During the day locos are tripped to the depot for maintenance - an F40 lovers
dream! Metra 131 here leads 153, 152, 173, 180 & 147 to shed.
Day 3 : Monday 1st May
We settled down to our first night of the trip on a train - AMTK 183 + 155 whisking us north-westwards to Chicago. Though we'd left about half an hour down an on-time arrival was on the cards, except the need to reverse the train on arrival at Chicago (to drop off the private coaches) meant a slight delay. We reversed on the triangle ("Y" in US terminology) just outside Union station so some new track was scooped at least!
The day provide interesting, this was a day of protest across the US by immigrants and the march in Chicago was reported to be 500,000-strong. Security was tight and throughout the day we came under scrutiny of various Metra police officers though in the end all were content to let us pursue out hobby without problem.
| Loco(s) | Type | From - To |
| Metra 425 | MP36PH-3S | Chicago Union - Western Avenue |
| Metra 415 + Metra 214 |
MP36PH-3S + F40PHM-2 |
Western Avenue - Chicago Union |
| Metra 414 | MP36PH-3S | Chicago Union - Western Avenue |
| Metra 426 | MP36PH-3S | Western Avenue - Chicago Union |
| Metra 107 | F40PH-2 | Chicago Union - Western Avenue |
| Metra 421 | MP36PH-3S | Western Avenue - Chicago Union |
| Metra 120 | MP36PH-3S | Chicago Union - Belmont Park |
Our target had been the early series F40's (100 to 127) as they date from 1977 so are some of the oldest locos in current regular passenger service. Not under any real threat of withdrawal but worth getting in the book anyway.
During the day locos are tripped to the depot for maintenance - an F40 lovers
dream! Metra 131 here leads 153, 152, 173, 180 & 147 to shed.
The new order on Metra are the MPI MP36PH-3S's. New but nonetheless
still very loud and claggy! 411 is seen at Western Avenue.
F40PH-2 Metra 115 leads an outbound train through Western Avenue.
Another early Metra F40PH-2 is seen at Western Avenue.
Having taken Metra 120 out to Belmot Park (first stop for the afternoon commuter service it was on) it was a case of first train back, though this turned out to be dud Metra 123. Back into Union station and it was a run via the EL and Metro to Grand station and an evening at the Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery, then back to the hotel for some needed doss.
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