2200-series - Updates (Retired)

[Guest]

(First post, sorry for the necropost)

I've only lived in Chicago for about a year and a half now, but the CTA rail system fascinates me. I grew up in Cleveland, where the closest thing we had available was the RTA Rapid Transit.

Anyways, living here now, it's a shame to see the 2200 series go. I find them to be far less dated-looking than the more recent cars. Aspect lights inside the cab, stainless steel inside and out, and no godawful-ugly wood paneling! I know they aren't accessible and probably fail quite a lot, but I like those old things. Noisy in the subways, but I find myself deliberately waiting in the middle of the Blue Line platform so I'll be on a 2200.

I visited Cleveland once back in 2004. I wanted to ride the Japanese Tokyu RTA Red Line cars which I found fascinating given my N scale Japanese mass transit collection. I rode it back and forth from Hopkins Int. to Windermere and back although I would board at Brookpark because it was near my hotel. Carson Home Video has a 1 hour video on the Red Line. It was filmed around 1988 before the track route realignment as It shows in the video, the trains ran left handed similar to CNW and the station rebuilds werent done yet. There is a quick shot of the Bluebirds in the yard after leaving the airport. It looks and runs like an interurban train. I hope when those cars begin their retirement, a couple will make it to IRM. I made the drive to Cleveland to see the line. I did take out the video camera and film plenty of Red line action as well as RTA buses at Tower City. At one point close to the end of my trip, I was filming on board the train off the rear car and of course someone wanted to be a hero and opened up their trap to the motorman instead of minding their own business, I had a run in with Cleveland PD and was ordered to stop. I didnt listen, I kept filming and came away with some great Red Line and LRV video, about two hours worth, Good enough for me!!! I didnt ride the Shaker Heights segment.

[BusHunter]

The new thing I've been noticing lately is that quite a few of the #2200's are being held in,in the rush periods at Desplaines and Rosemont. I counted at least 20 - 30 cars between the two locations.

[2200fan]

Does anyone know when the last day for the 2200s will be or is this too soon? I remember the last of the 6000s thing they did and yes I was there.

[i8itall4u]

Does anyone know when the last day for the 2200s will be or is this too soon? I remember the last of the 6000s thing they did and yes I was there.

I think it is too soon to forecast the last day for the 2200s. But I applaud you for not referring to them as "2200's". I ain't perfect but...the misuse of the apostrophe stops me cold when I'm reading.

[toppdawg12]

I think it is too soon to forecast the last day for the 2200s. But I applaud you for not referring to them as "2200's". I ain't perfect but...the misuse of the apostrophe stops me cold when I'm reading.

Amen!

[jajuan]

Didn't know this was now grammar and punctuation class. However, the apostrophe has not been misused in this thread. A little quote from Wikipedia:

"The apostrophe ( ’ , often rendered as ' ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets. In English, it serves three purposes:

The marking of the omission of one or more letters (as in the contraction of do not to don't).

The marking of possessive case (as in the cat's whiskers).

The marking as plural of written items that are not words established in English orthography (as in P's and Q's, the late 1950's)."

and dictionary.com:

" noun

the sign ('), as used: to indicate the omission of one or more letters in a word, whether unpronounced, as in o'er for over, or pronounced, as in gov't for government; to indicate the possessive case, as in man's; or to indicate plurals of abbreviations and symbols, as in several M.D.'s, 3's."

Now if we're done with grammar lessons, how about we get back to the discussing what's supposed to be the topic of the thread, namely the 2200-series blinker cars. :)

[MetroShadow]

Taught English for three years.

Purdue > Wikipedia

Anyways, My question is (and I think I know what the answer is), where do the retired cars go for their removal from service.

[BusHunter]

Taught English for three years.

Purdue > Wikipedia

Anyways, My question is (and I think I know what the answer is), where do the retired cars go for their removal from service.

Skokie Shops, BTW I was over there yesterday and there were a high number of #2600's there. So many that they even had some out by yellow line. Also I took a look at what the purple line still had for #2900's. They still have #2966-65, #2960-59, #2954 - #2949 so the blue line has the other 8 cars. Purple line also seems to have a few green line cars on it. I spotted #2480-79 among them.

[Busjack]

Taught English for three years.

Purdue > Wikipedia

Anyways, My question is (and I think I know what the answer is), where do the retired cars go for their removal from service.

Bus Hunter had the short term answer, but as illustrated in other cases (i.e. a request for proposals for the cars that were sitting around dead for about 10 years), there is an invitation to bid on them based on plus or minus the index for scrap metal, and then the scrapper hauls them away.

[trainman8119]

As I was tooling past the Rosemont yard yesterday, I spotted a string of 2200's that look to have been retired. All of the destination signs were missing and they were out on their own on the west end of the yard. I didn't even think of looking at the numbers, but they definitely looked like they might have been in the process of being gutted. I was a little surprised to see 4 cars like this out there, since I thought that kind of stuff was done in Skokie.

[RJL6000]

Given that the Illinois Railway Museum will be chartering a Snowflake Special train this coming March to raise funds to preserve a pair of 2400-series cars upon their retirement, it's odd that there is no similar fundraiser for the 2200s.

[Guest]

Given that the Illinois Railway Museum will be chartering a Snowflake Special train this coming March to raise funds to preserve a pair of 2400-series cars upon their retirement, it's odd that there is no similar fundraiser for the 2200s.

Maybe its possible theyve secured funding for a pair of 2200s? Is is possible?

[busfan2847]

Given that the Illinois Railway Museum will be chartering a Snowflake Special train this coming March to raise funds to preserve a pair of 2400-series cars upon their retirement, it's odd that there is no similar fundraiser for the 2200s.

The last three years of Snowflake specials have been fund raisers for a pair of 2200

[RJL6000]

The last three years of Snowflake specials have been fund raisers for a pair of 2200

Yes. It took them that long just to secure one pair of 2200s (the numbers shall remain unknown until that pair actually reaches IRM property).

[artthouwill]

As I was tooling past the Rosemont yard yesterday, I spotted a string of 2200's that look to have been retired. All of the destination signs were missing and they were out on their own on the west end of the yard. I didn't even think of looking at the numbers, but they definitely looked like they might have been in the process of being gutted. I was a little surprised to see 4 cars like this out there, since I thought that kind of stuff was done in Skokie.

Today I spotted 2269 & 2270 in that condition at the Forest Pk yard at.Desplaines Av. The destination signs and the roller.curtain holders have been removed.

[chitowndude84]

Hi,

Time to get those roller curtains before they end up in the "Trash".

[BusHunter]

Today I spotted 2269 & 2270 in that condition at the Forest Pk yard at.Desplaines Av. The destination signs and the roller.curtain holders have been removed.

There's 6 #2200's at Howard yard that have been there all month. #2299-#2300 among them. I think they still have there signs though.

[CURRENTZ_09]

my Question is the 5000-series return to service? or the 2200-series still operating in service?

[trainman8119]

5000s out 'til at least May, 2200s still out there on the Blue Line.

[BusHunter]

5000s out 'til at least May, 2200s still out there on the Blue Line.

There's not as many #2200's though on the blue. A consist of 8 #2600's is not that uncommon, like it was before. (I'd say about 50-50 versus cars with #2200's in the consist) I think there trying to keep those in the yard as much as possible. I guess well get to see now if Claypool's going to actually keep the cars a year after they have been replaced. If they have Bombardier crisis #3 and the #2200's are gone, it will be CTA that becomes the fall guy.

[Busjack]

There's not as many #2200's though on the blue. A consist of 8 #2600's is not that uncommon, like it was before. (I'd say about 50-50 versus cars with #2200's in the consist) I think there trying to keep those in the yard as much as possible. I guess well get to see now if Claypool's going to actually keep the cars a year after they have been replaced. If they have Bombardier crisis #3 and the #2200's are gone, it will be CTA that becomes the fall guy.

That might be the case, but if the 5000s aren't running until May, and a number of 2200s appear to be sitting, are there enough spares to cover the routes?*

___________

*This may be a reference to about 15 years ago when FTA said that CTA had too many spares. Still the case?

[BusHunter]

That might be the case, but if the 5000s aren't running until May, and a number of 2200s appear to be sitting, are there enough spares to cover the routes?*

___________

*This may be a reference to about 15 years ago when FTA said that CTA had too many spares. Still the case?

Sure if you can remember back when most of the #2601-#2660's were parked at Skokie, they had 60 spares then that they could deem inactive. (plus active spares) Since they've added the Pink line but that still leaves 15-20 spares. Currently the blue line can spare at least between 20-30 cars alone. (mostly #2200's) The Red line has about the same spare ratio, but there spares are #2600's. If they choose to keep the #2200's a while some of those spares may become #2200's. That's why we may be seeing a few at Howard yard. The cars are there but only for emergencies. It's easy to spread them around versus putting them all in one spot. When it gets interesting is when they have 100-200 spares. The cars may have to be retired for lack of storage space. If they then have a Bombardier crisis then they have a problem. I just hope the #5000's don't have a lifetime problem like the R46's.

[Busjack]

Sure if you can remember back when most of the #2601-#2660's were parked at Skokie, they had 60 spares then that they could deem inactive. (plus active spares) Since they've added the Pink line but that still leaves 15-20 spares. Currently the blue line can spare at least between 20-30 cars alone. (mostly #2200's) The Red line has about the same spare ratio, but there spares are #2600's. If they choose to keep the #2200's a while some of those spares may become #2200's. That's why we may be seeing a few at Howard yard. The cars are there but only for emergencies. It's easy to spread them around versus putting them all in one spot. When it gets interesting is when they have 100-200 spares. The cars may have to be retired for lack of storage space. If they then have a Bombardier crisis then they have a problem. I just hope the #5000's don't have a lifetime problem like the R46's.

Thanks.

I don't remember excess 2600s at Skokie, but do remember that there were low 2600s in the Linden Yard with Jackson Park signs on them (probably Lake-Jackson Park), which didn't seem to move, until such time as they were rebuilt by Alstom, and, of course, there were 40 cars off the property at any time when they were being rebuilt.

As far as storage, I mentioned the 61st Yard before, and the R46s are being discussed in the 5000s arrive thread.

[chgofan78]

That might be the case, but if the 5000s aren't running until May, and a number of 2200s appear to be sitting, are there enough spares to cover the routes?*

How many cars are actually needed now to cover the Blue Line? I ask this because there seems to be a lot of Blue Line equipment everywhere else. Howard Yard has 6 2200-series cars (2299-2300,2201-2202,2349-2350), Rosemont Yard has about 4 cars that seem to be inactive including (2277-2278,2287-2288), Skokie has at least 8 and there are numerous cars mentioned throughout this thread. Also, the Purple Line is operating this evening with some Blue Line 2600s (3001-3002,2995-2996,3075-3076). There's also an 8 car train of 2400s now assigned to the Red Line from the Green Line. I would say it was just a loaner, but the cars are all coupled in numerical order (2523-2524,2525-2526,2527-2528,2529-2530).

[artthouwill]

I believe there are about 318 cars asssigned to the Blue Line.

As for the Blue Line 2600s, probably a loaner. I don't know if the 2400s are actually assigned to the Red Line or not, but it would seem that they would be operating on the Purple. BTW, I saw the 2600 car consist you mentioed late last night on the elevated at Roosevelt/Wabash heading north