CTA 'L' Rosters

[chgofan78]

Just saw 5235-5236 operating on the Green Line. 

[briman94]

2 hours ago, chgofan78 said:

Just saw 5235-5236 operating on the Green Line. 

I guess they're juggling again. I remember riding on some mid-5300s on the Green Line a while back. First and only time riding on clean Green Line cars.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

6 minutes ago, briman94 said:

I guess they're juggling again. I remember riding on some mid-5300s on the Green Line a while back. First and only time riding on clean Green Line cars.

The 2400s weren't that bad, but I liked them better because they had the forward facing seats at the front, so you didn't pay attention to the dirt.  Anyways, those days are long gone.

[briman94]

Just now, MTRSP1900-CTA3200 said:

The 2400s weren't that bad, but I liked them better because they had the forward facing seats at the front, so you didn't pay attention to the dirt.  Anyways, those days are long gone.

When I first started riding the Green Line they were JUST finishing replacing the 2400s with 5000s, so I only rode them once or twice. I didn't know the difference between the older series at the time; I just knew the new ones were, well, new.

[briman94]

Just saw 5355-5356, 5559-5560, 5647-5648 5293-5294 going Not-In-Service South at Jackson...where might those be going? Just trying to get more in the south side yard or might they be going to a different line?

[BusHunter]

38 minutes ago, briman94 said:

Just saw 5355-5356, 5559-5560, 5647-5648 5293-5294 going Not-In-Service South at Jackson...where might those be going? Just trying to get more in the south side yard or might they be going to a different line?

Maybe the Green line the way things are going. They always do these night time drags from one yard to the other. (usually the same line) Maybe a set went bo on the south side. They are probably bound to a certain amount of operational cars per yard, this is like bookkeeping for them. This way the morning rush is ok.

I saw an out of service train myself on sunday #5591-92 and #5629-30 were 4 of the eight cars. it was stopped on track 1 outside the lawrence tower, no operator. The operator was in the lawrence tower they came out and followed my train which was about 5 or so trains after it had stopped there. I thought maybe that was a Sox extra.

[andrethebusman]

One thing you see almost every weekend is at least one 8-car train deadheading Howard to 95th or vice versa. It would appear that after eight defective pairs collect at 95th, they are sent to Howard, and an OK 8 car train comes back. Does Howard have a full shop crew on weekends? Not sure if 95th does. Back in the 1970's WNW used to do this every single evening - take up to 10 bad cars to Desplaines, bring OK cars back because "Foster Shop" for what it was, only had an AM weekday shop crew, and then only a couple of guys.

[ajm522]

17 hours ago, chgofan78 said:

Just saw 5235-5236 operating on the Green Line. 

 

6 hours ago, briman94 said:

Just saw 5355-5356, 5559-5560, 5647-5648 5293-5294 going Not-In-Service South at Jackson...where might those be going? Just trying to get more in the south side yard or might they be going to a different line?

My GUESS is that those might just be extras for the NFL draft weekend festivities. Green Line probably needed more cars. 

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, ajm522 said:

 

My GUESS is that those might just be extras for the NFL draft weekend festivities. Green Line probably needed more cars. 

Bonnie Green just said there would be more CTA service on all lines through the weekend.

[briman94]

I saw 3247-3248 on the Orange Line earlier today. They have LED signs. Previously the only Orange Line cars with LED signs were 3207-3208, and my records indicate that 3247-48 were spotted previously on the Brown Line. I've seen them a number of times on Orange so I think it might be a permanent transfer.

[briman94]

I was just riding 5219-5220 on the Green Line. They still have Red/Purple/Yellow line maps in them.

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, briman94 said:

I was just riding 5219-5220 on the Green Line. ishey still have Red/Purple/Yellow line maps in them.

Could that have something to do with the line cuts at laramie? Harlem yard Is INnaccessible ashland yard has enough cars to equip the whole green line?

[Pace831]

11 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Could that have something to do with the line cuts at laramie? Harlem yard Is INnaccessible ashland yard has enough cars to equip the whole green line?

For weekend service, they should have just enough, but they might want to borrow some spares. Not sure why they couldn't get those spares from Harlem though. There are two more weekends of closures, so we'll have to see if 5219-20 go back to R-P-Y before or after they're done with that to get an answer to your question. I bet they're just random loaner cars though.

[garmon757]

Just spotted 5235-36 on the Green Line earlier today around 4pm. 

[briman94]

On 5/7/2016 at 8:45 PM, BusHunter said:

Could that have something to do with the line cuts at laramie? Harlem yard Is INnaccessible ashland yard has enough cars to equip the whole green line?

I just passed Harlem on the Metra and 5231-5232 are in the Harlem yard during the closure, so it's not a line capacity or supply issue. They're just juggling them for some reason.

[BusHunter]

1 hour ago, briman94 said:

I just passed Harlem on the Metra and 5231-5232 are in the Harlem yard during the closure, so it's not a line capacity or supply issue. They're just juggling them for some reason.

Probably overuse or high miles. The red line runs these cars real hard. Probably the whole fleet needs to rotate so they can get some light maintenance. We can always hope somehow this has to do with #5000's on the Orange line. Only thing though is Red line getting anything in return? If not maybe I'm not completely off base.

[briman94]

28 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

Probably overuse or high miles. The red line runs these cars real hard. Probably the whole fleet needs to rotate so they can get some light maintenance. We can always hope somehow this has to do with #5000's on the Orange line. Only thing though is Red line getting anything in return? If not maybe I'm not completely off base.

We can only hope and pray that the CTA has the sense in them to actually consider throwing some 5000s on the Orange Line. Also, I have not seen any low-number (lower than usual) cars on the Red Line so it doesn't seem like it's an exchange.

[andrethebusman]

Red is not short at all. About 30 cars sitting at 98th Yard at 1630 today. So Red can loan out a bunch and still have plenty. Right now the L has what - 100 cars more than are scheduled?

[BusHunter]

10 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

Red is not short at all. About 30 cars sitting at 98th Yard at 1630 today. So Red can loan out a bunch and still have plenty. Right now the L has what - 100 cars more than are scheduled?

Yeah they could have easily put 100 on the Orange, but I guess they don't want to. They'll have to do something when the #2600's disappear, but for some reason they don't seem to be retiring those too soon.

[chgofan78]

Spotted 2805-2806 and 3081-3082 at Midway today.  I don't think they were transferred because they still had Blue Line roller curtains- Rosemont was actually what the cars were displaying.  It makes me wonder what kind of maintenance work is necessary for Blue Line 2600-series cars that they use various shops around the system.  I always see a few cars at Howard and I always thought they were just there because Skokie was full.  Then, I witnessed them going into the shop.  I also seen cars at Harlem and now at Midway.  There has to be specific work at these shops for these cars or are Rosemont and Desplaines just that backlogged?

[briman94]

I was driving inbound on the Kennedy yesterday, and when I was about a mile West of Jefferson Park, I spotted a 4-car train of 5000-series cars heading towards O'Hare. They were displaying Not-In-Service; didn't catch a run number (I was driving...) but I caught the car numbers. It was 5615-5616 and 5450-5449 in that order with 615 leading.

[RJL6000]

Let's hope that this would not be the start of another "swapocalypse"  (similar to what has been occurring with the 1000-series New Flyer buses) in which some lines that are currently all-5000's would now be re-equipped partially or entirely with old 2600's.

And the reason for the higher-than-usual 5000-series count on the Green Line may be for the preparation of expanded weekday service on that line that's coming this Summer.

[Pink Jazz]

1 hour ago, RJL6000 said:

Let's hope that this would not be the start of another "swapocalypse"  (similar to what has been occurring with the 1000-series New Flyer buses) in which some lines that are currently all-5000's would now be re-equipped partially or entirely with old 2600's.

And the reason for the higher-than-usual 5000-series count on the Green Line may be for the preparation of expanded weekday service on that line that's coming this Summer.

The cars that were spotted heading to O'Hare were higher-numbered cars from the Red and Purple Lines, so I would be surprised if this is the case; I would assume that CTA would more likely use lower-numbered cars from the Pink and Green Lines should the Blue Line get 5000s.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, RJL6000 said:

Let's hope that this would not be the start of another "swapocalypse"  (similar to what has been occurring with the 1000-series New Flyer buses) in which some lines that are currently all-5000's would now be re-equipped partially or entirely with old 2600's.

And the reason for the higher-than-usual 5000-series count on the Green Line may be for the preparation of expanded weekday service on that line that's coming this Summer.

They should send 2600s back to the Red and Green lines.  

[briman94]

2 minutes ago, CTA5750 said:

They should send 2600s back to the Red and Green lines.  

Ew, no! I like my modern cars on the red line!