Attrill

They were having some issues with the signage last night. I saw it southbound by the O'Hare branch California stop around 11 or so and all of the signs were off except for the last train (the signs were correct on the last train and read as run #217). Awhile later I saw it running northbound and all of the signs except for the last train were functioning correctly. Looks like they're still working out some bugs.

As of last night they were still on the Blue Line. I saw one running to O'Hare by the California stop with "express" on all the displays.

I regularly see work trains go by my house on the Blue line late on Sunday nights. They're usually two flatbeds with out of service 2 car combos at either end (2200 or 2400's I believe, but they may not be the same cars all the time). What is on the flatbeds changes most weekends. While the Blue Line was shut down on weekends I would regularly see one with a small crane on it, while the 2nd had ties and other railbed components. There's also one with a gigantic plastic tank full of what I assume to be a cleaning solution. Living next to the El has given me a much better appreciation for how much maintenance is done to the tracks. Almost every day I see crews walking the track checking the rails and every weekend (and most nights) there are work trains going by.

Some great photos of the 5000s have been posted at Subchat

I'm actually planning on shooting from a second floor window in my house - just set the camera to run all day taking a shot every 5 seconds.

They might be testing the new cars on the Blue line already. I heard a strange sounding set of cars heading Nbound between Western and California at 6:55 tonight. I ran out of my garage and just caught a glimpse, it had "out of service" sign and was moving a little slow (35-40mph or so). The sound was much quieter and very different than what I'm used to. Does anyone know if they have started testing? I'm thinking about setting a video camera up to record all the trains that go by.