Railroad Forums 

Discussion related to commuter rail and rapid transit operations in the Chicago area including the South Shore Line, Metra Rail, and Chicago Transit Authority.

Moderators: metraRI, JamesT4

 #11336  by AMTK84
 
Thought I'd get a discussion going on the new control and coach cars from Sumitomo.

One thing I wonder:

Why don't they have the new 6000's on the MiLW Lines to match the 8500's and the 7400's to match the 8400's on UP?

 #11337  by MikeF
 
Just a guess, but I would suspect it's because the Milwaukee already has newer trailers, while the North Western has older trailers that are due for retirement. To place the 6000's on the Milwaukee and move the Milwaukee's 7400's to the North Western would be a lot of switching just for aesthetics.

 #11339  by AMTK84
 
Yeah,

But with the way Metra is about 211 I wouldn't be surprised.

Personally I hate the uncomfortable seets in the 7400's and want them off MILW tracks as soon as possable.

 #11348  by metraRI
 
The 7400's are not going to be taken off of MILW. The only thing that MILW is getting are new 8500 cab cars. Last week RI had 8511 and 8530.

 #11377  by BN7151
 
The 7400s are not my favorite cars either. If Budd was still in business I would ask Metra to go to them for replicas of the old CB&Q cars (with many major modifications), but I guess (is it Nippon Sharyo or Sumitomo?) can do a good job. After seeing a few 8500s, I wonder if there will be 7500s.
Last edited by BN7151 on Mon Apr 12, 2004 5:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 #11396  by MikeF
 
BN7151 wrote:After seeing a few 8500s, I wonder if there will be 7500s.
There are -- they're just numbered in the 6000 series.

 #11406  by AMTK84
 
Why didn't they number them as 7500's?

 #11461  by bones
 
1st- CNW needs about 200 trailers, and there are only 98 7400's so they won't go to the CNW.

2nd - They are replacing about 30 origanal CB&Q trailers on the B.N. Right now the B.N. has #7400 - 7423. It wouldn't surprise me if they send 7424 - 7453 to the B.N. off of the MILW, and then give the MILW 30 6000's.

3rd - The reason the trailers were numbered in the 6000's is because they're getting over 200. If they put them in the 7500's it would look like this:
7501 - 7710.
They can't use the 7600 series because that series was owned by the CNW St. Louis, and early Pullman cars. And the 7700 series is still occupied. Even though they 7600's have been gone for 8 years now, they can't use that series until they've been gone for about 10 years. it has to do with the way thier computers are set up. Even though they're gone, the computer thinks they're still there until they've been gone for 10 years.

Which explains why the MP36's are in the 400 series, and not the 300 series. Remember F7's #305, and #308. They've only been gone for about 4 years now. Otherwise the MP36's would be numbered #301-327.

 #11472  by metraRI
 
Out of the cars Metra currently has in service, what cars are in the best shape? (Excluding all ADA cars)

 #11550  by bones
 
Either the cars purchased by the RTA (trailers 7284-7381, control cars 8239-8275), or the Rock Island / Milwaukee Road trailers which have been recently rebuilt.

 #11641  by AMTK84
 
Thenwhy didn't the cabcars getthe 50XX numbering?

How many 8400'swere built and how many 8500's are going tobe built?

 #11644  by metraRI
 
The 8400's go from 8400-8478, the 8500's should go from 8501-8608.

How come Metra is starting everything with 01 instead of 00 like they did with the last order of cars?

 #11670  by bones
 
Don't know why they start with '01'. Alot of railroads have done it in the past.

Example with the CNW:

C628: 6701-6730
SD40-2: 6801-6953
SD45: 901-975
SD60: 8001-8055

 #11672  by metraRI
 
I know other railroads have started with 01, but Metra has usually started with 00 in the past. So I was just curious why this time was different.

 #11675  by bones
 
I'm quite sure that if I inquired about it, I wouldn't get a logical answer.
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