Amtrak Cascades F59PHI's

[John Bobinyec]

80 is the Carolinian. 470 should be being ferried back to Washington, D.C. Where it goes from there, I could only guess back home.

jb

 

[Triley]

Sorry, why is the Piedmont getting a Cascades locomotive?

They had a few loaners while some of their locomotives and cars went to Colorado for testing.

And I'd say we've got so much extra power in the yards in Seattle, so if someone wanted to pay us to borrow an engine or few..

 

[cpotisch]

Thanks.

 

[Trogdor]

80 is the Carolinian. 470 should be being ferried back to Washington, D.C. Where it goes from there, I could only guess back home.

jb

When does Metra take possession of these locomotives?

 

[KnightRail]

80 is the Carolinian. 470 should be being ferried back to Washington, D.C. Where it goes from there, I could only guess back home.

jb

When does Metra take possession of these locomotives?

According To METRA, The engines will become available this year.

https://www.metrarail.com/about-metra/newsroom/metra-moves-buy-newer-engines

 

[Seaboard92]

Sorry, why is the Piedmont getting a Cascades locomotive?

They had a few loaners while some of their locomotives and cars went to Colorado for testing.

And I'd say we've got so much extra power in the yards in Seattle, so if someone wanted to pay us to borrow an engine or few..

I might take you up on that offer. Heh heh heh....

 

[KnightRail]

Metras FB page on Thursday shared a photo of the first F59PHI patched with Metra logos and was renumbered 84. It is an ex-Surfliner unit but not exactly sure what its former number was.

 

[cpotisch]

Metras FB page on Thursday shared a photo of the first F59PHI patched with Metra logos and was renumbered 84. It is an ex-Surfliner unit but not exactly sure what its former number was.

Looks like it was Surfliner loco #457.

 

[Seaboard92]

In Chicago two days ago along with four others.

 

[KnightRail]

None of the six Cascades F59PHI remain in the Pacific Northwest. Only six of the fifteen Surfliner units remain in California. The rest have all assembled in the Chicago area. Multiple have been retired and stricken from the roster. One or more are already in the hands of Metra and/or Progress Rail. Their retirement is moving right along.

 

[cpotisch]

None of the six Cascades F59PHI remain in the Pacific Northwest. Only six of the fifteen Surfliner units remain in California. The rest have all assembled in the Chicago area. Multiple have been retired and stricken from the roster. One or more are already in the hands of Metra and/or Progress Rail. Their retirement is moving right along.

Do you happen to know if the former-Cascades Metra units will have their own kind of weird hybrid Cascades/Metra livery like the Surfliner units? So some kind of green and white pseudo-Metra livery?

 

[MikefromCrete]

The Metra F59s are being repainted into Metra blue following the design lines of the Amtrak livery  for the time being.  Eventually, they will get the full Metra paint job. 

 

[KnightRail]

*Unconfirmed* new METRA numbers:

73(450) — Retired, METRA Patched Surfliner

74(451)

75(452)

76(453)

77(454) — Retired, METRA Patched Surfliner

78(455)

79(456)

80(457) — Retired

81(458)

82(459)

83(460)

84(461)— Retired, METRA Patched Surfliner

85(462)

86(463)

87(464)

88(465) — Retired

89(466)

90(467) — Retired

91(468) — Retired

92(469)

93(470) — Retired

 

[DSS&A]

Hi,

I took this photo from my passing train today.  It's a "before and after" type photo of two former Surfliner painted locomotives with the "Amtrak" and "Metra" logos.   I also saw #463 in the yard.

 

[DSS&A]

Hi,

I saw F59s at the Metra Western Avenue yard this morning in three different paint jobs. I took the photo as we were "flying" past the yard.

 

[TinCan782]

On 11/9/2018 at 10:17 AM, KnightRail said:

No Cascades patched at this point. Three out of the six being patched are ex-Surfliner so far and newly numbered 73, 77, 84.

Noticed 81-ex458 on your list. AMTK 458 was leading Pacific Surfliner #759 (LA to Goleta) this morning. Videoed at Chatsworth while I was waiting for my Metrolink train.

 

[KnightRail]

Noticed 81-ex458 on your list. AMTK 458 was leading Pacific Surfliner #759 (LA to Goleta) this morning. Videoed at Chatsworth while I was waiting for my Metrolink train.

That sounds right. 458 is one of five still on the West coast.

 

[KnightRail]

Do you happen to know if the former-Cascades Metra units will have their own kind of weird hybrid Cascades/Metra livery like the Surfliner units? So some kind of green and white pseudo-Metra livery?

The answer is yes, confirmed by a post/photo on Metra’s official FB page. One of the ex-Cascades units was photographed as the trailing unit on a test train. It retained its Cascade’s brown and off white colors but the green was covered over with Surfliner blue and then patch logo-ed like the other units done so far.

 

[cpotisch]

The answer is yes, confirmed by a post/photo on Metra’s official FB page. One of the ex-Cascades units was photographed as the trailing unit on a test train. It retained its Cascade’s brown and off white colors but the green was covered over with Surfliner blue and then patch logo-ed like the other units done so far.

Thank you muchly. Could you post a link to that photo? I’m on the Metra FB page but don’t see it.

 

[CHvision]

Q: Does the Cascades still use the P42s alongside the SC-44s and Cabbage car?

 

[Acela150]

Q: Does the Cascades still use the P42s alongside the SC-44s and Cabbage car?

No. 

 

[Northwest Railfan]

Q: Does the Cascades still use the P42s alongside the SC-44s and Cabbage car?

Actually there is at least one P42 in service on the Cascades right now, possibly two. Since Charger 1402 was wrecked, it's likely we'll have P42s on Cascades until when/if a replacement is built.

 

[Triley]

No. 

Yes! Just no P42s and Chargers on the same set. They just attempted that the other week again and there's some serious communication issues between the two.

But we've still got a few of P42s out and about. Cabbage cars are a plenty!

 

[cpotisch]

Yes! Just no P42s and Chargers on the same set. They just attempted that the other week again and there's some serious communication issues between the two.

But we've still got a few of P42s out and about. Cabbage cars are a plenty!

Serious communication issues? I thought that there were standards for control signals between locomotives?

 

[Triley]

Serious communication issues? I thought that there were standards for control signals between locomotives?

You need to remember that throwing the Talgos in to the mix muddles things further.

A train the other week took a hefty delay because of communication issues, but that's because...they were trying to control a Charger, that was directly attached to a P42, via a cabbage car.

For what it's worth, for a while ACS64s didn't play well with P42s either. There's a huge difference in the computers and software various engines run, so it only seems probable there'd be compatibility issues at some point.