This Sahara Railway Is One of the Most Extreme in the World

CMNTMXR57

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Sep 12, 2008
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Elgin
Just shows you how bullshit Metra is with all the delays and broken trains. They want to blame the weather. Yet you got trains that work in the desert and in Canada blasting through 12ft of snow.

Metra's EMD locomotives date back to the late 1970's... Some of their cars are even older, especially on the UP lines. The Mauritania Railway took those EMD SD70's probably some time in 2011, as the order was placed in 2010. Get back to me in 2052 how those SD70's are doing.

Age, wear and tear play a pretty significant role too.

And then to top it all off, when Metra did get new locomotives (Motive Power MP36H's), they were a disaster and had no where near the longevity/durability of the aged EMD units. So Metra purchased a couple F40PH's from a museum, some old F40PH's from Amtrak's retired fleet IIRC, and even brought back a couple of even older F40C's (dating back to the early 70's), that the MP36H's replaced, just to maintain proper service levels while the MP36H's were sent back for repairs, software updates, or rebuilt (a few were in crashes if I also recall).

So much so was the MP36H experiment a disaster, as well as being much cheaper, that Metra has actually rehabbed (or in the process of rehabbing) those 40+ year old EMD locomotives.
 

PANDA

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Metra's EMD locomotives date back to the late 1970's... Some of their cars are even older, especially on the UP lines. The Mauritania Railway took those EMD SD70's probably some time in 2011, as the order was placed in 2010. Get back to me in 2052 how those SD70's are doing.

Age, wear and tear play a pretty significant role too.

And then to top it all off, when Metra did get new locomotives (Motive Power MP36H's), they were a disaster and had no where near the longevity/durability of the aged EMD units. So Metra purchased a couple F40PH's from a museum, some old F40PH's from Amtrak's retired fleet IIRC, and even brought back a couple of even older F40C's (dating back to the early 70's), that the MP36H's replaced...

So much so was the MP36H experiment a disaster, as well as being much cheaper, that Metra has actually rehabbed (or in the process of rehabbing) those 40+ year old locomotives.

Are you saying the locomotives they run are not junk :rofl:
 

CMNTMXR57

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Sep 12, 2008
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Elgin
Are you saying the locomotives they run are not junk :rofl:

The EMD F40PH isn't junk. It is the backbone of Metra, was the backbone of Amtrak (the two of them accounting for the majority of all EMD F40PH's purchases), that have been running the rails since the 1970's.

Some of these units have several million miles on them. Let's see how you're doing 40+ years old and several million miles on you.
 

CMNTMXR57

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Sep 12, 2008
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Metx EMD F40-PH2 #137 (my town);

This was taken in 1983, it would've been 5 years old at this point;
METX_137_RTA_TV8307S6222.jpg


Here it is in 2010. now 32 years old. One of the last pics taken before rehabbed;
DSC01474.JPG


And here in 2011 (now called an F40-PH3 due to the rebuild), fresh and rebuilt from the ground up by Progress Rail;
HPIM2873.JPG


Still going, this was August of last year (39 years old)... Still pulling;
P8142316.JPG


I saw it about a week ago, still pulling, coming through West Chicago as it crossed "the diamond" in town.
 

nytebyte

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Mar 2, 2004
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F40PH number 100, which I think is the very first one they bought, was pulling my train the other day, still in its original paint job.

The only thing about those old engines is that they're loud and inefficient.
However, I'm shocked at how rusted out and janky the P36's are already. I remember when they bought them and it doesn't seem that long ago. At least they have a APU for coach power, which Metra is finally using after decades of not using them for some reason. They are much quieter and cleaner when they are using them.
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
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Elgin
Do you ride Metra daily?

Why are these trains delayed every other day due to mechanical issues?

Edit: I am on the UP-NW Line (Chicago to Harvard)

I used to ride the UPW line from West Chicago into NW, err, Ogilvie every day/

F40PH number 100, which I think is the very first one they bought, was pulling my train the other day, still in its original paint job.

The only thing about those old engines is that they're loud and inefficient.
However, I'm shocked at how rusted out and janky the P36's are already. I remember when they bought them and it doesn't seem that long ago. At least they have a APU for coach power, which Metra is finally using after decades of not using them for some reason. They are much quieter and cleaner when they are using them.

#100 has been painted into a replica scheme of the original RTA theme like I posted a pic of above to celebrate the 40 years. Replace the "Metra" with "Regional Transportation Authority" (in the proper font too), and darken up the orange line to be a little more red and then match the front hazard scheme where the line perfectly lines and they have it.

Yea, the MP36's have not aged well at all.
 

Pressure Ratio

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Metra's EMD locomotives date back to the late 1970's... Some of their cars are even older, especially on the UP lines. The Mauritania Railway took those EMD SD70's probably some time in 2011, as the order was placed in 2010. Get back to me in 2052 how those SD70's are doing.

Age, wear and tear play a pretty significant role too.

And then to top it all off, when Metra did get new locomotives (Motive Power MP36H's), they were a disaster and had no where near the longevity/durability of the aged EMD units. So Metra purchased a couple F40PH's from a museum, some old F40PH's from Amtrak's retired fleet IIRC, and even brought back a couple of even older F40C's (dating back to the early 70's), that the MP36H's replaced, just to maintain proper service levels while the MP36H's were sent back for repairs, software updates, or rebuilt (a few were in crashes if I also recall).

So much so was the MP36H experiment a disaster, as well as being much cheaper, that Metra has actually rehabbed (or in the process of rehabbing) those 40+ year old EMD locomotives.

So like most stuff today, you can say "They don't build them like they used to" ?
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
26,148
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Elgin
My great grandfather was an engineer on the Chicago & Northwestern, hence why they lived in West Chicago because of the towns' train heritage and at the time a large cross-over/switching point for trains/crews, which allowed him quick access to his cross-continental job.

And it sorta just flowed down hill from there. I think I posted my HO scale trains here before.

I was telling the kids, the thing I miss living here in Elgin, is the background noise of the trains running through WeGo all day/night. The sound of the diesels and them slamming across "the diamond" both on the UP and now CN (formerly EJ&E). At night on a nice night, leaving the windows open and listening too. You get good at knowing what is coming through and on what tracks, heck, even if it's EMD locomotives vs. GE. :D Before Metra extended the UPW line out to Elburn, WeGo was the Metra yard (one of many around the area), where they'd bring them back after rush-hour services and they'd have them on sidings idling away all evening until being moved. It was cool just to be able to go right up to them and check them out.

I got to tour the LaGrange EMD plant (when GM still owned them), and watched them step by step building the engines. Then later when I worked for GE, I got to go out to Erie, PA to see the plant where they build them.
 

CMNTMXR57

GM, Holden & Chrysler Mini-Van nut swinger
Sep 12, 2008
26,148
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Elgin
Back when I had my power washing company, we got a job cleaning a dead guy off a locomotive. Paid a lot and there wasn't much of him to clean. :bigthumb:

One of my friends was a former Lombard EMT and the stories he would tell. If you're familiar with Lombard, other than a few downtown crossings and St. Charles ave, it's got a nice long stretch where freight trains can run at moderate speed unimpeded. It also made a great place for suicides. People just standing/sitting on the tracks. Not much a 2 mile long freight train is gonna do to stop. :D It's akin to a bug hitting your windshield at 80mph.
 
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