CTA Towing practices

[BusHunter]

About a week or two ago, I saw #5535 at Cicero/Belmont being towed to Chicago garage. It was being towed by the rear with the rear elevated about four feet off the ground, being held by heavy straps like you would see in the construction industry. (To review, if you don't know this, when a CTA bus is towed it is usually towed completely on the ground front first with chains attached to the front of the bus under the front access panel, with an assistant driving the bus to help on turns and such.) I've heard of such things as a rear float, when referring to the towing methods. Usually this is called for when the brakes are locked, or something is locked up or broke on the drive axle. I've always been curious what this looked like. Was the rear axle placed on a rolling trailer like dolly or would it be too heavy for this. Could what I saw have been a rear float? I wonder how do you keep the bus under control on turns. I once heard of A NABI needing a rear float. When #7513 or 12 was new it's brakes were locked at Michigan/Tribune tower facing southbound. All evening the trucks would look on it, but were hesitant to tow it. Finally around 9 or 10PM it was towed as a rear float. If I'm remembering this right, they needed a tow truck with an assist with another truck. This was most likely the "Grand pubah" of bus tows.

[Archon]

About a week or two ago, I saw #5535 at Cicero/Belmont being towed to Chicago garage. It was being towed by the rear with the rear elevated about four feet off the ground, being held by heavy straps like you would see in the construction industry. (To review, if you don't know this, when a CTA bus is towed it is usually towed completely on the ground front first with chains attached to the front of the bus under the front access panel, with an assistant driving the bus to help on turns and such.) I've heard of such things as a rear float, when referring to the towing methods. Usually this is called for when the brakes are locked, or something is locked up or broke on the drive axle. I've always been curious what this looked like. Was the rear axle placed on a rolling trailer like dolly or would it be too heavy for this. Could what I saw have been a rear float? I wonder how do you keep the bus under control on turns. I once heard of A NABI needing a rear float. When #7513 or 12 was new it's brakes were locked at Michigan/Tribune tower facing southbound. All evening the trucks would look on it, but were hesitant to tow it. Finally around 9 or 10PM it was towed as a rear float. If I'm remembering this right, they needed a tow truck with an assist with another truck. This was most likely the "Grand pubah" of bus tows.

IF a bus is towed from the Front they have to pull the drive shaft out otherwise they will cause major problems with the transmission.

[jajuan]

IF a bus is towed from the Front they have to pull the drive shaft out otherwise they will cause major problems with the transmission.

Well as Bushunter states, it is common CTA practice to tow its buses from the front, all wheels on the ground with a second worker at the wheel of the bus to guide the bus from veering in the wrong direction during turns. A bus towed from the rear in Chicago is the more rare sight. BTW, just about all buses that I've seen towed from the rear have been CTA's Flxible 5300s. The only bus I've seen other than that towed from the rear was a CTA fishbowl when those buses were still in revenue service.