3200-series - Updates

[sw4400]

Is it just me, or are these rehabs being cranked out at a super-slow rate, or maybe not many at all??? I find myself a regular rider of the Brown Line when working late now, and many times, the cars sitting at Kimball are ones with florescent lighting and roll signs..... some have the LED signs and florescent lighting. The ones, that to me are fully rehabbed are the ones with white LED lighting and LED signs, which are few at the late night(many of them are the ones with florescent lighting and rolls signs and LED signs).

Also, it seems like for some reason, they don't push out the LED lighting trains late night. Many times, they pull them into the Kimball station, and take them out to the yard for the night, leaving the non-rehabbed or partially-rehabbed equipment to do "Loop" and "Belmont" runs.

What's up with this practice???

[joechicago]

25 minutes ago, sw4400 said:

Is it just me, or are these rehabs being cranked out at a super-slow rate, or maybe not many at all??? I find myself a regular rider of the Brown Line when working late now, and many times, the cars sitting at Kimball are ones with florescent lighting and roll signs..... some have the LED signs and florescent lighting. The ones, that to me are fully rehabbed are the ones with white LED lighting and LED signs, which are few at the late night(many of them are the ones with florescent lighting and rolls signs and LED signs).

Also, it seems like for some reason, they don't push out the LED lighting trains late night. Many times, they pull them into the Kimball station, and take them out to the yard for the night, leaving the non-rehabbed or partially-rehabbed equipment to do "Loop" and "Belmont" runs.

What's up with this practice???

Regular Brown line rider as well and I've noticed the same. Not sure the hold-up. Also still no LED run boxes.

[BusHunter]

I notice they tend to stay in the yard. Probably they are breaking them in gingerly. With all the blue lights I used to see in the yard perhaps they are being careful with the new parts. But that comes back to CTA and its trust of the suppliers. But if I was a suspicious person and I might be, I would say the parts seem to be the weakest link here but thats just my opinion. Lately it seems the parts have been better so why no rehabbed trains at night persists I dont know. But there is an old saying that trust has to be earned so maybe it still has yet to be earned to give them full confidence here.

[garmon757]

Gentlemen, mark this is your notes because #3329-30 are fully rehabbed including the new digital run number box. 

[BusHunter]

#3315-16 is now fully rehabbed.

[RJL6000]

This might not have been mentioned before, but #3449–50 is now "fully rehabbed" including the LED digital run number boxes. It is on the Brown Line.

[richii0909]

On 8/19/2016 at 7:44 AM, RJL6000 said:

That makes sense, especially in light of the CTA now trying to stay away from mixed AC and DC fleets on all of its lines. Had 5000s been assigned to the Orange Line, the AM rush Brownage runs (as we know them) would have been discontinued completely, and then the Green and Pink Lines would then have been completely re-equipped with old 2600-series cars. And then, there might have been some Breen and/or Brink runs (runs originating from the Harlem and/or Racine and/or 54th Yard being diverted to Kimball instead of the West or South Sides).

 

I thought the 3rd rail was 600DC...... also it was under impression that the 5000 series converted DC-AC for traction motors and older cars were just DC. For a mixed fleet for example look at Purple line express and brown line share same tracks.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5000_series_(CTA)

 

 

 

 

[Busjack]

6 hours ago, richii0909 said:

 

I thought the 3rd rail was 600DC...... also it was under impression that the 5000 series converted DC-AC for traction motors and older cars were just DC. For a mixed fleet for example look at Purple line express and brown line share same tracks.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5000_series_(CTA)

 

The issue seems to be maintenance parts at each yard. Sure, the Purple and Brown lines are on the same track, but, for some reason they decided to make Howard yard all 5000s, even though they are underutilized on the Purple.

 

Amd Wikipedia is not a source.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

7 hours ago, richii0909 said:

 

I thought the 3rd rail was 600DC...... also it was under impression that the 5000 series converted DC-AC for traction motors and older cars were just DC. For a mixed fleet for example look at Purple line express and brown line share same tracks.

I think when the CTA is concerned about a mixed fleet, they are more concerned about the trains in the yards than the trains on the tracks. Maintenance would be more difficult with more training needed. I remember the idea of having the Orange Line taking the last of the 5000s and using them with older DC Cars, but that never happened. Also, 5000 series cars can share tracks with older cars, but cannot couple with them for in service runs.

[RJL6000]

On 2/10/2017 at 1:57 AM, richii0909 said:

 

I thought the 3rd rail was 600DC...... also it was under impression that the 5000 series converted DC-AC for traction motors and older cars were just DC. For a mixed fleet for example look at Purple line express and brown line share same tracks.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5000_series_(CTA)

 

 

 

 

Sure, the equipment may share the same tracks. It's just that the 5000s are electrically incompatible with the 3200s and 2600s, meaning that the 5000s cannot be trained together with the older series cars in the same consist in regular revenue service as another member has mentioned.

And the reason for the lack of any 5000s on the Orange Line may have something to do with Howard Yard's receiving maintenance parts for only the 5000 series, requiring that all remaining 5000s being delivered at the time (2015) be assigned to the Howard Yard. That left none available for the Orange Line. Thus, the only way that the Orange Line could have received 5000s would have been to "steal" equipment from the Pink and Green Lines, possibly leaving both of those lines equipped entirely with 2600s and/or 3200s.

By the way, in addition to 3449-50 that I mentioned as fully rehabbed including the new LED digital run number boxes, 3453-54 (which was previously reported as "LED destination sign-only rehabbed") has recently received the full rehab including the LED run number boxes.

[BusHunter]

#3235-36 is fully rehabbed with the new digital run signs. Currently at kimball brown line.

[BusHunter]

#3373-74 is rehabbed  in kimball yard but it's red tagged which means it's atc is not working. So it will probably remain in the yard this afternoon.

[BusHunter]

#3231-#3232 are now fully rehabbed on the brown line. #3347-48 might also be fully rehabbed now but I couldnt  be sure.

[Busjack]

On 2/15/2017 at 8:07 AM, RJL6000 said:

And the reason for the lack of any 5000s on the Orange Line may have something to do with Howard Yard's receiving maintenance parts for only the 5000 series, requiring that all remaining 5000s being delivered at the time (2015) be assigned to the Howard Yard. That left none available for the Orange Line.

That may be how it panned out, but doesn't seem to be the initial impetus for the story. At the time NBC5 said that the 5000s were going to Pink, Green, Red, Purple, Yellow, and Brown, that would have replaced cars at a rate that would have kept the fleet somewhere in the 1300s. By my inexact count, they are about 1460 now. (I'm assuming 490 2600s, because that's what became the base order of 7000s.)

At this point, I tend to accept Andre's theory that they just decided to keep all the expansion on the Red Line (and all the junk on the Blue Line until 2022).

[BusHunter]

#3341-42 are now fully rehabbed in kimball yard along the far east yard track. I tried to take a picture. Maybe I'll upload if it looks like anything there's lots of sun out here to mess with your shots. 

Also they are installing a new lockable gate at kimball brown lines station house. Dont know if it had a gate before but it will have one now 

[BusHunter]

#3397-98 are now fully rehabbed.

[BusHunter]

On 3/7/2017 at 2:06 PM, BusHunter said:

#3341-42 are now fully rehabbed in kimball yard along the far east yard track. I tried to take a picture. Maybe I'll upload if it looks like anything there's lots of sun out here to mess with your shots. 

Also they are installing a new lockable gate at kimball brown lines station house. Dont know if it had a gate before but it will have one now 

For what it's worth here are the pictures of #3341 and #3342 freshly rehabbed.

[BusHunter]

#3251-52 are freshly rehabbed and sitting in kimball yard. I got some pics. #3225-26 are also rehabbed but I did see those last week. I forgot to mention those. They all have updated led run number signs on them. #3225-26 has a timberland wrap on them as well 

[BusHunter]

#3385-86 and #3253-54 are rehabbed.

[BusHunter]

22 hours ago, BusHunter said:

#3251-52 are freshly rehabbed and sitting in kimball yard. I got some pics. #3225-26 are also rehabbed but I did see those last week. I forgot to mention those. They all have updated led run number signs on them. #3225-26 has a timberland wrap on them as well 

Here are some pics of freshly rehabbed #3251-52 as well as #3225-26.

[BusHunter]

#3455-56 are newly rehabbed in kimball yard.

[BusHunter]

19 hours ago, BusHunter said:

#3455-56 are newly rehabbed in kimball yard.

I took some shots of those.

[Busjack]

29 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

I took some shots of those

If nothing else, it shows they couldn't remove the roof boards.

I wonder why they are doing the rehabs in what seems to be reverse order.

[BusHunter]

3 hours ago, Busjack said:

If nothing else, it shows they couldn't remove the roof boards.

I wonder why they are doing the rehabs in what seems to be reverse order.

One thing that comes to mind is even though the other cars are older they have lower road miles running the brownage most of the time (max 3-4 hrs of work per day 12-15 per wk) they are in Midway yard alot so over time that adds up. The brown line cars on the other hand get a more thorough workout. Kind of weird also some of us were reporting problems with blue lights on the first rehabs and suddenly they go to the Orange line where they hardly run. These newer rehabs I notice don't sit in Kimball yard that long like whatever issues they had before have been resolved.

[Busjack]

56 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

One thing that comes to mind is even though the other cars are older they have lower road miles running the brownage most of the time (max 3-4 hrs of work per day 12-15 per wk) they are in Midway yard alot so over time that adds up.

Of course, since the beginning of the Orange Line until a couple of years ago, it was all 3200s. However, the Brown Line cars may still have more aggregate mileage.