New Eldorados?

[BusHunter]

18 minutes ago, Busjack said:

There's still the issue of how many buses a garage needs. By the time SW got 6558, it was running all Axess (except for the 30 footers), so it didn't need more buses. Although the inventory said 6573-4 to SW, it didn't need them, and people were yelling "why are there still Orions at NW?" There aren't now.

I didn't say dominated, but I did say that instead of sending say 25 more 6700s to NS as your posts implied, most of the remaining NABIs could be knocked out by 30 ft. buses. Some NABIs have gone to W, but most have not yet.

 

If you mean 30 ft buses, for some reason Pace has never assigned any there to Waukegan local routes. That gets back to whether Pace meant anything in the 2017 budget that it is getting 35 ft buses.

 

I didn't imply that it did. My point was that it would affect the bus allocation at NS. West is basically going to run about 125-140 40 foot buses of whatever type is available.

That's what the budget said, but, again, that's 35 and 40 ft.buses, according to the budget.

North got out of sync because it had the 20 Gillig 35 ft. buses and then the 30 NABI (1999) buses.What was the fly in the ointment was while the 1999 NABIs were replaced as a result of acquiring 6323-6376, all those buses went to W; S and N got replacements from W.

I wonder if our Chandler garage member with the camera took notice and saw if the #6740's were 35 foot. That almost sounds like a red herring that that's going to be a north bus. I wonder how many north buses are 35ft. Hmm aren't eldorko's 30 foot???

[Busjack]

6 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Hmm aren't eldorko's 30 foot???

The ones Pace now has are, except the 4 32 BRTs (2826-2829) at FV.

12 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I wonder how many north buses are 35ft.

The inventory (now about a year old) has 14 40 foot NABIs and 39 35 foot ones, for a total of 53.

 

[Pace831]

1 hour ago, BusHunter said:

I wonder if our Chandler garage member with the camera took notice and saw if the #6740's were 35 foot.

When I saw 6743 and 6746 on I-80, they were definitely 40 foot.

[Pace831]

As of 10/27/17, up to 6748 and 17571 were at South Holland.

[Pace831]

13 minutes ago, Pace831 said:

As of 10/27/17, up to 6748 and 17571 were at South Holland.

6748:

The whole row (17571 is 6th from the left). There are now so many buses here, they have to double park them.

6717 is hiding around the corner:

Across the street, I found this relic from Macomb, IL:

[Busjack]

13 hours ago, Pace831 said:

The whole row (17571 is 6th from the left). There are now so many buses here, they have to double park them.

Which establishes that whoever thought that 17570 was on Webwatch meant that S was stuck with NABIs was wrong.although doing the quadruple zoom indicates that 17570 was still in the lot when you were there (a week ago). Others were 17550, 61.62. 63, 64, and 69.

Looks like 6700 is also there, which explains why we haven't seen 6700-2 on Webwatch yet..

[BusHunter]

Yeah they are processing two orders at once. Thats hard so the buses stack up. I would have liked to see what south shops was like in 1991-92. They were processing tmc and flxibles at the same time. Could have been 30 buses a week coming through there.

[Pace831]

6750 at South Holland this morning. Also no more CNGs in the lot, except 17508 which hasn't moved for a while due to damage.

[BusHunter]

Finally got out here at Chandler. #6751 is in the lot. I was getting gas just now at Circle K and spotted #6755 and #6753 out for a test drive. I shot video don't know if it came out we'll see.

Yeah they came out. I'll upload some stills later.

[BusHunter]

Over here at Pace acceptance they have #6757 and #6761. Got a few shots with #17571.

[BusHunter]

Here are my shots

 

[Pace831]

4 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Here are my shots

Looks like 17571 is almost ready to hit the streets in service.

I was somewhat surprised that the 6700s in South Holland were higher numbers than the ones you saw at Chandler.

Did Chandler have the gate closed? It has been the last few times I went there, so you can only read bus numbers if they are parked in front next to the fence.

[BusHunter]

Just now, Pace831 said:

Looks like 17571 is almost ready to hit the streets in service.

I was somewhat surprised that the 6700s in South Holland were higher numbers than the ones you saw at Chandler.

Did Chandler have the gate closed? It has been the last few times I went there, so you can only read bus numbers if they are parked in front next to the fence.

Yeah destination was programmed for #364 if you can't see it on #17571. 

Chandler had the gate open. I was trying to figure out how you got such good shots over there. I could only see #6751 in the corner. Some guy was walking around in there. Being this was my first trip I tended to be more cautious. Only saw about 5 buses stacked up behind #6751 couldn't get numbers one was a cng. The #6753 and #6755 had the unprogrammed signs. That must be done at acceptance. 

I got a lot out of going to pace acceptance. They had a lot of the #6700s there. #6757, #6734, #6722 I believe, #6761. You could get very close to the buses which was good needed my better camera though. 

I went to south too, first time, couldnt find the junk lot. Looks like the cng station is in back.

Maybe next week I'll go again that was fun

 

[Pace831]

11 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah destination was programmed for #364 if you can't see it on #17571. 

It looks like 354. The rear sign says CTR-CLOCKWISE which wouldn't apply to 364.

13 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I was trying to figure out how you got such good shots over there.

From the sidewalk across the street with a good zoom lens.

16 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

They had a lot of the #6700s there. #6757, #6734, #6722 I believe, #6761.

Here is the list of what was there yesterday. Looks like you saw a few more.

6700, 6718, 6722-5, 6727, 6731-2, 6734-6, 6741-2, 6744-6, 6748, 6750

23 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

You could get very close to the buses which was good needed my better camera though.

As you figured out, going behind the businesses on either side gives you a closer view than from the street.

26 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I went to south too, first time, couldnt find the junk lot. Looks like the cng station is in back.

The junk lot is the property adjacent to South on the west side. If coming from Dixie Hwy, just go a little farther down the street, it's the next driveway after the bus entrance to South. I'm surprised you missed it, you must have been close.

[BusHunter]

Yeah I missed the south driveway at south. I followed #6284 into the garage. As I don't know the area, I needed the help of a pullin to do that. The road just dead ends and im like wth. Wheres the junkyard??? 

I parked the car at Chandler at the strip mall and walked over. I suppose I could have parked in their lot. I don't know how you got bay shots. Maybe that's how. I need to investigate that area further to be more effective. 

 

[Busjack]

11 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Yeah I missed the south driveway at south. I followed #6284 into the garage. As I don't know the area, I needed the help of a pullin to do that. The road just dead ends and im like wth. Wheres the junkyard??? 

. 

 

It's basically as @Pace831 said. You stay on 163 Place and go west of the garage.About here on Streetview, but since that is 5 years old, no junk there yet.

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

It's basically as @Pace831 said. You stay on 163 Place and go west of the garage.About here on Streetview, but since that is 5 years old, no junk there yet.

yeah, I didn't go past Raco Steel, the blue building to the north. There was an 18 wheeler parked down at the end of 163rd place and I didn't want to get mixed up with them. I thought before your post I was supposed to go south but it's west i need to go. i tried feeling out the areas on Streetview before I went but like you say no junk yard exists on there. Plus I couldn't see the accessible driveways at acceptance until I went in person. So Streetview can only get you so far, by far the most challenging place is Chandler. Technically though your not trespassing until you pass the fence, the parking lot is public space.

I didn't mention i stopped in at south shops too. Didn't see #700, but they have alot of old novas on the north fence over by 77th. Some have the white paint #6435 did. Other than that everything seemed normal. No artics hardly just #4146 I believe.

Where did they rehab the #1000's mechanically? I forgot. It was a heavy maintenance contractor. Cummins diesel???

[BusHunter]

Alright it was CumminsNPower. 7145 Santa Fe drive, Hodgkins, Il.

[Busjack]

Only 2 NABIs at S at 8 a.m. today.

[Pace831]

On 11/8/2017 at 12:18 PM, BusHunter said:

by far the most challenging place is Chandler. Technically though your not trespassing until you pass the fence, the parking lot is public space.

Technically you are trespassing once you step over the edge of the sidewalk (if we assume that to be the property boundary). Chandler's parking lot is their private property. It may be considered open to the public, depending on whether they care if you go there (which I don't know and personally wouldn't attempt). Obviously, the fence is an indication to keep out.

[BusHunter]

Over here at Chandler checking things out. The gate was closed now it's open. A rep from mv has come over here in a pace car. He has went to the desk and now he went to the lot most likely to pick up a bus. #2603 is actually outside the gate on the apron. I brought my binoculars and saw #17569 is in the back of the lot. #6756 is in the front. Looks like another cng bus is also here. They have a couple Avis car rental buses over here they must be contracted through them too.

[Pace831]

10 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Over here at Chandler checking things out. The gate was closed now it's open. A rep from mv has come over here in a pace car. He has went to the desk and now he went to the lot most likely to pick up a bus. #2603 is actually outside the gate on the apron. I brought my binoculars and saw #17569 is in the back of the lot. #6756 is in the front. Looks like another cng bus is also here. They have a couple Avis car rental buses over here they must be contracted through them too.

Try not to look too suspicious. I was there around 9:15 this morning and they definitely saw me taking pictures. I didn't notice them watching me.

[Pace831]

6756 and a CNG were against the west fence. 6724 in the lot to the left. 17569 along the building in back. Avis #19 was outside the gate.

[BusHunter]

#2603 was on the move when I left. A mechanic was driving it. Don't know where the mv guy went. Over here at souths junkyard now. This place is big.

[BusHunter]

Looks like the same at south holland dont really see anything new.