Metra to upgrade Chicago’s LaSalle Street Station NEWSWIRE

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CHIAGO — Chicago’s LaSalle Street Station, once a famed major terminal for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific and New York Central railroads but now only a bare-bones facility serving Metra commuters, will undergo a $2.95-million renovation, officials announced. On March 26, work will begin to replace the station’s concourse and several pillars, the first […]

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Two big engines that couldn’t

Smoking steam Missouri Pacific locomotives with freight train

After a 2-10-2 and 4-8-4 stalled on MoPac’s Kirkwood Hill, an 0-8-0 and caboose couple up to render assistance. Joe Collias Heading west from St. Louis, Missouri Pacific trains faced the 6-mile-long, 1-percent grade known as Kirkwood Hill. Normal train length was 100 cars, powered by one of the rebuilt 2101-class 4-8-4s and led by […]

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Metra seeks new locomotives NEWSWIRE

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Metra F40PH Nos. 102 and 107 appear at Elmwood Park, Ill. Metra officials look to replace or re-manufacture much of the railroad’s aging motive power fleet. TRAINS: David Lassen CHICAGO — Metra, Chicago’s commuter rail agency, plans to order 12 new or 15 re-manufactured locomotives in 2018, and may order dozens more if additional funding […]

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Metra paints Rock Island-inspired unit to honor retiring CEO NEWSWIRE

Red-and-yellow streamlined diesel locomotive

Metra CHICAGO – Metra has painted a MotivePower MP36PH into the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad’s red and yellow livery in honor of CEO and Executive Director Don Orseno who is retiring this month. Orseno is retiring after 44 years in railroading and first worked for the Rock Island in the 1970s. Locomotive No. […]

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