Passenger Trains > New Elburn Metra Service - First Train

Yeah, I got out of bed at 3:40am to drive 20 miles west to ride the first train (DEP 448am) 20 miles east and back and then drive back home and went to bed. But it was all worth it. This first shot shows West Chicago a couple of days before hand, notice to the right of the engine. . . the normally full coach yard is now empty....save for a couple of overnighters. Over the weekend they repositioned most of the trainsets west to Elburn (no shots of the new facility here, but to come later)

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There was a crowd of about 45 people at Elburn. Mostly reporters, curious, and village (Elburn) officials... There were a handful of foamers... of which category I fall into...

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And the money shot.... Just seconds before departure, it looks pretty nice.... with all the snow. This will be a very popular service.

GTW

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Geeze.. that looks like Caltrain's Hillsdale, CA Station, but with SNOW!

Cheers,
Harry

The first picture is outstanding!

Thanks for the pix. It's so much better to attend a "first run" than a "last run".

Is bagging the coupler on the cab car standard practice in snowy territory?

warbonnetwillie Wrote:
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> Is bagging the coupler on the cab car standard
> practice in snowy territory?

It's standard practice on the Metra UP lines to break trains after the morning rush and use the shortened consist on the mid-day runs. They bag the couplers to keep snow and ice out of them. This helps when they put the trains back together for the evening rush.

Great shots, and I'm with Jason, the 1ST pic stands out as the best of the 3!

kevink Wrote:
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> It's standard practice on the Metra UP lines to
> break trains after the morning rush and use the
> shortened consist on the mid-day runs. They bag
> the couplers to keep snow and ice out of them.
> This helps when they put the trains back together
> for the evening rush.

As far as I've seen it's *only* the UP lines that use these. The Milwaukee North also uses some shorter mid-day trains, but sans bag.