UNION, Ill. — Metra has donated F40C No. 614, one of just two such surviving locomotives, to the Illinois Railway Museum.
IRM says in a press release that it hopes to restore the locomotive to operating condition. It had seen some cannibalization for parts during its final years in storage at Metra, and is missing components including its turbocharger, aftercoolers, radiators and ducts.
The locomotive is one of 15 such six-axle, cowl-body locomotives built by EMD in McCook, Ill., in 1974 [see “Metra EMD F40C …,” Trains.com, Oct. 8, 2023]. They feature unique corrugated steel side panels to match the stainless steel gallery coaches that they hauled for Metra’s predecessors, the North Suburban and North West Suburban Mass Transit districts, on the Milwaukee North and West lines to Fox Lake and Elgin, Ill. No. 614 began life as Milwaukee Road No. 54; it was removed from service in 2004, returned to operation in 2009, and permanently retired in 2012.
Metra offered the unit to the museum for preservation in December 2024. It is expected to arrive at the Union campus soon.
Check out the code line pole. 5 arms of 10 lines each + 2 more lines. How did they all ever work at one time?
They can start by taking off that non-functional stainless steel cladding to try to make the engines look in sync with the gallery cars.
“… missing components including its turbocharger, aftercoolers, radiators and ducts.” Pretty sure that even today you can go to La Grange, shake a tree and most of that stuff will fall out.