3 Door M.A.N. Articulated

[jesi2282]

I was looking at the 2006 CTA historic calender, and there was a photo of a M.A.N. Articulated bus with 3 doors!, the bus had the 1976 bicentennal livery, the photo shows the bus on the old #40 O'Hare Express route,( I didn't even know a bus liked this was around ) Does anyone know about this bus? or have photos?

[geneking7320]

I think this might have been the demonstrator that was 60ft long.

[Busjack]

It is in Krambles' book, CTA at 45. It was also mentioned in the Transbus thread.

[RIPTA42]

There are photos of another three-door MAN demonstrator on CTA routes, from 1974, in the BusTalk.net Galleries

[Busjack]

It is the same bus (before CTA repainted it).

[RIPTA42]

I doubt it, since the bicentennial was still two years away.

[Busjack]

Krambles and Peterson, CTA at 45, page 50:

FTA-sponsored Superbus project resulted in one M.A.N. bus, diverted from Dusseldorf production, being sent to be test driven on several US properties in the summer of 1974, after which it returned to Chicago, was repainted in CTA's special Bicentennial livery and named Baron von Steuben. ... During the following months, many buses and rail cars were similarly repainted ... After the Bicentennial, bus colors reverted to the previous two-tone green scheme....

This caption accompanies pictures in both schemes, the one corresponding to the web gallery (but greener) dated 7/28/74 and the bicentennial one 11/28/74. I was here at the time, and the Bicentennial paintings were before 1976, not after. 1976 or 1977 started the painting of the pine and lime scheme later found on the 9800s and 4000s, with the pine rocker panel and lime under the windows.