Metra Locomotive

4/10/2012 | Chicago, IL

The Metra Rail locomotive #152 named “City of Zion” is stopped for northbound passengers at the Ravenswood station on the Union Pacific / North Line. Curiously, many Metra locomotives are named after either a Chicago area suburb or a Metra or government official. Manufactured by General Motors / Electro-Motive Division, the F40PH-2 is a four axle locomotive with a sixteen cylinder, three thousand horsepower engine that can achieve speeds of up to ninety five miles per hour.

The Union Pacific / North Line route was originally constructed in 1854 by the Chicago and Milwaukee Railroad and started service in 1855 with one train per day. In 1863, it merged with the Green Bay, Milwaukee & Chicago Railroad and was purchased by the Chicago and North Western Railway in 1866. Commuter rail service began in 1911 and currently services twenty seven stations from Ogilvie Transportation Center in downtown Chicago to Kenosha, Wisconsin over 51.6 route miles. The Ravenswood station is the busiest station on the Union Pacific/North Line.