was on there just a week ago.

I was on the BNSF today and I rode in 811 very dumpy but I DON'T WANT an 8500 or 8400. I wish these cars could stay hard seeing things go from when you were a kid and use to ride in.

Send all the 8500s to the Milwaukee West line. They are the most comfortable cars Metra owns. The picture windows are also a plus.

8583 was reported to be on UP. Hopefully this week I'll get a good look at 14th St. and see if any additional 8400s from UP make their way south.