6400-series Nova LFS - Updates & Retirements

[busfan2847]

6580 and 6821 are back out in service today.

[andrethebusman]

It would appear that the sign isn't communicating with the Clever Device. When one brings up the "Destination" tab on the CD, it shows "Sign not responding". It appears that when whoever does these things updated the sign chips, they didn't do whatever they are supposed to do to make the sign and CD coordinate.

[andrethebusman]

5 hours ago, busfan2847 said:

6580 and 6821 are back out in service today.

I hate to say this, but it appears "bus control" (somebody at S Shops who is supposed to keep track of what is where) is having a very hard time finding out from FG what is really going on. Buses end up in the "back yard" (the lot south of Armstrong at the west end of the street) where the supposed dead are left until 276 comes to get them, but then they come back out again. (276 is the South Shops tow truck that hauls the dead on their final journey)

[BusHunter]

Probably one comes in with worse problems. Probably it's just buses picked at random for retirement, they have alot they can choose from and not all the right retirement choices are being made. I would say doesn't cta keep a log on buses but operators have stated they filled out reports and the bus still has the same problem. This was at other garages though but it probably is the case there too. Right now these buses have so many problems you would have a xmas list of things to do. 

[sw4400]

21 minutes ago, andrethebusman said:

I hate to say this, but it appears "bus control" (somebody at S Shops who is supposed to keep track of what is where) is having a very hard time finding out from FG what is really going on. Buses end up in the "back yard" (the lot south of Armstrong at the west end of the street) where the supposed dead are left until 276 comes to get them, but then they come back out again. (276 is the South Shops tow truck that hauls the dead on their final journey)

Well, with the over 290 buses at FG(260 Novas and 30 New Flyers), space might be tight. Drivers probably park the buses wherever they can find a spot. Easiest way to mark the buses is go to a nearby hardware store, buy several cans of black spray paint and put a big dark "X" or "Scrap" on the windshield so 276 can easily I.D the buses and take them away.

 

BTW: doesn't 276 have a manifest of what bus numbers to pick up(e.g Take #6471,#6751, #6781, #6815 to South Shops for scrapping).

[andrethebusman]

I suspect 276 is told to go to FG and ask maintenance manager which one to haul away.

[jajuan]

10 hours ago, sw4400 said:

Well, with the over 290 buses at FG(260 Novas and 30 New Flyers), space might be tight. Drivers probably park the buses wherever they can find a spot. Easiest way to mark the buses is go to a nearby hardware store, buy several cans of black spray paint and put a big dark "X" or "Scrap" on the windshield so 276 can easily I.D the buses and take them away.

 

BTW: doesn't 276 have a manifest of what bus numbers to pick up(e.g Take #6471,#6751, #6781, #6815 to South Shops for scrapping).

I actually doubt FG is holding on to 290 buses worth of bloat. Having gained 30 NFs, something from the 6400s has to be OOS or soon to be put on the retirement/chopping block really soon, if not done already, despite not yet having confirmation to that effect. In fact 260 was a combination of bloating to cover the 76's return to FG and holding spares for junk. 

[BusHunter]

#6826 is yet another bus with no destination signs at all.

[BusHunter]

I checked out math22's tracker to see what's back or not in service. I spotted #6534 and #6852 as in service on 3/14 so they are back at FG on the roster. I checked to see what hasn't ran from the 14th - 16th and it's 36 buses, so I guess they are on the endangered list.

#6524, #6533, #6536, #6543, #6545, #6552, #6553, #6564, #6567, #6573, #6578, #6581, #6591, #6600, #6603, #6606, #6623, #6627, #6629, #6641, #6646, #6666, #6681, #6698, #6772, #6778, #6784, #6806, #6812, #6824, #6829, #6835, #6846, #6848, #6867, #6881.

Wow 24 of these are base order buses!!

[sw4400]

12 hours ago, jajuan said:

I actually doubt FG is holding on to 290 buses worth of bloat. Having gained 30 NFs, something from the 6400s has to be OOS or soon to be put on the retirement/chopping block really soon, if not done already, despite not yet having confirmation to that effect. In fact 260 was a combination of bloating to cover the 76's return to FG and holding spares for junk. 

Not doubting your post at all...... going off roster data, it shows 290(260 Novas and 30 New Flyers). I would say 140 are fully operable, 60 are operable with minor issues(kneelers not working, signs barely or not working now, etc...) and the other 60 are inoperable unless a engine/transmission component or something else that's major is repaired to make it operable(which includes the wheelchair ramps.... with all bus routes now accessible, the Novas have to be able to take on wheelchairs and scooters unless the CTA wants the driver to stow and deploy a flat piece of metal to act as a temporary ramp(which I highly doubt for safety concerns).

[garmon757]

7 hours ago, BusHunter said:

I checked out math22's tracker to see what's back or not in service. I spotted #6534 and #6852 as in service on 3/14 so they are back at FG on the roster. I checked to see what hasn't ran from the 14th - 16th and it's 36 buses, so I guess they are on the endangered list.

#6524, #6533, #6536, #6543, #6545, #6552, #6553, #6564, #6567, #6573, #6578, #6581, #6591, #6600, #6603, #6606, #6623, #6627, #6629, #6641, #6646, #6666, #6681, #6698, #6772, #6778, #6784, #6806, #6812, #6824, #6829, #6835, #6846, #6848, #6867, #6881.

Wow 24 of these are base order buses!!

#6606 and #6641 are out to the boneyard! #6824 and #6881 are still in service while on #76 right now. #6806 is on #80 and #6835 is on #77 right now. 

[BusHunter]

9 hours ago, garmon757 said:

#6606 and #6641 are out to the boneyard! #6824 and #6881 are still in service while on #76 right now. #6806 is on #80 and #6835 is on #77 right now. 

Yeah, I trimmed it down to 21 buses now.

#6524, #6533, #6536, #6543, #6564, #6567, #6578, #6591, #6600, #6603, #6606, #6623, #6629, #6641, #6646, #6681, #6698, #6812, #6846, #6848, #6867 (21)

#6755, #6794 and #6803 have also returned to fg, so I put those back on the roster.

[sw4400]

54 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah, I trimmed it down to 21 buses now.

#6524, #6533, #6536, #6543, #6564, #6567, #6578, #6591, #6600, #6603, #6606, #6623, #6629, #6641, #6646, #6681, #6698, #6812, #6846, #6848, #6867 (21)

#6755, #6794 and #6803 have also returned to fg, so I put those back on the roster.

They're probably rotated in and out in small groups of 5 or less for a inspection by inspection checklist at South Shops, or by South Shops personnel at Forest Glen. Those that can be saved get a green checkmark and will eventually get to an operable enough condition to return to service. Those that are done in for are given a red "X" and will eventually be taken to South Shops to be stripped of usable parts and eventually go to Sims or whoever has a scrap contract for those Novas at that time.

[BusHunter]

I was looking at the retirements for the last two weeks and there may actually be some method to the retirement madness. They seem like they are retiring all buses that don't have an updated clever device. Almost all the retirements fall into that category. In fact that list is getting small. I was wondering why the #6400's are sticking around, but some, I don't know if all, have an updated clever device.

They did state that all buses would have updated CD's by the end of the year. Maybe they are finally catching up to that statement.

[BusHunter]

#6464 can join #6826 and the gang on the non operative destinations fleet. Wow, I've been seeing alot of dead buses these last two days at FG. First I came across a 992 driving #6877, I thought another ex 74th bus had met it's destiny, but no it was out on the #77 later that evening. I guess it came out to trade for a dead bus. Then i come across #6580 yesterday at Kilbourn/Belmont sitting with a mobile mechanic, and a supervisor. Today i came across #6784 at Jeff Pk, it was stuck in the #56 bay for the evening rush, the point supervisor for Jeff was over there and they were trying to rev the engine. It was stuck out of gear and no matter what they did they couldn't get it in gear. One operator left the bus another came in and left the bus and the supervisor came and left the bus. I kept hearing the seat alarm, so I went over there to see what's up. They were sitting in the seat and the alarm was going off. I never knew the alarm can go off if someone is in the seat. I remember long ago someone told a operator from hq that sometimes if they do a hard reset, turn the bus off and restart it will shift gears then. I actually witnessed this work once. Either that or maybe try and shift coming down off a rev, a hard shift, but maybe they would mess up the trans. Oh well I left them about 30 minutes later problem unresolved.

[BusHunter]

#6455's sign is fixed but the front is stuck on 74th garage. But at least it's working. #6550 looks to be working too.

[BusHunter]

On 2/23/2016 at 11:43 AM, andrethebusman said:

6400, 6405, 6409-6414, 6415, 6417, 6419-6421, 6429, 6434, 6450, 6463, 6469, 6475, 6476, 6485-6487, 6491, 6492, 9494, 6498, 6499, 6507, 6509, 6518, 6531, 6560, 6560, 6570, 6593, 6597, 6601, 6604, 6610, 6611, 6624, 6625, 6628, 6640, 6647, 6649, 6652, 6653, 6670, 6693, 6709, 6726, 6732, 6738, 6739, 6795, 6809, 6851 to Sims in 2015 between August and December.

Interestingly, 6518 was at West Shops before being scrapped, completely stripped apparently to be a work bus, but this obviously did not happen.

 

So all the junk buses that were missing parts and were in accidents are gone huh? #6531, #6610, #6647, #6726, #6738, #6420, #6450. the one that seems to be missing is #6832. I wonder why not junk it? Is it involved in litigation?

[andrethebusman]

Live list 3/19/16 (227 buses)

6451-56,58,60-62,64-68,70-74,77,79-80,82,84,88

6534,37,50,52-54,58-59,62,64-65,69,71-81,85,87

6617,20,22,27,33-34,68-69,71-72,74-679,81-84,86-89,91-92

6704-06,10-16,18,22,24-25,27-30,33-34,36-37,40,42-48,50-52,54-55,57-64,66-73,75-76,78,80-84,87-88,90-94,96-99

6801-08,10-12,14-22,24,26-29,31,33-38,40-44,46-50,52-77,81-83

[BusHunter]

26 minutes ago, andrethebusman said:

Live list 3/19/16 (227 buses)

6451-56,58,60-62,64-68,70-74,77,79-80,82,84,88

6534,37,50,52-54,58-59,62,64-65,69,71-81,85,87

6617,20,22,27,33-34,68-69,71-72,74-679,81-84,86-89,91-92

6704-06,10-16,18,22,24-25,27-30,33-34,36-37,40,42-48,50-52,54-55,57-64,66-73,75-76,78,80-84,87-88,90-94,96-99

6801-08,10-12,14-22,24,26-29,31,33-38,40-44,46-50,52-77,81-83

Yeah I noticed the low #6660's disappeared this week. I was like damn when did that happen? If we notice each of the #6400's, #6500's, #6600's has about 24 buses each. But the #6400's now out number the #6500's. Base order buses should be around the low 90's. Unfortunately there's not many more option buses about 130.

Any more Sims lists? I updated my roster and added the old Sims info. I checked and discovered I didn't put the retirement info for #6544, #6566, #6611, #6637, #6680 and #6708 so I had to approximate them. The list should look alot better than it did earlier in the week.

[BusHunter]

43 minutes ago, andrethebusman said:

Live list 3/19/16 (227 buses)

6451-56,58,60-62,64-68,70-74,77,79-80,82,84,88

6534,37,50,52-54,58-59,62,64-65,69,71-81,85,87

6617,20,22,27,33-34,68-69,71-72,74-679,81-84,86-89,91-92

6704-06,10-16,18,22,24-25,27-30,33-34,36-37,40,42-48,50-52,54-55,57-64,66-73,75-76,78,80-84,87-88,90-94,96-99

6801-08,10-12,14-22,24,26-29,31,33-38,40-44,46-50,52-77,81-83

Okay compared your list with mine. If this is correct then I would have to eliminate #6510, #6515, #6523, #6545, #6547, #6549, #6657, #6662, #6664, #6694 -97, #6699 - #6702

and add #6831 and #6564.  I had 232 left so that would take me down to 217.

Queue the music.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OPc7MRm4Y8

[BusHunter]

11 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Okay compared your list with mine. If this is correct then I would have to eliminate #6510, #6515, #6523, #6545, #6547, #6549, #6657, #6662, #6664, #6694 -97, #6699 - #6702

and add #6831 and #6564.  I had 232 left so that would take me down to 217.

Queue the music.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OPc7MRm4Y8

Okay #6694 -97 and #6700 - #6702 was in service morning of the 22nd, so I'll keep those on my list probably #6699 is a keeper too. The rest sound right and I'll put it under watch. I think I'll keep #6564 and #6831 off the list even though #6831 might be back ( gone since the 6th) but #6825 didn't return so who knows. Adding the #6690's give me 8 more buses and a more believable 225 novas in service. That would give FG 255 total. They probably can't reduce anymore so a #1000 bus transfer to fg sounds like it's next.

[sw4400]

Had #6461 two days ago on #152. The air brakes on it reminded me of a older model Mack truck. You know when they are applied and they make this "rrrRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrr"..... noise?(ok, that's the best I can describe it since I can't find a audio example on YouTube for demonstration purposes) That's the noise the brakes made when the operator slowed the bus to a stop at lights and to drop off/let passengers on.

[andrethebusman]

I plan on waiting a while before asking for another Sims list, when more will have gone.

[BusHunter]

2 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

I plan on waiting a while before asking for another Sims list, when more will have gone.

That's fine, I was just noticing while redoing the #6400 retirement list, I have some buses that didn't go to Sims (retired in '14) and I had a whole bunch of newer retirements circa 3/15, that did go. I guess it's possible those are among the 100 at south shops.

[andrethebusman]

There are still a bunch of 6000 Flx's at SS that have been dead 7 plus years. I am not surprised early rets are still there.