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5000-series - Updates


greenstreet

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It doesn't seem the Brown Line renewal project was so successful with track rehabilitation. Since October, large slow zones have popped up south of Armitage. The line has 17,203' of slow zones according to the most recent slow zone map. This seems ridiculous for a rehabbed line. Even if the track was fine, the line still has numerous slow curves the prohibit fast operations.

I don't recall that the recent Brown Line rehab project involved any significant track renewal. The project was focused on stations - making them accessible and lengthening them to accommodate 8-car trains. There was obviously major trackwork and new structure supports installed adjacent to the Belmont and Fullerton stations as the 4 tracks were moved and realigned, but I don't see indication of much other major track work. There was some track work associated with new crossovers and there was some general track maintenance/tie replacement that was scheduled to take advantage of the single-tracks, but this didn't appear to be extensive. Maybe I'm wrong and I overlooked something obvious, but I just don't recall or find any reports to indicate this was a structure/track renewal/replacement project.

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Greenstreet, you seem to be essentially correct. There was also some substation work (in that the power was not adequate for 8 car trains), and talk about some welding of support brackets and the like, but no one said anything about track work, especially south of Armitage. Again, I suppose one could look through all the construction reports on CTA's website.

Heck, even though the Green Line was closed for two years, and they said they replaced the track panels, structural slow zones quickly appeared on the Englewood section, supposedly fixed last year.

Given the reports that they did a Homer Simpson job on the Dan Ryan segment (remember Sherry Bobbins), I seem to detect a pattern here.

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I don't recall that the recent Brown Line rehab project involved any significant track renewal.

So I guess we can expect another "Rehab the Brown Line" project in about five years.

What really has me curious is why, according to the January slow zone map (PDF link), the Pink Line has a few thousand of feet of both track and structure 15mph slow zones.

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So I guess we can expect another "Rehab the Brown Line" project in about five years.

What really has me curious is why, according to the January slow zone map (PDF link), the Pink Line has a few thousand of feet of both track and structure 15mph slow zones.

The blue indicates structure, but based on which side of Kostner it's on, it's either at grade or the ramp up to Pulaski, in the latter case being new.

Apparently also some bad track near Kedzie, which should also be new.

I guess an 60 year expected life (based on the North Red literature for an aerial structure) is about 7.

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This was the ultimate test for the 5000's yesterday and today this should determine if they passed or not. Im quite curious on how they did my guess would be pretty good but I dont know. Did anybody get a chance to catch them last night??

The real question is since the Yellow Line was closed, whether they could even get out. Does anyone know if they were stored at the Howard Yard, or more likely at the Skokie Shops?

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The real question is since the Yellow Line was closed, whether they could even get out. Does anyone know if they were stored at the Howard Yard, or more likely at the Skokie Shops?

The 5000s were running smoothly yesterday. I saw the trains running on both the Yellow and Purple Lines. The only dilemma was the destination and run number signs were not working on 5011-5012 which were on the Yellow Line. I've seen the 5000s in service every day since last week except 5009-5010.

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All the current railcar stock can go up to 70 mph(introduced with the 2000's in 1964), but they are all governed to 55 mph. I don't think that'll change. As far as new rail ties, the Brown Line has all new plastic or rubber rail ties since the modernization project, they are set for 70 mph, if the CTA wants to take off the governing device.

I may be 100% wrong, but I could swear that they were at least testing the 5000s at 70mph while on the Red Line. I saw the train a couple of times going down one of the straightaways on the Dan Ryan, and I was doing well over 55 to keep up with it. Seems to me it would make sense, deregulating the trains like that... 70mph trains + many extended straightaways on the Red, Blue, and Yellow lines, plus the proposed north side subway featuring only 4 turns. All that would add up to shorter commutes, it would seem.

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The real question is since the Yellow Line was closed, whether they could even get out. Does anyone know if they were stored at the Howard Yard, or more likely at the Skokie Shops?

The 5000-series trains for service on both the Yellow Line (two cars) and the Purple Line are (and were) stored overnight at Howard. (It would require extra manpower to pull them out of Skokie every day.)

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The 5000s were running smoothly yesterday. I saw the trains running on both the Yellow and Purple Lines. The only dilemma was the destination and run number signs were not working on 5011-5012 which were on the Yellow Line. I've seen the 5000s in service every day since last week except 5009-5010.

In reply:

Except that the CTA reported that Yellow Line service was suspended until 5:30 a.m. 2/3/2011.

Busjack, it seems chgofan posted on 2/2/11 in reference to 2/1/11, so his statement could certainly be accurate since he was talking about a day when there was indeed service on the Yellow Line.

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In reply:

Busjack, it seems chgofan posted on 2/2/11 in reference to 2/1/11, so his statement could certainly be accurate since he was talking about a day when there was indeed service on the Yellow Line.

I figured that out and deleted the post, apparently after you copied it but before you reposted.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've seen the 5000's on the Red Line a few days ago. My question now is how long will they be on the Red Line?? But I would guess that they will pretty much remain on that line until the rest of the 5000s come in, or my 2nd guess would be that they will rotate the 5000's in the same order on each line as they did the 1st time.

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I've seen the 5000's on the Red Line a few days ago. My question now is how long will they be on the Red Line?? But I would guess that they will pretty much remain on that line until the rest of the 5000s come in, or my 2nd guess would be that they will rotate the 5000's in the same order on each line as they did the 1st time.

Your first choice, would be more likely correct. Looks to me like the reason there back on the Red is to give them a second look at the cars there, like they are deciding on placing them there when the rest show up. It may turn out the blue and red lines might share delivery or alternate delivery every 150 cars or so. This way the other line is not waiting a year or two for new cars. I just hope they don't do 10 even here 10 odd there. That would get real confusing, but not as bad as some NF's (bus) assignments which have not sorted out yet.

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The CTA Tattler has a post on what you can see on the 5000s.

Or smell. I know people have been riding the blue with there hands over there mouths, the urine or dirty smell is that heavy. Someone really needs to install some air freshners or something. Maybe a contract to Glade or Renuzit. It should be interesting to see what happens when cameras are installed on the railcars, that may be why that guy went outside on the #5000's.

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...It may turn out the blue and red lines might share delivery or alternate delivery every 150 cars or so...

In that they can't intertrain with what came before them, I doubt that CTA would want car assignment and maintenance headaches on two lines at once. However, if and when they get to 706, one probably can assume that the Blue and Red would be all 5000s (670 cars now based on the chicago-l.org car assignment sheet).

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Someone really needs to install some air freshners or something. Maybe a contract to Glade or Renuzit....

Huberman had the big deal about "deep clean," and Rodriguez had the press release on "green cleaners."

Aside from our discussion about what happens if someone vomits on the bus, I guess one can't trail every peeer with the MiraGreen.

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In that they can't intertrain with what came before them, I doubt that CTA would want car assignment and maintenance headaches on two lines at once. However, if and when they get to 706, one probably can assume that the Blue and Red would be all 5000s (670 cars now based on the chicago-l.org car assignment sheet).

When the Red line gets to 130th, that will use the rest of those cars. In the meantime, the last 30 or so may go elsewhere. If Kruezi were still around I'd say Pink Line, but that idea is dead. More likely they'd end up on the yellow line with a few spares for Howard yard possibly ending up on a few Purple line trains.

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