CHICAGO — Metra on Wednesday unveiled a special paint scheme to honor the city of Chicago on F40PH-3 No. 104, with the commuter agency saying the locomotive will make its debut May 14-15 to move cars to be displayed at Pullman Railroad Days [see “More features added to Pullman Railroad Days,” Trains News Wire, May 4, 2022].
The paint scheme features a depiction of the Chicago skyline below its cab windows, as well as blue and white striping with red stars based on the City of Chicago flag. It joins paint schemes honoring the state of Illinois and heritage commuter operators Burlington, Milwaukee Road, Chicago & North Western and Rock Island.
Wow, is THAT an ugly paint scheme, especially considering the really nice ones they’ve come up with of late.
Thank you Rupert. I was starting to think I was the only one who dislikes it…
Nice! Think the skyline could have been larger and put where the METRA logo is though, better than nothing.
Nice paint scheme done by Metra again. Be nice if Metrolink here in California did special schemes too but Unlikely I know. Hopefully 1 of there upcoming SD70MACH units gets a special scheme too like BN or Something.
Is that gonna happen in my lifetime?
Cute. Honor a city that’s destroying itself.
Instead name it after a decent place to live and visit, like one the numerous suburbs Metra served.
Charles, google “Metra locomotive names” and you’ll find many named for suburban “cities” and “villages”. But as you well know, downtown Chicago and is where all the lines go. And many stations are in city limits. So it’s appropriate one engine was finally named for the city. My only problem is that city officials up to and including mayors, all Democrats of course, have no use for Metra and see it as belonging to the suburban Republicans despite the at least pre-Covid robust ridership from many of the in-city stations. Rogers Park and Ravenswood on the Metra/UP North and the Hyde Park stations on the Electric District are examples. I’ll bet Mayor Lightfoot, if her life depended on it, couldn’t find her own way from City Hall to any of the downtown stations. But she loves the CTA because she can control it. It’s all about control. That’s why Richie Daly got the McCormick Place Busway built. It closely, and I mean closely, parallels the 4-track Metra Electric. Special events at McCormick place had midday and Saturday trains that did not stop there have that stop added to their schedules. Sundays we ran shuttles but since the tracks were directionally signaled the shuttles had to receive paper authorities to be run against the current in one direction. Metra wanted to partner with the City to build a new interlocking so the shuttles could cross over and return with the current. Daly would have none of it because he wanted the city to have ownership of the transportation artery between the downtown hotels and McCormick Place. So given every mayor I can think of not caring whether Metra runs or doesn’t run, it does seem a bit ironic to name a locomotive, and one of the beautiful F40s at that, for the city.
Chicago does have a lot of really good things going for it, and one of the best is that one doesn’t have to ever worry about Charles Landry living in or visiting Chicago:-)
Well said! I love living in Chicago. Can’t say there’s any other place in North America I’d rather live!
Love it Neil! LOL!
I last visited Downtown Chicago in 2020. Went to Arts Institute. Was wonderful!!!! Since then, CIA fired its docents because they were white. So it’s on my boycott list, I don’t visit racist establishments.
Prior visit to Chicago was 2019 to see Pullman exhibits then open, which is fewer than now open.