Favorite Buses of the Past and Present

[Busjack]

2200fan, on 04 Jan 2015 - 01:34, said:

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>> i8itall4u...my thoughts exactly.

The seats or the transmission?

Didn't some of the higher numbered 3600's have these seats too?

At least as put in service, it was only the 3800s. 3700s seemed to have been delivered with the vinyl seats although I don't know where the cutoff was.

[Guest]

I can't imagine anyone forgetting the Marmons. If I implied this it was not my intention. That would be like me me forgetting the 2200s!

Just six months before my dads passing I was fortunate to take him to IRM one saturday when they were operating the CTA trolley buses. He was so excited, it was his first time on them since they were eliminated back in 1973. He shared his experiences driving them as well as myself being given the chance to see him riding his bus that he first started driving when he got hired in Sept.1972. Although it was only six months he drove them at North Ave., I enjoyed seeing him share his experiences with operator/volunteer JL Saunders. For me, just imagining what it was like to ride on these in regular service was an experience.

[i8itall4u]

At least as put in service, it was only the 3800s. 3700s seemed to have been delivered with the vinyl seats although I don't know where the cutoff was.

If memory serves correctly; 3850-3875 had the fiberglass seats.

2200fan, on 04 Jan 2015 - 01:34, said:

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>> i8itall4u...my thoughts exactly.

The seats or the transmission?

...both, actually. 3773 was unusual in that from a stanstill, it travelled a block and a half before shifting into second. AND, the left, rear passenger window's stops were removed, allowing it to open wide.

[Erin Mishkin Jr.]

I came to Chicago around 2001, so I do have buses from the past and present of the CTA.

Past: 5800. They sounded really good especially prior to rehab. Really tough and gets a great ride!

Past: 4400. Great takeoff on the bus! Not a fan of the buses that have the higher pitch engine mainly around the late 4700 buses and the 4800 buses.

Actually I never liked the Flxibles and I never got to ride a MAN during that time.

Now onto present.

1000: All buses are really great at driving! One of my favorites was riding 1342 in October 2015 and that bus was a great tough beast! It started going when the light turned green and had a great ISM! It was caught in a fire back in December 2017, but is now back in service!

7900: These buses have a great ISL9 and ZF transmission! Goes really well with the newer Novas! Great bus and has a love to me since I started riding one on Route 70 in 2015 and it was so great! Riding them in summer especially on a rainy day gives this bus a great look!

4000 DE60LF: Love the diesel-electric setup on these buses! I know they are for rehab soon but they sound really great! The ISL sounds really great and the Allison makes it even better!

4300/4333: I love the 4300-4332 more than the 4333-4399 series, they sound so good and I did ride a few. The diesel buses really are tough especially riding on the 147 back when I lived in Chicago. Now I live in a suburb of Chicago that's Oak Park and I usually ride the Forest Glen Buses like the 1000, 7900, and 6400 buses and they do keep buses nice! I barely ride the North Parks anymore.

The 6400 buses I do not like really but they do sound good actually.

Bus fleets I want to ride on soon: 800 (if they last), 700.

[Guest]

Just putting this out....I’ll out be at this weekends Bud Billiken Parade.   I’ll be driving our Flxible  Fire Academy Bus. If anyone wants tto see it.  Ill be parking it at the south end of the parade route  

[YoungBusLover]

14 minutes ago, CTA5750 said:

Just putting this out....I’ll out be at this weekends Bud Billiken Parade.   I’ll be driving our Flxible  Fire Academy Bus. If anyone wants tto see it.  Ill be parking it at the south end of the parade route  

So you'll be around Garfield then from start to finish of the parade? I would love to see it. Haven't seen it since last August.

[Guest]

11 hours ago, YoungBusLover said:

So you'll be around Garfield then from start to finish of the parade? I would love to see it. Haven't seen it since last August.

Yes, It will be parked at the south end of the parade route at 55th  There should be other fire dept vehicles, possibly also the CFD New Flyer 5858

[YoungBusLover]

I had a blast from the past moment seeing all the nostalgic and if not historic buses from the mid to late 90s, Seeing #6163 was the highlight of my day. I appreciate @CTA5750 for allowing me to get a brief ride and taking photos throughout the morning, just an incredible sight to see all around. 

[YoungBusLover]

Spoiler

 

Spoiler

 

 

[Master58]

Past:

7100 MAN Articulated Buses. 

 

Present:

4000 Series New Flyer DE60LF's.  

[andrethebusman]

I am older than most on this forum, so my favorites are much older. The old 500s, ex Motor Coach 5502s in their last days on 30 South Chicago Express. Others I remember from when I was a kid, 1700 gas Twins on Kimball, 3600 Whites on South Pulaski with their huge windows, Brill trolley buses on Fullerton that had a "grinding" sound when accelerating. St Louis trolley buses on Montrose where you could hear the power contactors opening and closing. More modern, the 3000s, sitting in first seat in front of rear door at the window that opened the furthest. The late 70s-80s were the worst. Pathetic 5307s with windows flapping and patch paint jobs (CTA did not do many repaints in that era, a replaced panel was just repainted as best they could).

[andrethebusman]

Couple notes about 3730-3875: 

3730-3775 originally 77th, 3776-3875 North Park. 3855-3875 hard seats, for years used on Devon. Had shift speed set much higher than any other series, about 35mph rather than 15 so most time in low. Circa 1973 most to North Ave, 3730-3817 for a while. A bunch at Forest Glen at two different time spans. Some at Kedzie near the end.

[artthouwill]

12 minutes ago, andrethebusman said:

Couple notes about 3730-3875: 

3730-3775 originally 77th, 3776-3875 North Park. 3855-3875 hard seats, for years used on Devon. Had shift speed set much higher than any other series, about 35mph rather than 15 so most time in low. Circa 1973 most to North Ave, 3730-3817 for a while. A bunch at Forest Glen at two different time spans. Some at Kedzie near the end.

I certainly remember the 3700s being at 77th before disappearing.   I also remember those hard seats which also appeared on a few 369x buses. I remember the propanes at 69th garage.  Yes the 5307s were pretty bad.  

I actually rode the original 804, the fishbowls with A/C that predated the 1000 series GMCs.  For the younger generation imagine a 300 series bus with a rear a/c unit like rhe 1000s  GMCs.

[andrethebusman]

Hard seat 3600s were 3677-3694. Used mostly on Drexel-Hyde Park. 800-804 and 3240-3244 were bought for Vincennes Express. Weekends used mostly on South Kedzie, but no a/c on weekends as made bus very, very slow on takeoff.

[andrethebusman]

After 9/70 3240-3244 to FG for O'Hare. In 1973 after 7935-7941 in service, moved to Lawndale, couple of weeks later to Archer where they spent rest of their days. 800-804 stayed at Beverly, though at least a couple made it to Forest Glen around 1972 on O'Hare, then to Evanston as 1-5, then to 69th as 800-804 again.

[andrethebusman]

Another blast from the past - until 1969 Forest Glen was vast majority 5000 Twins, by then 19 years old, holding down all service. In 1969 some 8000s sent over from North Park (13 years old), but 5000s were still 24/7 until 1000s in 1972. 22 years in base service - not bad. 

[andrethebusman]

69th was truly a sad sack operation in 1960s. 5500-5700s held together by baling wire. Only new buses were 87-8800s. Macks until 1969, which were probably in the best shape of anything at the garage. 75-7600s in 1973 were a HUGE step up!

[sht6131]

3 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

I am older than most on this forum, so my favorites are much older. The old 500s, ex Motor Coach 5502s in their last days on 30 South Chicago Express. Others I remember from when I was a kid, 1700 gas Twins on Kimball, 3600 Whites on South Pulaski with their huge windows, Brill trolley buses on Fullerton that had a "grinding" sound when accelerating. St Louis trolley buses on Montrose where you could hear the power contactors opening and closing. More modern, the 3000s, sitting in first seat in front of rear door at the window that opened the furthest. The late 70s-80s were the worst. Pathetic 5307s with windows flapping and patch paint jobs (CTA did not do many repaints in that era, a replaced panel was just repainted as best they could).

I go back to when the 3600 Whites were new stick shifts 3421 to when they went automatic. I remember some from 3421 to 3440 were different color combinations. they were mostly assigned to Kimball- Homan. I think they replaced the 6200 and 6100 yellow coach that were assigned when the route reopened. I was a patrol boy during that time stationed at Kimball and Beach. I remember when the 1600  twins prior to thr 1700 when new were assigned to Division when it was consolidated between Austin and California. The roll signs were probably not made yet as they carried stationary destination and side signs marked Division. This goes back to 1943 to1945. Now you know how old I must be. 

[Busjack]

4 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

I am older than most on this forum, so my favorites are much older. The old 500s, ex Motor Coach 5502s in their last days on 30 South Chicago Express. Others I remember from when I was a kid, 1700 gas Twins on Kimball, 3600 Whites on South Pulaski with their huge windows, Brill trolley buses on Fullerton that had a "grinding" sound when accelerating. St Louis trolley buses on Montrose where you could hear the power contactors opening and closing. More modern, the 3000s, sitting in first seat in front of rear door at the window that opened the furthest. The late 70s-80s were the worst. Pathetic 5307s with windows flapping and patch paint jobs (CTA did not do many repaints in that era, a replaced panel was just repainted as best they could).

3 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

69th was truly a sad sack operation in 1960s. 5500-5700s held together by baling wire. Only new buses were 87-8800s. Macks until 1969, which were probably in the best shape of anything at the garage. 75-7600s in 1973 were a HUGE step up!

I was going to say that I liked the 7400s and 9000s, compared to what was running on 55 and routes around that, but later  found out they were run out of 69th, with the properly characterized sad sack fleet. 69 remained the orphan until replaced by 74th. I wasn't around when the New Looks fell apart, having returned only on the final days of 69th.

3 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

Another blast from the past - until 1969 Forest Glen was vast majority 5000 Twins, by then 19 years old, holding down all service. In 1969 some 8000s sent over from North Park (13 years old), but 5000s were still 24/7 until 1000s in 1972. 22 years in base service - not bad. 

However, at that time, most of the heavy routes (78, 80, 81, 85) were trolley bus. The rusty iron electric poles are still on Armstrong Ave.

[Busjack]

8 minutes ago, sht6131 said:

.... This goes back to 1943 to1945. Now you know how old I must be. 

I recently met someone who lived off Hyde Park Blvd. in the 40s, who was talking about going downtown. I asked her if it was on the Drexel bus, and she said yes, but not on double deckers (I guess they couldn't get under the IC). The route structure was the same when I got there, but was changed in 1973.

[sht6131]

2 hours ago, sht6131 said:

I go back to when the 3600 Whites were new stick shifts 3421 to when they went automatic. I remember some from 3421 to 3440 were different color combinations. they were mostly assigned to Kimball- Homan. I think they replaced the 6200 and 6100 yellow coach that were assigned when the route reopened. I was a patrol boy during that time stationed at Kimball and Beach. I remember when the 1600  twins prior to thr 1700 when new were assigned to Division when it was consolidated between Austin and California. The roll signs were probably not made yet as they carried stationary destination and side signs marked Division. This goes back to 1943 to1945. Now you know how old I must be. 

Forgot to mention the first GM fish bowl series was my favorite. Happened to catch its first SB trip when coming home from high school changing from the Kimball bus to the Kimball-Homan at Kimball and Wrightwood. GM102. I thought the bus was beautiful.

[Busjack]

17 minutes ago, sht6131 said:

Forgot to mention the first GM fish bowl series was my favorite. Happened to catch its first SB trip when coming home from high school changing from the Kimball bus to the Kimball-Homan at Kimball and Wrightwood. GM102. I thought the bus was beautiful.

That reminds me that 52nd had 8600s, and since U was familiar with FM New Looks on other systems, looked freaky to me, with the parallelogram lift windows.

[sht6131]

26 minutes ago, Busjack said:

That reminds me that 52nd had 8600s, and since U was familiar with FM New Looks on other systems, looked freaky to me, with the parallelogram lift windows.

Never liked the first generation new look 8500/8600 flexibles. Agree on the windows.

[artthouwill]

8 hours ago, Busjack said:

That reminds me that 52nd had 8600s, and since U was familiar with FM New Looks on other systems, looked freaky to me, with the parallelogram lift windows.

I remember Capernicus ran a CTA charter down Loomis with those buses.  That's the only time I would ever see them.  They were scary looking and those buses would always be empty.

[Busjack]

2 hours ago, artthouwill said:

I remember Capernicus ran a CTA charter down Loomis with those buses.  That's the only time I would ever see them.  They were scary looking and those buses would always be empty.

In the late 60s, the 2 main areas in which they operated were out of 52nd (1, 2, 2X, 5, 5X, 38, and 43), and on Addison (I presume also Diversey).