frj1983
OBS Chief
I counted my lucky stars last night, as I managed to get to Chicago Union Station from my job near the Watertower in a record 9 minutes. I stepped on the 4:28 express to Aurora (an early train for me) and thought "oh cool, I'll get home early tonight." Half-way to Downers Grove, the engineer called the conductor and they spoke for about 5 minutes.
On arriving at Downers Grove, the doors opened on the passenger cars and as people got off, the engine shuddered and died. After 15 minutes of trying to start the engine again, they gave up and called Operations. Metra decided to have the train behind us, couple on and push our cars while pulling the others. This resulted in double stops at each platform to let off passengers. In the meantime, we rode in unlit and uncooled passenger cars (luckily it was a gray evening or we would have baked in the sun). Finally we pulled into the Route 59 Station and were told that everyone had to get off and that we would be picked up by a train directly behind us. I was amazed when I looked behind us and saw at least 3 headlights from Metra passenger trains in the distance...this really threw everyone off. That MPI Locomotive in the middle was pushing and pulling 19 passenger cars. And oh yes, the unit that died was F40 #190...which is constantly breaking down...It has failed like this at least 4 times in the last 2 years. If I were Metra I'd drop #190 off at LaGrange and tell EMD to junk it!
End result last night, 3 1/2 hours to get home when normally it's 1 1/2 hours. I'm waxing philosophical though, I've been riding Metra for 10 years now, and this is only the 3rd time a situation like this has happened. So the odds are good I'll make it home on time tonight!
On arriving at Downers Grove, the doors opened on the passenger cars and as people got off, the engine shuddered and died. After 15 minutes of trying to start the engine again, they gave up and called Operations. Metra decided to have the train behind us, couple on and push our cars while pulling the others. This resulted in double stops at each platform to let off passengers. In the meantime, we rode in unlit and uncooled passenger cars (luckily it was a gray evening or we would have baked in the sun). Finally we pulled into the Route 59 Station and were told that everyone had to get off and that we would be picked up by a train directly behind us. I was amazed when I looked behind us and saw at least 3 headlights from Metra passenger trains in the distance...this really threw everyone off. That MPI Locomotive in the middle was pushing and pulling 19 passenger cars. And oh yes, the unit that died was F40 #190...which is constantly breaking down...It has failed like this at least 4 times in the last 2 years. If I were Metra I'd drop #190 off at LaGrange and tell EMD to junk it!
End result last night, 3 1/2 hours to get home when normally it's 1 1/2 hours. I'm waxing philosophical though, I've been riding Metra for 10 years now, and this is only the 3rd time a situation like this has happened. So the odds are good I'll make it home on time tonight!
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