Once we’ve gotten you to work, we go right to work getting ready to bring you home later that day. As you’d probably guess, the busiest part of the day in a Metra yard comes between the morning and evening rush hours.
After trains drop off thousands of passengers at downtown stations in the morning, they head to one of several nearby yards so a long checklist of tasks can be completed—from maintenance to inspections to cleaning to repairs. The work has to be done in time to put the trains back in service for the evening rush.
One yard is the 51st Street Yard, which Rock Island riders can see every day on their trips to and from downtown.
If those riders could stop and watch the yard, they’d see a buzz of activity. Operating the Rock Island’s 80 scheduled weekday runs requires 13 six- and eight-car trains, or 13 locomotives and 94 cars total. All those locomotives and cars, plus spares, are serviced at 51st.
Trains generally pull into the yard from the north, coming from LaSalle Street Station. The first task is to send the train through a giant train washer. Then the locomotive and cars are separated so each can be serviced in a different area. Easier said than done; because of the layout of the tracks and the location of switches, it takes a complicated series of moves using a switch engine to make it happen.
Once the cars are parked in the service tracks, they are swarmed by workers. Carmen and electricians walk the interior and exterior, carrying out mandated inspections and tests, making minor repairs or reporting more serious issues that may require the car to be cut from the train and repaired. Brakes, wheels, lights, doors, lifts, HVAC, signage, handrails, etc.—everything gets checked.
Coach cleaners also move in with an arsenal of tools, from brooms and mops to power washers and steam cleaners. Toilets are emptied and bathrooms are cleaned. If all goes well and no unusual issues arise, the work on each train can be done in about three hours. Sometimes cars must be cut out of the trains for more detailed inspections.
On the other end of the yard, locomotives are greeted by a platoon of workers. Electricians, machinists, carmen, and pipefitters each have their own role and their own checklist of inspection and maintenance tasks—lights, bells, hoses, horns, wheels, brakes, oil and water levels, etc.—overseen by Mechanical Foremen. The locomotives are also refueled. The daily work can be done in less than an hour, but every locomotive also must undergo an increasingly detailed federal inspection every three months, every six months, every year, and every second, third and fourth year, so there are usually several locomotives in the shop undergoing inspection.
The clean and safe trains can then leave the yard to get you home on time.
To see a time-lapse video of trains being serviced in this yard, click here.