(The following article by Guy Tridgell was posted on the Chicago Daily Southtown website on May 31.)
CHICAGO — The Gritty Palace has left the station.
The vintage passenger railcar, previously owned by a veteran Metra board member, exited the Rock Island District Line yard Tuesday where it was stored for free for nearly 20 years.
The Gritty Palace was pulled out of Chicago by an Amtrak train, bound for a new storage facility in Minnesota, according to Metra officials.
“It is gone for good,” Metra spokeswoman Judy Pardonnet said.
The Gritty Palace was kept in a Rock Island District Line garage on 49th Street as part of a deal between Metra and longtime board member W. Warren Nugent of north suburban Kenilworth.
The longstanding agreement gave permission to Metra to use the car for promotions and demonstrations.
Metra, however, did not use the Gritty Palace for almost 15 years, essentially denying Metra hundreds of dollars a month in rental payments in an extremely tight market for storing passenger railcars.
Metra employees also were charged with maintaining the Gritty Palace.
Through the end of last year, Metra billed the owners a minimum of $148,198 for parts and services to keep the 1912 relic in operating condition and to prepare it for long trips.
Among the tasks performed were replacing toilets and cleaning linens.
Metra tacked a 120 percent surcharge on labor costs and an extra 20 percent for parts.
No other private railcar got similar treatment at Metra.
The Gritty Palace arrangement with was brought to light by the Daily Southtown last fall.
When Nugent recently sold his stake in the opulent car, Metra decided the Gritty Palace should go, Pardonnet said.
“It was an inherited situation that lasted a little longer than anyone expected,” Pardonnet said. “The space is needed.”
Metra in February reached terms with the remaining Gritty Palace owners — identified as G.N.W. & B. Company in the lease — to keep the car at the 49th Street facility for $750 a month.
The rent would have jumped to $100 a day if the Gritty Palace was not off Metra property by today.
Cook County Commissioner Elizabeth Doody Gorman (R-Orland Park) was happy to hear the Gritty Palace was out of Metra hands.
Gorman, who pushed Metra to get out of the business of storing railcars for board members, said workers resented getting assigned chores on the Gritty Palace.
“They should be working on Metra cars for the public,” she said.