Finally some footage of the new MACH's! Thanks for sharing. I just barely remember the old E's and then for 30 years growing up in Chicagoland it was always the F40's. Now I'm a transplant in Indiana and fondly miss the craziness of the commuter services.
@@coleallen3895 I feel like once the incandescent ones die out they will be replaced with L.E.D. ones because one of the cab cars got replaced with a L.E.D. Mars light
I have ridden the MD-W line off and on for the last twenty years. Nice to see places from a different perspective that I have only seen from the train. The SD70s rock!
@@richardsavaglio523 and plus, if there going to add a L.E.D. Mar's light they should really place it on a oscillating surface if that would mimic the true effect of the incandescent ones.
Man that horn is music to my ears 😩. This is literally like a dream. My favorite commuter rail has locomotives that have my favorite horn! It’s also the same name as me! The Nathan KL5AA 😄
Most interesting difference with this 90s brute is hearing the rpm of the prime mover rise & fall. Very different experience for a Metra Bi-Level. I believe the older Metra locomotives used "constant rpm" to generate 60hz electricity directly from the traction alternator (no separate diesel generator). It was always weird/different/unique watching huge trains slink in & out of stations with a constant roar. Made the impressive acceleration seem completely effortless.
Great Illinois Metra railroad RU-vid video keep up the great work 👍 ❤😊 this is Isaiah wiley from myrtle Beach south Carolina saying hello and great job.
2:13 something not seen very often on our nation’s railroads these days it’s nice to see an interlocking tower still standing and possibly still being used for many years Fort Worth once had an interlocking tower called tower 55 sadly as of November 2022 it was demolished and its heyday up to its twilight years it has seen the passage of three mainline steam locomotives in the 1990s was Union Pacific challenger number 3985 in 2010 and 2012 it would see the living legend Union Pacific 4-8-4 Northern number 844 and finally a year before it’s demolition it would see the passage of what is now the worlds largest operating steam locomotive Union Pacific big boy number 4014
Thx mr! Great catches of these stunning engines! Their resurrection took me totally by surprise, they are epic! Can I ask, I watch a lot of your videos, what do you think of these Macs?
I was an Amtrak engineer from 1986 until retirement in 2011. These machines are just what we needed! AMT bought those damn "trash 8's", the P32's, and they were shit.
I’m pretty sure that we’ve crossed paths. I’m usually sitting under the Mannheim Road bridge in Franklin Park/Bensenville. I’m in the gold pickup with all the lights on it and always wearing high viz clothing. Stop and say hi if you see me there
Oh hey we finally got it lol. Seen it everywhere on vrrf but chicago lol. I dig it. Ive been bored of the fp40s for 20 years lol. Prob miss em when theyre gone but ive literally seen those engines millions of times. Just like the old bn e9s. Never thought much of em as a kid. Now im like those were kinda cool lol. Im guessing this is going on bnsf's line? They seem to always get the new stuff compared to the old fp40s on the up west line lol ive caught the cnw heritage on the bnsf line way more than i have on the actual ex-cnw line lol
See what I mean, metra should’ve went with an alc42 variant of the siemens charger like those on amtrak long distance routes, but instead they bought classic emd locomotives from a freight railroad and emd hasn’t been around for a long time.
So glad that they came with these rebuilds. They look and sound like locomotives, unlike the Eurocrap Siemens Chargers which are both butt-ugly and anemic sounding,
Saw 5 sd70mach's in fox lake. I have no idea of the numbers of the fifth or fourth one. The fifth was hidden while the fourth was in back. I do know the numbers of the first three I saw. No.501 No.505 & No.509
Cool man, I want to travel to chicago and see one of these in person for myself instead of just watching them on boring RU-vid videos. I don’t know why these locomotives sound just like sd70aces. No. 500 was unveiled by metra in mid-October 2022 and the first few locomotives entered revenue service in late November 2023. Metra had an option with progress rail to purchase up to 27 additional sd70machs to replace older locomotives in the fleet, but it should happen since metra has been very pleased with the performance and strong reliability of the engines so far.
Why buy engines that have new technology and still having issues, when you can buy proven reliable older EMDs that stood the test of time? Most of metras fleet either is powered by a EMD 645 or 710 engine. Easy to work on and parts aren’t super hard to find or make.
They look great, but. Where the heck are they going to get parts from? EMD hasn’t been around for a while now. And Metra has a hell of a big emd obsession
I live next to a station in UP North. The locos here emit so much pollution in the summer we have to close our windows 30 times a day because of the diesel. I have ridden trains all over the world, Only here do trains run at full RPM while sitting still. Stupid 1940s mentality.
