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Man Americana CTA Bus


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No, all but one were scraped, 4200 survived as a bus to store tools in, it has been parked at North Park for a few years now.

Is this the same one that was shown parked with its windows intact? That particular prc was dated November 2004. The one that I mentioned at Skokie Shops had it's windows covered over and a lock on its rear doors if I remember correctly. Someone on the forum found a pic of it and provided a link quite some time ago. That member was making the point that they didn't like how the bus was treated after the end of its run in revenue service.

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  • 2 weeks later...

4200 in April, 2008 and November, 2007, respectively:

tn_CTA4200_NP_03302008mp.jpg tn_4200_NP_04172007mp.jpg

Ok that pretty much shows we're speaking of two different buses. So from that statement of only one Americana being saved from the scrapper, is it being said that the bus with the boarded up windows and being used as a maintenance bus was scrapped?

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Ok that pretty much shows we're speaking of two different buses. So from that statement of only one Americana being saved from the scrapper, is it being said that the bus with the boarded up windows and being used as a maintenance bus was scrapped?

I found the boarded up Americana that was at 61st/calumet. I'm having somewhat of a twilight zone moment here though, because the bus looks like it is #4200 and it's boarded up. Link to americana bus

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  • 3 years later...

What city and TA was this bus in service for during its service life? That is if it was an American city.

Well looking at the trees, it is a city that gets cold temps as the trees are bare. Chicago had M.A.N Americanas, Minneapolis did. I don't know if Milwaukee did or New York.

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Well looking at the trees, it is a city that gets cold temps as the trees are bare. Chicago had M.A.N Americanas, Minneapolis did. I don't know if Milwaukee did or New York.

Trees still go bare in the South as well during the winter, so that's not really enough to say it's Minneapolis. Plus I don't remember seeing those roof attachments on any of the ex-Minneapolis buses that that South side church bought as Americanas were being phased out in the cities that had them. As I recall the cities in the U.S. besides Chicago that had them were New Orleans, Seattle, Charlotte, Minneapolis and World Transportation in Orlando were known to have them as evidenced by photos. The photo suggests this is a standard width so Charlotte would be out as BusExplorer mentioned that was the only city out of the cities to order Americanas to go with the 96" wide narrow version. The Orlando World Transportation ones were most like CTA's version. The windows have me leaning toward this being a former Seattle bus. Theirs were the only Americanas I have memory of having that style window.

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I couldn't get a view inside, nor found any decals. I forgot to check the plates. This was taken last winter.

If it had a rear window I would guess ex-Seattle. Someone had mentioned having no rear window was unique for an Americana, but from all the pics I remember Seattle's King County Metro was the unique American TA in having a rear window Americana. All the other TAs including CTA had models without the rear window. If you switched your perspective to the other TAs besides American ones then yes no rear window was unique. But sticking with the American version of this bus, what we refer to as the MAN Americana, then Seattle was unique among the TAs with this bus.

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If it had a rear window I would guess ex-Seattle. Someone had mentioned having no rear window was unique for an Americana, but from all the pics I remember Seattle's King County Metro was the unique American TA in having a rear window Americana. All the other TAs including CTA had models without the rear window. If you switched your perspective to the other TAs besides American ones then yes no rear window was unique. But sticking with the American version of this bus, what we refer to as the MAN Americana, then Seattle was unique among the TAs with this bus.

To my recollect, no rear window.

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Way back, there was a 5/3 MAN bus in the western suburbs with a red and black wrap. The wrap may be new, but probably not the bus.

The roof vents seem to eliminate NORTA, Seattle (although the rear windows are illustrated), Charlotte (note more modern treatment of headsign area), World Trans, and Minneapolis.

Maybe this delivery list helps; searching it for "792" also turns up Harris County (presumably Texas), but Bus Explorer says that the World Trans ones are ex-Houston. So, I'm stumped. Maybe Fifth-Third had it air conditioned after they got it.

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<br />Way back, there was a 5/3 MAN bus in the western suburbs with a red and black wrap. The wrap may be new, but probably not the bus.<br /><br />The roof vents seem to eliminate <a href='http://www.streetcarmike.com/norta_man.html' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow'>NORTA</a>, <a href='http://www.busdrawings.com/Transit/washington/seattle/1986americana/index.htm' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow'>Seattle</a> (although the rear windows are illustrated), <a href='http://busexplorer.com/PHP/MidPage.php?id=500' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow'>Charlotte</a> (note more modern treatment of headsign area), <a href='http://busexplorer.com/PHP/MidPage.php?id=503' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow'>World Trans</a>, and <a href='Man Americana class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow'>Minneapolis.</a><br /><br />Maybe this <a href='http://www.reocities.com/buslist/Delivery/MAN.html' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow'>delivery list</a> helps; searching it for &quot;792&quot; also turns up Harris County (presumably Texas), but Bus Explorer says that the World Trans ones are ex-Houston. So, I'm stumped. Maybe Fifth-Third had it air conditioned after they got it.<br />
<br /><br /><br />

I'm pretty sure the bus belongs to these folk: http://www.communityconnect.org/

It's a mobile computer lab, used for education in low income areas.

The buses get pretty extensive modifications to serve that purpose, so I doubt the roof equipment is original.

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<br /><br /><br />

I'm pretty sure the bus belongs to these folk: http://www.communityconnect.org/

It's a mobile computer lab, used for education in low income areas.

The buses get pretty extensive modifications to serve that purpose, so I doubt the roof equipment is original.

No we were trying to figure out where the bus previously served as a regular in service transit bus, not the current owners of the bus. Thanks for the heads up about the roof equipment though. So after looking at the links Busjack provided, from the exhaust pipe on the rear top left of the bus and the styling of the windows, I think my original hypothesis that it's ex-Seattle appears to hold up since Seattle picked up a 1986 variant of this model that included the exhaust pipe at the top rear or the bus instead of in a lower less visible position as CTA's and those of the other cities and TAs that had them.

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