Another #300 alive and well in sunny California

[Chicago13]

That's the one noted in the caption.

There is another month with a goof in the caption. I'll give a hint--it is the caption under the light streetcar.

I'm guessing it's one for August..streetcar 2902. Not sure what the goof is yet.

[sht6131]

Could the goof in question be the one showing 5615 posed at State & Wacker signed as an 8A South Halsted? If the 8A designation didn't exixt for another 20 years why is there a destination sign for it at the time the picture was taken?

You are right on on this one as I think there is more to this. According to Chicago Transit & Railfan the 8A was a route change from the old 42 streetcar days. This occurred in 1976. Now according to the same site this Flexible was retired in 1973. The destination sign looks real fresh and the side sign should have read So Halsted. To have the two different signs this bus would have to be assigned to a garage that serves 8 and 8A. Could not find one during this bus series existence. Wish I could remember that run# assignment. This has to be a photo shoot before its time.

[sht6131]

That's the one noted in the caption.

There is another month with a goof in the caption. I'll give a hint--it is the caption under the light streetcar.

Just a guess from a practical standpoint. Could the dates be wrong because according to Linds book they were short lived

[Busjack]

You are right on on this one as I think there is more to this. According to Chicago Transit & Railfan the 8A was a route change from the old 42 streetcar days. This occurred in 1976. Now according to the same site this Flexible was retired in 1973. The destination sign looks real fresh and the side sign should have read So Halsted. To have the two different signs this bus would have to be assigned to a garage that serves 8 and 8A. Could not find one during this bus series existence. Wish I could remember that run# assignment. This has to be a photo shoot before its time.

I mentioned that I was not so sure that this referred to a South Halsted bus. I base that only on Lind saying that the regular Halsted route was from 1951 to 1954 bus only on weekends and streetcar during the weekday, and the date of the picture is 1953. Hence 8 might be the streetcar and 8A the bus. He also has a picture of a 42B bus headsign on page 396, although the side sign is 103-106. One might think that CTA knew the difference between an 8A and and 42B, and wasn't playing clairvoyant that the 42B would be renumbered as the 8A in 1976. The Halsted sign on the side might indicate my drift, as sht indicates, although, during the streetcar days, the pictures in Lind's book indicate that any route on a street just had the street name, and thus S. Halsted may not have been a reading. On the other hand, since the signs in the picture I mentioned above didn't match, it is likely that matching signs was not a strict criterion for set shots.

2 BTWs:

• I'm still waiting for the person to catch the error in the 2902 caption.
• As far as another caption, the one under 1892-1992 says all were retired in 1994, but we previously discussed that it was technically by the end of 1993,

[trainman8119]

I'm still waiting for the person to catch the error in the 2902 caption

The caption states that the cars were divided into two groups...the first 5 numbered 2000-2005 (which would be 6 and not 5) and the other 5 numbered 2900-2903 (which would be 4 and not 5). Ahh the attention to detail !!!

[Busjack]

The caption states that the cars were divided into two groups...the first 5 numbered 2000-2005 (which would be 6 and not 5) and the other 5 numbered 2900-2903 (which would be 4 and not 5). Ahh the attention to detail !!!

Yes.

Besides 2903 not being enough for 5, Lind said that the usual pattern was 60% Chicago Rys. and 40% CCRY.

[artthouwill]

I mentioned that I was not so sure that this referred to a South Halsted bus. I base that only on Lind saying that the regular Halsted route was from 1951 to 1954 bus only on weekends and streetcar during the weekday, and the date of the picture is 1953. Hence 8 might be the streetcar and 8A the bus. He also has a picture of a 42B bus headsign on page 396, although the side sign is 103-106. One might think that CTA knew the difference between an 8A and and 42B, and wasn't playing clairvoyant that the 42B would be renumbered as the 8A in 1976. The Halsted sign on the side might indicate my drift, as sht indicates, although, during the streetcar days, the pictures in Lind's book indicate that any route on a street just had the street name, and thus S. Halsted may not have been a reading. On the other hand, since the signs in the picture I mentioned above didn't match, it is likely that matching signs was not a strict criterion for set shots.

I wasn't around during the streetcar days (hehe), but I believe there was a difference between the 8A and the 42B (I do remember the 42B). The 8A was the route that operated from 79th south and the 42B operated from 95th (at least after the Dan Ryan was built). Before then I couldn't tell you. In the mid-70s, the 42B for some odd reason was converted to an 8A and ran to 95 only in rush hours. Eventually this became the current day 108.

[busfan2847]

I wasn't around during the streetcar days (hehe), but I believe there was a difference between the 8A and the 42B (I do remember the 42B). The 8A was the route that operated from 79th south and the 42B operated from 95th (at least after the Dan Ryan was built). Before then I couldn't tell you. In the mid-70s, the 42B for some odd reason was converted to an 8A and ran to 95 only in rush hours. Eventually this became the current day 108.

The text under the photograph:

"No doubt photographed to promote the modernization of CTA’s fleet, the staged nature of the photo is revealed by the bus’s destination signs – route #8A is a south extension of the Halsted Street bus and begins about 10 miles south of State and Wacker! The route designation #8A also didn’t come into use until more than 20 years after the photo was taken; the route was designated #42B at the time."

clearly states it is a staged shot of new equipment.

There is no difference between 42B and 8A except and they did not co-exist. After the Dan Ryan was built Rush Hour 42B journeys were diverted to 95th/Dan Ryan with off peak service still going to 79th. 42B renumbered 8A 2/15/76. Eventually (9/8/85) 95th/Dan Ryan service would become part of 108.

[Busjack]

I wasn't around during the streetcar days (hehe), but I believe there was a difference between the 8A and the 42B (I do remember the 42B). The 8A was the route that operated from 79th south and the 42B operated from 95th (at least after the Dan Ryan was built). Before then I couldn't tell you. In the mid-70s, the 42B for some odd reason was converted to an 8A and ran to 95 only in rush hours. Eventually this became the current day 108.

In the Dan Ryan days (at least in the days of the 7400 series buses) there was a 42B to 79th and a 42B to 95th; the yellow part of the sign had the street number bigger.

42B became 8A, as the rest of us said, when the Helvetica signs stated in 1976, at the same time 22A became 24, 36A became 29, and the north LSD expresses got their numbers.

The 8A to 95th became 108 some time later (Chicago Transit and Railfan says 1985).

I wasn't around during the streetcar days, either, and am just making inferences from the picture and the book.

BTW, I asked on some other forum why 42B was 42B, in that that implied that it was an extension of the 42 Halsted-Downtown bus. Andre replied at that time that 42 was the audit number for all of Halsted, and the various through route numbers, including 8, were superimposed on it. Similarly, in Lind's book, it appeared that the side sign for all Halsted streetcar routes was Halsted, whether the route was to Waveland, Downtown, or the extension on Vincennes from 111th to 119th. Of course, then the real question is why Western stayed 49 instead of its through route number 10.

[RIPTA42]

Maybe the RTS guy was lucky that there was a 374 CTA that looked like this one, or intentionally put that number on a Tacoma bus.* Sort of like the debate we had a couple of weeks ago about the Ralph Kramden bus not actually being the same bus.

__________

*Note that the picture on the RTS site does not have numbers or CTA decals.

I'm pretty sure it was painted as CTA for a movie. This is also the DSR bus Jennifer Hudson is riding during the song "Patience" in Dreamgirls.

[BusHunter]

I'm pretty sure it was painted as CTA for a movie. This is also the DSR bus Jennifer Hudson is riding during the song "Patience" in Dreamgirls.

That's what one would think but I can't recall a movie with #374 in it.

[mbta9244]

That bus #374 is Ex-Pierce Transit of Tacoma and as mentioned by others, it was painted in CTA colors as a movie prop. I believe it was used in a music video or a TV ad of some sort. I don't recall exactly anymore what it was used for. But Scott Richards keeps the bus maintained and ready to go when needed. I remember riding that very same bus when it was still active for Pierce Transit in Tacoma, Washington. Here is a shot of 374 when she was still active with PT. My photo captured in December of 1997 at the Pierce Transit Facility.