Did CTA ever sell Fishbowls to Buffalo Motor Coach ?

[Amtrak41]

The reason I ask is that I just bought one of those Arcadia Publishing history books entitled "Buffalo's Historic Streetcars and Buses". B.M.C. was a northern suburban transit bus operator that succumbed to NFTA a few years ago. Page 126 picture has a BMC Fishbowl #3211 at the LaSalle NFTA Metro Rail Station in November 1991. The destination sign says "156 LaSalle North". Granted that NFTA has a LaSalle location, but I found to be either an amazing coincidence that the route number is 156 as in Chicago, OR did they not change the mylar roll sign from Chicago ? Did CTA buses have a generic destination called "North" ?

[jajuan]

The reason I ask is that I just bought one of those Arcadia Publishing history books entitled "Buffalo's Historic Streetcars and Buses". B.M.C. was a northern suburban transit bus operator that succumbed to NFTA a few years ago. Page 126 picture has a BMC Fishbowl #3211 at the LaSalle NFTA Metro Rail Station in November 1991. The destination sign says "156 LaSalle North". Granted that NFTA has a LaSalle location, but I found to be either an amazing coincidence that the route number is 156 as in Chicago, OR did they not change the mylar roll sign from Chicago ? Did CTA buses have a generic destination called "North" ?

It's quite possible that that bus is a former CTA fishbowl. 'North' on the roller sign could be a reference to North Avenue which historically has been an AM rush short turn destination for the 156.

[Busjack]

Did CTA buses have a generic destination called "North" ?

To elaborate on what jajuan said, there is the intersection of LaSalle and North.

The generic sign would have been "North Terminal."

However, I have doubts as generally it was CTA's practice to take the roll signs out before selling or scrapping the buses. I suppose it is possible that something got sent there immediately after CTA received the 4400s and 5300s in 1991, but Limits Garage, which then operated 156 didn't have the type of buses that were retired then.

[Amtrak41]

Upon closer examination of the b&w photo, and it not a great quality, there is aluminum bezel around the front parking lights, and it has 6 standee windows, so a 35 footer. Both are indicators that it was not CTA since CTA was quite anal about leaving the bezel off until the last batch of Fishbowls, but maybe there were exceptions. I don't know if they ever owned a 35-footer. It is probably a TDM-4502 since it lacks that standee window extension over the front triangular window, lacks aluminum trim over the driver window, has gray rubber, has louver-style air intakes to the rear of the standee windows, but can't tell if it has the EIP vents out the sides of the back window.

In mylar roll sign days, were readouts limited to just what that bus barn had assigned to them ?

I think a Fishbowl sign could contain about 95 readouts.

[Busjack]

I don't know if they ever owned a 35-footer. It is probably a TDM-4502...

The only 35 foot fishbowls that CTA owned were Flxs, and out of service in the mid 70s. A picture of one, all arted up, is here.

In mylar roll sign days, were readouts limited to just what that bus barn had assigned to them?

I think a Fishbowl sign could contain about 95 readouts.

Yes. The main constraint was the bulk of the roll.

While the rolls were limited to particular garages (5750 and I both have one), there was some overlap, in that a route could have been out of two garages. Thus, there is a slight chance that 156 could have been on a North Park roll, but very unlikely. Downtown express routes would be on most rolls.