CHICAGO — Metra has taken delivery of another SD70MACH, part of an order of 15 of the remanufactured freight locomotives currently in progress for the commuter agency.
No. 505, the fourth in the series to arrive in Chicago, was delivered on Thursday, May 11. This unit is slated to have positive train control equipment added next week at Metra’s 47th Street Shops, the former Rock Island facility.
While the locomotives are the first six-axle power for Metra since the retirement of its F40Cs, these units will have four powered axles, operating in a B1-1B configuration. Four of the unit’s AC inverters will be used to drive the traction motors; one will provide head-end power for the passenger cars; and the sixth will serve as a spare. These will be Metra’s first AC-traction locomotives [see “Metra six-axle commuter locomotives,” Trains.com, Nov. 1, 2022].
A Metra spokesman said earlier this month that operational testing for the units was expected to begin in mid-May.
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