If they are real IC cars it's a bit surprising that Iowa Pacific is disposing of them....

There is hardly any E units left out there. Would be a real shame to scrap it. Unfortunately this is likely to meet the fate of another Marc E unit that was scrapped a few years ago at the Illinois transportation museum. It also was totally gutted. Extremely frustrating how in recent years every sale of these locomotives or cars has a 60 days or less deadline.

What do you do with a totally gutted E unit? Convert it to a gift shop/ cafe at the end of the train, put a bunch of seats in the cab and let the customers have a unique ride.

As there is no such place as the "Illinois transportation museum", I can only assume you are referring to the "Illinois Railway Museum" (IRM).

IRM has never scrapped an E unit, and for that matter, traded/sold off the particular unit that has sparked this very discussion. Anything that has happened since that transaction has been out of IRM's hands.

Jeff

Well, you could install a modern system that anybody can keep running using today's off the shelf components and have an easy to maintain E unit.......

Cut the nose off, put it up against a wall or a hill and make it look like it's coming out of a tunnel, or bursting out of the side of a building. A fairly dramatic welcoming 3D billboard for your museum, tourist railroad, etc.

LTE may have a couple of E units in their lot.

If you have Union Pacific's money and shop forces, maybe..........

I was thinking more like this...

Does anyone know exactly where in Bensenville this equipment is? There is a maze of industrial trackage IP owns in the Route 83/Devon area - if anyone can give me a fix on where to look I can take a trip there one day and check it out.

It may be next to impossible to sell for a return to operation and may be difficult to find a good home or it as static display or some form of novel reuse, but I can't help but think of their other E units that do run and the potential of a major incident down the road.

At least one F unit survives and is operational today thanks to being able to be the recipient of the front cab and nose of a F unit that was going to scrap. Without that donor, I imagine this locomotive had little chance of surviving this mishap and damage (I've linked a photograph below of her condition after the incident, which is credited to Fredrick Giarette).

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... id=3106522

At least it sounds like they're going to save the trucks just in case. Maybe her demise that started with her getting parted out to restore another E unit to operation, just might lead to the saving of another down the road that for some reason needs a replacement Blomberg A-1-A passenger truck.

The 2 cars (former IC 3351 "Capital City"and 4202 "Flossmoor") are pretty badly vandalized. Not sure what's salvageable on or in them still.

[quote As there is no such place as the "Illinois transportation museum", I can only assume you are referring to the "Illinois Railway Museum" (IRM).

IRM has never scrapped an E unit, and for that matter, traded/sold off the particular unit that has sparked this very discussion. Anything that has happened since that transaction has been out of IRM's hands.

Jeff[/quote]

I believe the unit we are talking about is the same one that was listed on Ozark railcar for probably two years (MARC 91). I remember in the listing it said it was being sold through the Illinois Railway Museum along with photos of it at the museum. This locomotive was shown as previously on the roster at the museum and now off the roster http://thedieselshop.us/IRM.HTML

When I visited the museum about 3 years ago I asked what happened to the E unit that was for sale a employee said "it was scrapped". Maybe the employee thought it was scrapped as it was no longer on the property, and it was likely just moved to the location where it is at now.

Someone said you could cut the nose off and put it up against a wall. The old caboose hobbies in Denver did just that with the front of a scrapped ex BN, E8. It really didn't look that great to be honest.

I was reading about the F and E units at Larrys Truck Electric not too long ago wondering what happened to them. I believe they had 3 or 4 ex Metra E8's. After some research they were all sold. Most were sold to one buyer if I remember right.

While we are on the subject of these locomotives. I sent a letter to the IRM last year pleading for them to preserve one of the E8's in the Burlington Northern hockey stick paint scheme (as the locomotive was still in BN paint and scheduled to be repainted in CB&Q colors). Despite many past E units in BN colors, it seems we will have no E units preserved in BN colors which is a real shame.

What became of the 9 former Metra cars that were stored in front of the E-unit? They are still on the property in the October 2018 satellite imagery, but now appear to be gone.


For those interested in seeing how the two passenger cars look on the inside simply search "Abandoned train in Chicago" on Youtube. There are literally five videos shot by so called "urban explorers" showing this stored equipment.

Note: I do not condone these videos and find these "urban explorers" to be blatant trespassers.

I just drove by the spot in Bensenville - the ex-C&NW bilevels are there, and the E unit is there as well. It is evident none of them have moved for some time, and are still in the same overgrown brush they have been in for a few years. I don't see any sign of the ex-IC passenger cars, so they may be gone.

The IC cars were the ones rescued from the Lincoln, IL depot before they got cut up a few years ago, as I recall. Someone went to considerable expense to have the cars lifted by crane at both ends and trucked to Bensenville - so I am puzzled why the current owner would then let them get trashed and (likely) scrapped.

Chris.