Chicago's Weird Electric Gallery Cars
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- Опубликовано: 28 сен 2024
- Gallery cars are a relic of the American passenger rail scene, but they're still alive and well in Chicago. They even have a line featuring electric gallery cars, which we ride in this video.
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Images used:
[1] Metra 614 by Russell Sekeet, commons.wikime...
[2] Metra System Map by A435m, commons.wikime...
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As a chicago suburb resident I tell you that metra is like a Honda Civic, not a lot of amenities but it gets the job done .
Actually, u got off @ 59th Street/UChicago, not 55th-56th-57th Street
I love gallery cars, i like going upstairs and its nice becuase i dont have to sit next to another person
It's interesting that Metra's longest line is just a hair shorter than BART's longest line. And BART's longest line is just a little shorter than LIRR's longest line. It's almost like 65 miles is the limit that all US regional rail systems decided is some unbreakable limit beyond which they cannot serve riders.
I assume that's where their budget runs out
That LIRR stat isn‘t right. While the Montauk branch might technically only start halfway along the island, services on it originate in NYC. Those trains cover well over 100 miles on their run to Montauk.
Metra will break this, they're connecting rockford in a couple of years.
I like the lower seating in the Metra cars, I can't be too picky choosy on my way to work though. I still think it's a great way to commute, but It's schedule is horrible on the weekends. Overall Commuting is 8/10 and weekend trips are a 5/10.
7:39 Union station does through running, mainly for Amtrak consists however. Metra basically treats it as a terminus with the other platforms on both ends, And most stations are basically grandfathered in considering there is a lot of spaghetti connections for Metra trains to deal with if it was all at one station.
Chicago is the home of the gallery cars
technically lasalle street station is a connection to the laselle/van buren cta station downtown but not a direct connection, but they are right next to each other
It used to be a direct connection before they knocked down old LaSalle and built that ugly tower in it's place.
Really enjoyed this trip report! Very well-written and edited :)
I think the South Shore line ALSO has some gallery EMUs (they likely "piggybacked" onto a Metra-Electric order), I wonder if they too have those seats and tinting?
The Metra Electric line is raising the speed, certain 65 MPH limits there actually date back to the (19)20s and were due to limitations of Pullman stock braking, since no Pullman cars run there it's irrelevant.
The Metra Electric is at times the most cared about line, but until 2003 it used a magnetic paper ticket faregate system dating back to Illinois Central days, it made many people miss trains, and if they were using anything other than standard tickets or passes, they had to use courtesy phones to unlock the gate. Also had to be used by anyone riding on the South Shore line for Illinois stations other than Millenium (originally Randolph Street Station) and Hegewisch (which is on the South Shore line, but it's technically owned by Metra, and fares are set by Metra)
Metra's upcoming NEW trains will FINALLY ditch the gallery design. It's outdated. The Electric line will have FLIRTs, and the others will have Corradia bilevels.
You are correct, South Shore does have their own gallery EMUs. They're based on Metra's but have a single wide door at the rear of the car in addition to the double wide doors in the middle, the door at the rear has stairs for low platform boarding as the CSS has high and low level stations. Metra's EMUs have a staircase for emergency use.
The green tint was a Metra only thing that they are phasing out, cars refurbished by Metra now have normal clear tint. South Shore is also leasing some EMUs from Metra for their West Lake Corridor, I don't know what their long term plan for equipment is.
The only ADA accessible Gallery cars. The only gallery cars that can access high level platforms…
Metra actually has plans to purchase Stadler Flirts in the future
They do, but they're battery only FLIRTS that will only run on the Rock Island line's Blue Island Branch, the reasoning they present being that the line is short and has stop spacing that's more suited to them compared to the diesels with gallery cars that they're running now. Also it's a bit of a cop-out to avoid needing to ask the state for the money to properly electrify.
oh, that’s unfortunate
@@SteveGettingAroundPhilly With their many lines, I'd say just electrify the more urban parts of BNSF, UPNL, UPWL & MDNL and use bi-mode flirt or kiss units. I mean the battery flirts for just that branch isn't great but obviously they need to start with a small bit of electrification if they ever do it.
@@SteveGettingAroundPhilly They can be converted to run off of catenary in the future with an additional power car. I don't think this is something to worry about. New trains is better than NO trains!
@@PlayinWithMahWii totally agree with you, it's better than sticking with 40+ year old EMDs until the heat death of the universe, and it can be an early precursor the catenary electrification. Knowing how resistant Metra is to change in terms of rolling stock, I can see it being tricky and slow, but it's a start at least.
⬇️ Shore Line also has Highliners with the newest inherited from Metra