geneking7320 Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 CTA's buses presently have the following colors in their livery: white, black, red, blue and gray. I am curious which of those colors are painted on and which are tape stripes. Gene King Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garysheski Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 To Gene: I have no answer to your question, as I've been away from Chicago about 35 years,but the pix I see of modern-day paint schemes on the buses & trains mkaes me long for the "old days" of green & cream,or later, green & white, which reflected the city colors of the time. For elevated cars, the last batch painted in those traditonal colors were the Pullman-built 2000 series cars of the 1960s. (later cars, of couse, were built of shiny stainless steel or aluminum). The old green & cream fit right into the cityscape, they BELONGED to Chicago, and could be easily identified anywhere. Anything later could be anywhere in the U.S., it just aint Chicago any more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted September 16, 2009 Report Share Posted September 16, 2009 The revised RFP for the up to 900 hybrd articulated buses says at 5.4.3.10 that paint for the exterior of the bus shall match various Valspar colors for white, grey and black. Red stripe, blue stripe, logos and numbers shall be reflective decal type. 5.7, Drawing A, shows the locations of the various exterior decals, and after Drawings A and B, the spec says to use die cut vinyl reflective decals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksone44 Posted September 17, 2009 Report Share Posted September 17, 2009 Speaking of... I think its time for a new paint scheme. Long overdue. Something exciting and bold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MetroShadow Posted September 17, 2009 Report Share Posted September 17, 2009 Speaking of... I think its time for a new paint scheme. Long overdue. Something exciting and bold. Disco Lime Green... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geneking7320 Posted September 17, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2009 The revised RFP for the up to 900 hybrd articulated buses says at 5.4.3.10 that paint for the exterior of the bus shall match various Valspar colors for white, grey and black. Red stripe, blue stripe, logos and numbers shall be reflective decal type. 5.7, Drawing A, shows the locations of the various exterior decals, and after Drawings A and B, the spec says to use die cut vinyl reflective decals. Well Busjack, You've answered the question and I had guessed the stripes were tape. I'd be happy if we could get CTA to drop the black and gray(grey?) let alone move away from the flag colors. I know the Chicago flag has red, white, and blue but maybe it's time to leave the flag colors to WMATA. Gene Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jacksone44 Posted September 17, 2009 Report Share Posted September 17, 2009 Disco Lime Green... LOL. I am a fan of the new WMATA paint scheme(s). Given current CTA management, the Express/Local format would never work here under their leadership. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Busjack Posted September 17, 2009 Report Share Posted September 17, 2009 Disco Lime Green... The Pace announcement of the tollway plan implied that with basically a lime body with olive around the windows. Looking real close at the picture, it apparently is justified by the slogan on the letterboard "Powered by clean, green CNG." But those were traditionally CTA colors. ,,, Given current CTA management, the Express/Local format would never work here under their leadership. The BRT with the distinctive livery is out. In that the garages mix runs, I can't see having an express livery and then running the same buses on 151 local on weekends or 152 school runs, so it wouldn't be practical. CTA can't even go to chroma LED signs to differentiate, like they used to do with the red roll sign readings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BusHunter Posted September 17, 2009 Report Share Posted September 17, 2009 White is probably the cheapest color to paint the buses. And it's fade resistant. Grey was probably used to hide all the grey slush from the winter. The Red and Blue just make it all american. I kind of like the change PACE has made with the wrench logo buses. The yellow ones were kind of dead and boring. This adds some life and character to it. Being a deep blue my only concern is the weathering or fading aspect, but they seem to be still looking not too bad. It's too bad they couldn't come up with the cash to paint the rest of the fleet that way. A #6000 Orion would look alot better than now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diesel S560 Posted September 17, 2009 Report Share Posted September 17, 2009 LOL. I am a fan of the new WMATA paint scheme(s). Given current CTA management, the Express/Local format would never work here under their leadership. Yeah the new WMATA paint scheme is I think a direct result of metro's new GM John Catoe who worked for LACMTA prior to this latest appointment. Since his arrival I noticed that WMATA local and express routes are designated similarly to LACMTA's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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