Flxibles 3695-3699 (and 3239)

[2200fan]

I was browsing the retired buses page and saw these. Doesn't the "8" in the model number mean they had 8 cylinders instead of the typical for the time 6 cylinder diesels? Did anyone here ever ride one? I was going to school downtown in the early 70's and remember these had a very distinctive sound. They sounded much different than the rest of the fleet. They were usually on the Archer express and I saw them on State st. I would like to hear whatever anyone knows about them.

[artthouwill]

If I remember correctly, it was the 3700 series buses that had a different "sounding" engine. These buses had the forest green color scheme in the interior. The first 30 were 96" wide. The remainder of that series also had the light green plastic seats. These seats were also on buses 3685- 3699 which were based at 77th in the late 70s and early 80s.. Buses 3700 - 3729 were based at Kedzie garage and ran mostly on the 16 Lake route. The remainder of the 3700s were based at North Park garage. Its interesting that 3700 through 3729 were the last to be retired, even the upper 3700s were retired before the 96" buses.

My last recollection:

356* thru 3640 69th garage

3641- 3669 52nd garage

3670 - 3699 77th garage

3700- 3729 Kedzie garage

3730 - 3855? North Park garage

The 3300 series were 35 ft buses based out of Kedzie. I remember them on the 37 Sedgwick mostly. There were some that had the elephant scheme that ran on the 74L between Halsted and Lincoln Pk Zoo.

[2200fan]

Thanks for the reply. The 37-3800s did have a different sound, I rode these a lot in the 70's. I guess you'd say it was more maybe "aggressive"? However, the buses I referred to had a totally different sound. I drove trucks that had V8 diesels and it sounded kind of like them. A 6 cylinder sounds much different.

[buslist]

I was browsing the retired buses page and saw these. Doesn't the "8" in the model number mean they had 8 cylinders instead of the typical for the time 6 cylinder diesels? Did anyone here ever ride one? I was going to school downtown in the early 70's and remember these had a very distinctive sound. They sounded much different than the rest of the fleet.

Yes as I recall these buses had 8 Cyl. Cummins engines, hence the 8C in their model #s. The 3700-3800s probably sounded a bit different as they had transverse mounted rather than straight in engines. This after GM was forced to sell angle drive units to competitors ( read Flxible ) at OEM prices, as a result of an antitrust suit.