Metra Gallery Cars

Identification of Metra Gallery Cars

A 70+ year old design rolls strong in Chicago

Chicago has a very rich history in the development of American railroading, and the gallery car is no exception to this trend. At the behest of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, the bilevel gallery car was built to further enhance seating capacity without the expenses involved in adding further trains, car, or crews - in turn enhancing the operating economy.

Metra is very unique in regards to its large gallery car fleet, the largest in North America. Caltrain, Virginia Railway Express, and other smaller commter rail lines operate similar gallery fleets, all of smaller sizes.

This photographic guide is meant to make it easy to identify a particular series of gallery car on Metra. All numbers, unless otherwise noted, are Metra's last fleet numbers for the cars.

Note:
The model number designates the first letter "T" for trailer cars and "C" for cab cars.
Generally, Metra's Cab Cars are numbered 8200-8799, while trailers are numbered in the 700s-800s, 6000s, and 7000s

Corrugated Side Cars

Types:
Budd - CB&Q and Burlington Northern Cars
Budd - Milwaukee Road
Budd - Metra/RTA
Morrison Knudsen/Amerail - Metra
Nippon Sharyo - Metra

Budd - CB&Q and Burlington Northern Cars

Burlington Northern 819 - Note the lack of the above-door letterboard

CBQ ordered Cab car, in the 1970s. By Bengt on Flickr.

#700-787 (trailers), #790-820 (Cab Cars), #7100-7121 (trailers)

The first gallery cars were built by Budd for the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad, on the line which is now known as the BNSF Line. Trailers, numbered in the 700s, were used in service starting in 1950. Cab cars started to arrive in 1965. These early cars originally featured "BURLINGTON" titles on the letterboard above the doors, and a recent resurgence of this tradition now has "BURLINGTON" returning to the letterboard on a dozen cars. Other cars now have the letterboard saying "BNSF RAILWAY."

Cars built under the Burlington Northern days of the 1970s (#796-815 cab cars, #816-820 trailers, #7100-7121 trailers) lack the letterboard above the doors.

All cars have small windows. These cars also feature small square windows near the restroom.

By Bengt on Flickr. Note the unique HEP cables.

Budd - Milwaukee Road

#7200-7381 (trailers), #8200-8238 (cab cars)

The old Milwaukee Road cars were built from 1961 to 1980. They do not have letterboards above the car doors.

Many cab cars have been converted into trailer cars.

By bengt on Flickr, 1970s.

Budd - Metra/RTA

#8239-8275

RTA ordered Budd gallery cab cars, which were built between 1978 and 1980. All have since been converted to trailers.

Morrison Knudsen/Amerail - Metra

#7400-7497 (trailers), #8400-8478 (cab cars)

The MK/Amerail cars, built between 1994 and 1998, feature larger windows than the older Budd cars. The cab cars were delivered with K5LAs, but many if not most now have K3LAs. These cars are ADA accessible.

Nippon Sharyo - Metra

#6000-6207 (trailers), 8501-8608 (cab cars).

Giant windows are the hallmark of the Nippon Sharyo cars, the bulk built between 2002 and 2005, alongside a pair (6193, 6194) from 2008 and 7 from 2020 (6201-6207). The cab cars, 108 in total, appear to be the lead/rear car of every revenue train.