Travelogue of Michael Hansen's Trips on Metra
http://www.trainweb.com/travelogues/mhansen/2003f13a.html

Its about 7:25 AM, on Friday, June thirteenth, 2003, and I've just arived at the Jeneva station, ware I will be boarding the 7:40 AM Metra train to Chicago, ware we will be going for the first out of many followup visits for my rite eye. We left our house at 7:17 AM, and made great time heading to the station, ware we arived at around 7:25 AM. A Metra train was just leeving, pushed by F40PH engine number 164. Interestingly, when I went to tape trains last night at the station, this was the same engine that I recorded.

After that train departed, our train pulled in. Todays 7:40 AM Metra train is pushed by F40PH engine number 163, as my Mom later told me. We boarded the train, and proceeded to the back of the train to find seets. Interestingly, each pare of cars, ware the doors are, are the same. This is what I noticed with all Metra trains. We walked through the entire train, which was open to passengers because this was rush hour, and took seets on the upper level, with the locomotive beeing on the outside feet away from the door of the car!

Due to the fact that the voice didn't announce stops, I was unable to figure out ware we were durring the trip. We arived at Chicago rite on time at 8:44 AM, and we detrained. This was an excilent opportunity to tape F40PH engines at idle, and indeed, the recordings I made were provided by at least 4 F40PH engines!

My trip on Metra went very nicely, and I'm looking forward to my return trip back home!

Its about 12:20 PM, on Friday, June thirteenth, 2003, and I've just arived at the upper level train boarding area of Ogglev station, ware I will be boarding the 12:40 PM Metra train, number 33, to Jeneva. After leeving the doctors office, we took a bus to Harison Street, and took a bus to Union station, ware we thought we'd hang out and tape trains for a wile, before heading to Ogelve to catch our train. When we went to the Metra gate, I was treated to a Metra train ariving a few minutes after we arived at the garage. A few minutes later, we observed 2 Genesis engines, aparently backing onto the outbound Three Rivers. We walked over, and got the 2 locomotive numbers, number 2 and number 5. Interestingly, the engines were a lot quieter then when powering a train.

We returned into Union station, and went to the area ware the elgine train was boarding. Interestingly, we were so far away from the engines on the Empire Builder that we couldn't even hear them, even in this big garage! My online friend Frank had asked me if I had any tapes of an F40C going from Idle to regular power, and sense I didn't, I thought I'd record it for him. We walked about half way up the train, and I turned on my taperecorder. The engine went from Idle to regular power at 11:26 AM, and I got a very clear tape of it! I also taped the train idling for 4 minutes, and taped the trains departure.

We walked to Ogglev, and got a hot chocolate, and boarded the train. Not all of the train was open to passengers this time. The reason is because at Jeneva there is gravel ware the engine stops on eihor side.

We departed Chicago rite on time at 12:40 PM, and made stops at Oak Park, River Forest, Bellwood, Burkly, Elmhurst, Villa Park, ware we stopped at 1:15 PM, and leeving a minute later. So far the only stop ware we've stayed less then a minute is River Forest, ware we arived at 12:58 PM. We made our next stop at Lombard, ware we arived at 1:19 PM, and left at 1:20 PM. We arived at our next stop at Glen Ellen at 1:22 PM, and left a minute later at 1:23 PM. Durring our stop at Coledge Ave, the 1:05 PM Metra train passed us, on its way to Chicago, with F40PH engine number 145 pushing, according to my Mom. Interestingly, 145 was the engine on our 5:04 PM train to Jeneva, when we returned from our Amtrak trip on Tuesday. We made stops at Winfield, West Chicago, and arived at Jeneva at 3:50 PM, 4 minutes late.

We walked to the front of the train to get the engine number. Todays 12:40 PM Metra train is pulled by F40PH engine number 160.

My trip on Metra was very enjoyable, and I'm looking forward to my next Metra trip, next Friday!