2600-series - Updates & Retirements

[Busjack]

Let's leave the 2600-series retirements alone for now. We have an exciting rehab on 3200-series and the grand finale for the 5000-series being delivered, lets wait a couple of years before we begin to celebrate the grand finale of the 2600-series.

That won't be until at least 2022, again based on the 7000s spec.

[peter.pyterek]

With 370 5000's on the Red Line, how long before its 44 2600's are all transferred? Have any of you seen any of them actually running in service on it this week?

[jtrosario]

With 370 5000's on the Red Line, how long before its 44 2600's are all transferred? Have any of you seen any of them actually running in service on it this week?

Yes, saw an 8 car NB and an 8 car SB as I was driving by the Sheridan curve yesterday. I remember being surprised because both sets did not have LED signs and checked a couple cars to verify they were 2600's(and not 2400's, although I don't know why since they are now retired) Don't remember any exact car numbers, just that they were in the 2600-3199 range.

[Tcmetro]

Don't know if this is the best place to put this, but I saw 3088 and another car in the Rosemont Yard with top-to-bottom graffiti pieces yesterday.

[briman94]

Don't know if this is the best place to put this, but I saw 3088 and another car in the Rosemont Yard with top-to-bottom graffiti pieces yesterday.

Was the other car, by any chance, 3087? ;)

[BusHunter]

Don't know if this is the best place to put this, but I saw 3088 and another car in the Rosemont Yard with top-to-bottom graffiti pieces yesterday.

Saw that myself. #3088 is coupled to that single car that's from the O'Hare accident. I wonder if it's even in service. It's close to the side of the yard with all the extra unused equipment.

[Busjack]

Saw that myself. #3088 is coupled to that single car that's from the O'Hare accident. I wonder if it's even in service. It's close to the side of the yard with all the extra unused equipment.

Unless the NTSB is done with the train, you would think someone would keep it under better security.

[peter.pyterek]

Now that the Purple Line has nothing but 5000's, when will the Red Line's now 66 2600's all get transferred? Where will they go? The Blue Line? Skokie Shops?

[BusHunter]

Now that the Purple Line has nothing but 5000's, when will the Red Line's now 66 2600's all get transferred? Where will they go? The Blue Line? Skokie Shops?

I'll say the Orange line, Blue line doesn't have any more space. If they did go to the Blue something else is leaving. I guess with the 66 #2600 cars on the Red line, that's just enough space for what's left of undelivered #5000's. (64 left) So it's just a matter of where the #2600's will go once the #5000's show up.

BTW, I didn't see any #2400's at Midway last week when I was over there. Are they all gone now, at least to Skokie Shops? If so, Midway might be where these cars end up and they could probably use the #3200's more at Skokie Shops than #2600's. This way they can rehab pretty easily just going to the Skokie yard for more.

[Guest]

Now that the Purple Line has nothing but 5000's, when will the Red Line's now 66 2600's all get transferred? Where will they go? The Blue Line? Skokie Shops?

No the Blue dosent need any more 2600s They have enough of them!

[NewFlyerMCI]

No the Blue dosent need any more 2600s They have enough of them!

Enough? How about all?

[BusHunter]

Hmm, in this article linked below, they have announced they are going to sell 200 #2600's for scrap. So how does the Orange line fit into that scenario? I think if this is the case Orange line will now have to receive #5000's unless the Blue line is going back to 344 cars and they receive the extra #2600 cars from the Red line. One car was looking especially bad at Skokie Shops, someone vandalized it from top to bottom on one side, not a stitch of metal or windows is not covered.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/535296/forrest-claypool-rahm-emanuel-chief-staff-cta

[Busjack]

Hmm, in this article linked below, they have announced they are going to sell 200 #2600's for scrap. So how does the Orange line fit into that scenario? I think if this is the case Orange line will now have to receive #5000's unless the Blue line is going back to 344 cars and they receive the extra #2600 cars from the Red line. One car was looking especially bad at Skokie Shops, someone vandalized it from top to bottom on one side, not a stitch of metal or windows is not covered.

http://chicago.suntimes.com/chicago-politics/7/71/535296/forrest-claypool-rahm-emanuel-chief-staff-cta

​Claypool is gone, since there wasn't any statement about that the speculation is all bull and he looks forward to sticking around and disciplining more CTA employees and building the Fisk Garage. (Of course, such a statement would also just be a cover up.)

 

On your real question, that would get the 2600s down to the level of what was stated in the 7000s specifications (at least in the Q&A) that the base order of 400 would replace 2600s. There hasn't really been a reason stated why 560 are still on the roster (according to the resources page), with about 60 5000s to go.

[BusHunter]

​Claypool is gone, since there wasn't any statement about that the speculation is all bull and he looks forward to sticking around and disciplining more CTA employees and building the Fisk Garage. (Of course, such a statement would also just be a cover up.)

 

On your real question, that would get the 2600s down to the level of what was stated in the 7000s specifications (at least in the Q&A) that the base order of 400 would replace 2600s. There hasn't really been a reason stated why 560 are still on the roster (according to the resources page), with about 60 5000s to go.

​Maybe they hope to have at least the Orange line's #3200's rehabbed by the time they go with 400 #2600's. (I don't know they only had an ordinance with Axion technologies on the LED signs Mar 11th) But they would still need to borrow cars to the Brown line for their #3200 rehab so I don't see how they can really run with 400 #2600 cars yet. Using all the cars they have (none out for rehab) maybe they could make it, 344 for blue, 56 for orange, but it would be tight and the Orange line would need a larger share of the #3200's.  They could always make the Pink line #2600's and take those cars and add them to 100 #5000's and it might make the Orange line all #5000's, but I don't really see them doing that because then the Green line has nothing to borrow, not that they really need to anyway.

[artthouwill]

​Maybe they hope to have at least the Orange line's #3200's rehabbed by the time they go with 400 #2600's. (I don't know they only had an ordinance with Axion technologies on the LED signs Mar 11th) But they would still need to borrow cars to the Brown line for their #3200 rehab so I don't see how they can really run with 400 #2600 cars yet. Using all the cars they have (none out for rehab) maybe they could make it, 344 for blue, 56 for orange, but it would be tight and the Orange line would need a larger share of the #3200's.  They could always make the Pink line #2600's and take those cars and add them to 100 #5000's and it might make the Orange line all #5000's, but I don't really see them doing that because then the Green line has nothing to borrow, not that they really need to anyway.

​I considered that the 2600s were to fill in on Orange while the Orange Line 3200s get rehabbed.  They in turn will run the Brown Line while its 3200s get rehabbed.  

[Busjack]

​I considered that the 2600s were to fill in on Orange while the Orange Line 3200s get rehabbed.  They in turn will run the Brown Line while its 3200s get rehabbed.  

​There would still have to be the 60 or so needed to cover the Brownage runs, which were essentially increases of service on the Brown Line at the end of the project, without any storage capacity increase at Kimball Yard. Even before that, the Brown Line used to run about 20 2600s with the 3200s, although it eventually did get 3200s from the Yellow Line.

As sort of indicated by BusHunter, the real questions are why the Blue Line roster is up from about 340 to 400, and why 5000s are still being poured into the Red Line.

[artthouwill]

​There would still have to be the 60 or so needed to cover the Brownage runs, which were essentially increases of service on the Brown Line at the end of the project, without any storage capacity increase at Kimball Yard. Even before that, the Brown Line used to run about 20 2600s with the 3200s, although it eventually did get 3200s from the Yellow Line.

As sort of indicated by BusHunter, the real questions are why the Blue Line roster is up from about 340 to 400, and why 5000s are still being poured into the Red Line.

​Good Questions.  It certainly seems that CTA is intent on keeping the Blue Line, and for that matter all lines except Orange,  one type of equipment.  AT least the 2600s and 3200s on the ORange ARE compatible   Secondly, with the possiblity of higher percentages of breakdowns on the Blue, they've given the line more equipment.  Does this make sense?  Of course not, but it is what it s.

[BusHunter]

Crazy as it sounds, it seems that maybe they might be going for just #3200's on the Orange and Brown lines. 400 cars on the Blue would remain to help out with BO cars and spares with older equipment. #2600's would be continued to be borrowed to the Orange line until completion of the #3200 rehabs. Now that would work if they merged the Brown and Orange line together and turned every other Brown line at the loop using the old routing. The question would be can the Wells and Van Buren inner and outer handle a lesser frequency of trains. They should do that anyway, the Brownage is kind of wasteful. If they didn't want to merge it full time just merge it on the weekdays excluding the late night runs.

[Busjack]

Crazy as it sounds, it seems that maybe they might be going for just #3200's on the Orange and Brown lines. 400 cars on the Blue would remain to help out with BO cars and spares with older equipment. #2600's would be continued to be borrowed to the Orange line until completion of the #3200 rehabs. Now that would work if they merged the Brown and Orange line together and turned every other Brown line at the loop using the old routing. The question would be can the Wells and Van Buren inner and outer handle a lesser frequency of trains. They should do that anyway, the Brownage is kind of wasteful. If they didn't want to merge it full time just merge it on the weekdays excluding the late night runs.

​I'm not sure how merging the 2 lines takes care of what I thought was the reason why the original order of 5000s was 408, which would have been about what it would have taken to replace 2200s, 2400s, and add about 60 cars, which would have been needed to increase the Brown Line fleet 33% to go from 6 car trains to 8 car ones during rush hour.

Even if that perspective is incorrect, the last clause, that a 33% increase in the Brown Line fleet was needed, still holds, given my prior observation that there weren't enough 3200s to run the Brown and Orange Lines before the project. Hence, I would be questioning only the Orange Line having 94 2600s (according to the L Rosters page) instead of 60, but maybe the 34 are to cover 3200 series cars being pulled for rehab (as well as any increase in frequency, and maybe the inefficiency you note in having to pull the trains out of Midway yard).

 

Update: But I also see that the count of 3200s at Orange is down about 20 or so. So, in any event, the unexplained portion of the bloat is not at Midway.

Edited April 21, 2015 by Busjack

[Chicagos_D]

I read this story about the updates and some quick trivia with the Wilson Rebuild, what I found interesting and wanted to know further: does anyone know if they are starting to use 2600s for work cars? The article is here.

[Guest]

Yesterday while traveling NB on the Ryan around Sox park, I witnessed a flatbed with CTA car #2642 being hauled. Wonder what that was about!  

Edited July 17, 2015 by Guest

[Busjack]

Yesterday while traveling NB on the Ryan around Sox park, I witnessed a flatbed with CTA car #2642 being hauled. Wonder what that was about!  

Sounds like a trip to the scrapper, especially southbound, since the scrapper is in Burnham.

[BusHunter]

Sounds like a trip to the scrapper, especially southbound, since the scrapper is in Burnham.

The question would then be how did it get to Skokie Shops to be scrapped, unless it was already there? Maybe 5750 can fill us in on whether the car looked scrapped (no roll signs etc) or not.

Edited July 17, 2015 by BusHunter

[Guest]

The question would then be how did it get to Skokie Shops to be scrapped, unless it was already there? Maybe 5750 can fill us in on whether the car looked scrapped (no roll signs etc) or not.

Honestly I didn't look close enough to see if the sign boxes were removed since we were traveling in opposite directions. I was so focused on getting the car number.

Edited July 18, 2015 by Guest

[BusHunter]

Honestly I didn't look close enough to see if the sign boxes were removed since we were traveling in opposite directions. I was so focused on getting the car number.

Makes sense it was scrapped. If I'm seeing new cars on the blue, #2713-14, that has to have replaced something. There may be others I missed. So if they are scrapping #2600's it won't be long before the Orange line will be short and in need of #5000's.

All #5000's should be here effective this week so maybe they can start a mass transfer of cars. According to sources however #3200's have already moved around in the city by truck to Skokie, so how they are getting there is anyone's guess. They must be doing this in the middle of the night.

Edited July 18, 2015 by BusHunter