Burlington Northern E-Units in Chicago Commuter Service

[Anonymous]

I have a Pentrex Preview tape volume 3 ( showing what movies are avalible to buy) and they show that they have a video about the Burlington Northern E-Units in Chicago doing commuter service. My movie was made in 1991 and probably now the BN dosnt run this op because of BNSF. Anyway, what im asking is...do you have any more info on this operation? It looked like something interesting to model, though i have never seen any E unit BN schemes (except for F7A). I cant tell in the video what cars they are pulling but they are double deckers and they look like the same cars that Kato just came out with for HO, the CN&W and Amtrak. These cars that BN pulls are NOT superliners. I know that much. Thanks alot, Ben

[Anonymous]

Up until the early 90s BN was using the E-units on commuter service. They replaced them because of increasing upkeep costs.

I believe they had F40 PH for a while, then something newer, now even NEWER stuff. I don't know which. I used to love the old E-units.

After the e-units were taken out of service, they were all lined up in the commuter yard just outside of Union Station - for maybe a year or so. I guess they were looking for a buyer.

The BN E-units ran commuter service between Chicago Union Station and Aurora. I think different lines around Chicago ran differently painted equipment (I seem to remember a different line ran C&NW equipment.

The trains run engine out (engine pointing away from downtown). They run this way so that when the trains pull into Union Station, the engines (with all the noise and smoke) are farthest away from the doors going into the station, and away from all the commuters.

The trains usually run 5-8 double-decker cars, I believe. The ones on the C&NW line are smooth side. The ones on the BNSF line are (and have been) fluted-side stainless steel cars.

The line between Chicago and Aurora is triple track. Trains run on the right hand side. Express trains run on the middle track, or the middle track is used for freight.

Rush-hour is the heaviest use time. I used to ride the train every day between Aurora and Chicago. Some of the stations are REALLY crowded in the morning.

Some trains are locals, some are express. Locals stop at every station stop, express stop at 2 or 3 stops, then express the rest of the way.

You can see the route at metrarail.com

The trains are commuter trains, so there is minimal space for luggage. When they stop, they usually are stopped at a station for a minute or less. As soon as the last person is in or out, they go.

During non-peak times, they will only have passengers in some of the cars, so the conductors don't have to walk the entire length of the train. In the "closed" cars, the lights are off.

On "special event" nights (i.e. - 4th of July fireworks or Taste of Chicago) during EXTREMELY high ridership, the schedule goes out the window, and trains are "fill and go". As soon as they are full, they head out, and make every station stop.

Train lengths are limited to something like 7 or 9 cars because of the length of the commuter platforms.

On rare occasions, trains on the middle track will have to make a station stop. There are pedestrian walkways that allow this - but only 1 or 2 at a station, so the train will pull up to these walkways and board and de-board passengers.

I'm pretty impressed with BNSF service. I'd say they are within 5 minutes of the schedule 90% of the time, and within 15 minutes 99% of the time.

Also, the engineers are pretty darn good at stopping at the exact same place from day to day. At some platforms, you can see small metal plates bolted to the ties that tell the conductor where the engine should stop depending on the number of cars they are pulling.

Funny thing - the engineers are good enough that people actually line up at the stations where the doors of the car usually end up. They have a name for this "door bunches".

There are commuter train yards in Aurora and just south of Union Station in Chicago. Each day, IIRC, after rush-hours all trains have a brake check done. Trains are stored overnight at both yards so that in the morning, there are trains already in place for rush-hours.

That's what I can remember off the top of my head. If you have any questions, post them, and I'll answer if I can.

BTW, I live about 15 min from both the Aurora and Route 59 stations.

Rob

[Anonymous]

Found a link to some pics:

http://hometown.aol.com/metrafan/rosmetpb.html

[Anonymous]

The cars on the opposite end of the train from the loco are cab-cars - they have a little engineer's cab on the upper level.

BNSF has taken delivery of several new cars in the last several years - these new cars look almost identical on the outside, but they have wheelchair lifts and space inside for wheel chairs.

sorry for the multiple replies to my replies.... I keep finding more stuff.

Rob

[METRO]

The Metra has begun to buy a lot of new equipment lately. This is due to mainly two reasons.

First: Equipment gets old and needs to be replaced, plain and simple.

Second: Metra is planning a very ambitious expansion plan into South-Eastern Wisconsin. A second hub system is in planning for Milwaukee and Metra will need a great deal more equipment, which it is now buying, to make the jump from a metropolitan Chicago commuter system to a corridor-wide regional commuter system.

~METRO

[Anonymous]

I sort of re-call the E's on the old CNW that ran commuters from Geneva to downtown.
My stop was Glen Ellyn.

[Anonymous]

Wait a second, BNSF has a commuter service!?

[ndbprr]

Wait a second, BNSF has a commuter service!?

It did until Metra took it over. Many of the E units went to other railroads for executive power. IC has two and CN has one and they are all sharp looking units. There is also a hulk at the Woodcrest shops which I assume they are using for parts.
Metra is also expanding to the south. The Orland Park line that ends there now will be extended to new Lenox this year and Mahattan next year as the suburbs move further out. That will give those of us in New Lenox two choices. The old Rock Island line to Lasalle St. Station or the old Wabash route to Union Station. The stations will be about one mile apart and the Waba***rack croses the Rock Island on a bridge so there is no interchange or ground level crossing.

[Anonymous]

So let me get this strait, BNSF and a few other roads, HAD commuter service until...? Then metra took over and thats how it is today. WOW. So when was the timeframe of all this? Thanks for the great info!

[ndbprr]

Well the IC had commuter trains under catenary maybe back to the 20's or 30's. Later they handed it over to the RTA - Regional Transportatioin Authority. That was the forerunner of METRA. I would guess that occurred about 1978-1980. Every major road in nearly every major city had commutter service at one time.

[cspmo]

QUOTE: Originally posted by 4884bigboy

Wait a second, BNSF has a commuter service!?

NO BNSF did not have commuter service,but BN did. METRA took over commuter service by the time BNSF

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by bnsf97

So let me get this strait, BNSF and a few other roads, HAD commuter service until...? Then metra took over and thats how it is today. WOW. So when was the timeframe of all this? Thanks for the great info!

Since you're in Devore, you might be surprised to know that ATSF ran what amounted to commuter trains and pax locals between San Bernardino and LA back in the early part of the 20th century.

In Chicago (and this is admittedly an incomplete list and may be somewhat inaccurate), commute service was run by (at least) CNW, MILW, CB&Q, RI, Wabash (Orland Park "Cannon Ball"), NYC, PRR, IC, CSS&SB, CNS&M (North Shore Line directly into the Loop on the El tracks), C&WI, (I think) Erie and C&EI, and probably a few more that I'm forgetting. Much of this lasted until Metra took over, and Metra is currently expanding. When RI went under, they got and own those lines.

The original Metra rolling stock fleet (cars and locomotives) was inherited from the private railroads (CNW, MILW, BN, NW, RI and IC). The CSS&SB equipment, which crossed a state line, was inherited and replaced by a bi-state transportation authority (IL/IN) whose name escapes me at the moment. Amtrak took the Valpo Dummies from Union Station to Valparaiso IN, but cancelled them in the early 80's in one of their cutbacks.

The standard modern car type (CNW, BN, MILW, RI) is the two-level gallery car run in push-pull (as opposed to the bi-level you see in LA on Metrolink), which is much less ADA-friendly than the bi-level, requiring Metra to add lift-equipped cab cars. The ex-BN/CB&Q cars, along with some of the ex-RI cars, are SS. The ex-CNW , MILW, and some RI cars are carbon steel with smooth sides, similar to the ones SP ran in Peninsula commute service in SFO (to get it a little closer to your home), although the CHI cars came first.

The BN line ran with E units until Metra replaced them with F40 and similar units. The ex-RI line ran with just about anything that could be coaxed to run that day.

Hope this is useful.

Chicagoans, please correct and/or supplement as need be.[:D]