In Service/Retired RTA,Pace bus photos

[Guest]

Yes. Thanks for the look back down memory lane. I forgot that a 3700 was ever in the bicentennial colors. I just remember seeing a Fishbowl and a MAN Artic (I think) in those colors when I was little. What's interesting about the pic of 4903 is that a Flx-5300s is sitting behind it signed as a 16 Lake bus. That suggests to me this is possibly shortly after the opening of Chicago and the transfer of the old 16 from Kedzie to Chicago given the Kedzie 'K---' run number in the run box. I didn't think anything other than 3700s or 4900s operated on the 16 suring the time of these buses service life because of the 96 inch width restriction for buses on this route due to the limited width of Lake Street under the Green Line tracks. The fishbowls and the Americana 4334 in original colors brought back childhood memories. I remember seeing the white and black fishbowl with the orange orange and blue base on the side sitting parked at the Michigan/Congress Plaza staging area that's used by the 7, 126, 132, 143 and 147. The fishbowls with the different colors where the dark green or white (of the Albinos) would go in those buses' original livery for CTA were interesting. It would be nice to see a pic of the blue RTA fishbowls that were painted in the same pattern as CTA originally had them in green or the Pace ones that were like a turquoise with red painted in the positions that CTA put the dark green.

My dad was a North Ave. bus operator from 1972 to 1986, I remember as a kid riding with him aboard #3701 in both the Bicentennial and the "Clean up Chicago" liveries on the #73 Armitage.

[Guest]

If you click back to his Illinois link, and then click forward, there is other interesting stuff, including

• A CMC garage photo with a mixture of single level and double decker buses.
  
• A Highland Park page, with apparently a Twin Coach (maybe from Elgin) along with some RTA pumpkin buses.
  
• An RTA page, with, in addition to pumpkin buses, some old buses painted in different RTA schemes, and again a Twin Coach on 422. Also a Grumman that is "Out to Lunch."
  

There are also Evanston, Glenview, and Nortran links.

I always thought Nortrans first buses were the 5307s. I never realized they had the earlier fishbowl models as well as Old Looks. Very interesting to see. Until recently as two years ago, it wasant uncommon to see a CTA/Pace bus stop along Milwaukee ave. with the Nortran logo still on it. They have since replaced them with new signage.

[Busjack]

I always thought Nortrans first buses were the 5307s. I never realized they had the earlier fishbowl models as well as Old Looks.

Most of those were just Uniteds with a Nortran sticker, or maybe repainted. The only ones Nortran bought were the 5307s on the tack on CTA order.

The Twin Coach in RTA colors in the background was a bit of a surprise. I though that Elgin and Aurora just got rid of them when they got the pumpkin buses, but I guess not.

[pudgym29]

Here are three photos of Orion 2300's I took.

#2351 was wrapped in an advert for "Blue Man Group". I was coming back from Niles, and the Yelp Northwest suburban dinner at the Himalayan Restaurant in the Four Flaggs shopping center. These two were taken across the avenue and about two blocks away, at the route #270 regular Golf Mill terminus.

Here is the best shot of #2370 about to begin a run on #226 from Jefferson Park. (I was waiting for a #88 Higgins bus.)

I also have an interior photograph of #2321 on route #270, which was the bus I caught from Jefferson Park to Niles, but it is not so good.