5000-series - Updates

[chicagopcclcar]

I was on Facebook I follow CTA's Facebook page low & behold they put the 500th rail cars of the 5000 series on The Red Line.

Why wouldn't they? The Red line is the biggest.

CTA Photo

[BusHunter]

Why wouldn't they? The Red line is the biggest.

CTA Photo

Oh wow, they have signs on the windows. Now they may have to print up we got the 10th new #7900 from Nova bus when #7908 comes out this week or next. LOL!!

[garmon757]

#5288-90 are still on the Green Line with

[Brandon93]

Oh wow, they have signs on the windows. Now they may have to print up we got the 10th new #7900 from Nova bus when #7908 comes out this week or next. LOL!!

Lol I think they should do something when the 8000 Nova comes out in fact they should've started the fleet off with 8000 instead of 7900.

[BusHunter]

#5288-90 are still on the Green Line with

you wanna hear a good one? They brought some #2400's out of midway yard to stage on 14th middle because there are concerns the green line is running short!! Wth they just borrowed 16 #5000's from red? Btw red's showing they are just making it with the fleet. All the #2600's are in service today. Purple's about 50/50 #2600's versus #5000's and red is running noticeably more #2600's at least 7-10 sets. For some reason about 20 #5000's stayed in howard yard today about 10 of those were purple line assigned #5000's Those on the yellow got a special treat, the dr pepper cars were running it today. Word is from CTA there are no immediate plans to retire the #2400's work cars. #2401-02 was specifically mentioned. I don't know if this applies to all #2400 work cars or not.

[garmon757]

you wanna hear a good one? They brought some #2400's out of midway yard to stage on 14th middle because there are concerns the green line is running short!! Wth they just borrowed 16 #5000's from red? Btw red's showing they are just making it with the fleet. All the #2600's are in service today. Purple's about 50/50 #2600's versus #5000's and red is running noticeably more #2600's at least 7-10 sets. For some reason about 20 #5000's stayed in howard yard today about 10 of those were purple line assigned #5000's Those on the yellow got a special treat, the dr pepper cars were running it today. Word is from CTA there are no immediate plans to retire the #2400's work cars. #2401-02 was specifically mentioned. I don't know if this applies to all #2400 work cars or not.

All hell would've broken loose if some 2400s were back on the Green Line "For a limited time only"! Red Line has been very solid with it's fleet and I think that the 2600s are getting to the point that some has to stay and some has to go. It would be interesting seeing one or two sets on a flatbed any day now.

[BusHunter]

All hell would've broken loose if some 2400s were back on the Green Line "For a limited time only"! Red Line has been very solid with it's fleet and I think that the 2600s are getting to the point that some has to stay and some has to go. It would be interesting seeing one or two sets on a flatbed any day now.

It's funny you say that. Skokie Shops seems to have more #2600's in it and not many #2400's (just saw one). I think we will soon see some #2600's on flatbeds. The last four #5000 deliveries were still unmated yesterday, two were on the storage track like that to the east of the shop. Usually unmated cars are directly to the south. That was weird.

Oh BTW, I was told they put #2400's on 14th middle on Monday too, so yesterday was the second day it happened.

[briman94]

Actually the first time I ever rode a 3200 series car was on the Red Line (Howard-Dan Ryan) before the opening of the Orange Line. It was in the middle of a consist of 2400s and 2600s. The other day I noticed an 8 car set with 3200s on the ends of the train and 4 2600s in the middle on the Orange Line leaving Ashland toward Midway.

Just saw that consist going SB at Randolph. It's the only train I've seen that's 3200s mixed with anything else (not counting 3458)

[briman94]

What does it mean when a car pair has blue flags with a white "C" on them tied to either end? 5017-18 are sitting at the back of the Harlem yard with them. On a side note, man was it a nice ride in 5438 on my way out west this evening.

[garmon757]

Oh BTW, I was told they put #2400's on 14th middle on Monday too, so yesterday was the second day it happened.

Why the hell they did that for? It ain't like the have certain trips with 2400s ending @ Roosevelt!

[sw4400]

Yep 500th 5000-series is in revenue service along the Red Line. The 2400-series retirement is near

Why wouldn't they? The Red line is the biggest.

CTA Photo

I'm trying to understand the number system here... if 5001-5002 are car numbers 1 and 2 respectively in the 5000-Series set, didn't CTA jump the gun in their advertising the 500th brand new CTA 5000-Series Railcar? Shouldn't that be 5501-5502? 5499-5500 are car numbers 498 and 499 in the set, no?

[chicagopcclcar]

I'm trying to understand the number system here...

Is car #2600 a Boeing or a Budd?

Is car #3200 a 2600 series or a 3200 series?

[sw4400]

Is car #2600 a Boeing or a Budd?

Is car #3200 a 2600 series or a 3200 series?

Car 2599-2600 are the end of the Boeing-Vertol(2400's)

Car 2601-2602 are the beginning of the Budd/Transit America(2600's)

Car 3199-3200 are the end of the Budd/Transit America(2600's)

Car 3201-3202 are the beginning of the Morrison-Knudsen(3200's)

Now if the 5000's began with Car 5000-5001, I can understand 5500 being the 500th car, but since they start with 5001-5002, car 5501-5502 are the actual 500 and 501st railcars in the set.

[Busjack]

I'm trying to understand the number system here... if 5001-5002 are car numbers 1 and 2 respectively in the 5000-Series set, didn't CTA jump the gun in their advertising the 500th brand new CTA 5000-Series Railcar? Shouldn't that be 5501-5502? 5499-5500 are car numbers 498 and 499 in the set, no?

We discussed that before. Train car series start with 001, buses with 000.

Thus 5500 would be the 500th train car.

As you noted above, each previous series of an integral number of cars ended with 00, and, for instance, 2600 was a 2400.

[briman94]

I'm trying to understand the number system here... if 5001-5002 are car numbers 1 and 2 respectively in the 5000-Series set, didn't CTA jump the gun in their advertising the 500th brand new CTA 5000-Series Railcar? Shouldn't that be 5501-5502? 5499-5500 are car numbers 498 and 499 in the set, no?

We discussed that before. Train car series start with 001, buses with 000.

Thus 5500 would be the 500th train car.

As you noted above, each previous series of an integral number of cars ended with 00, and, for instance, 2600 was a 2400.

Think of it this way...we know that 5001 was the first. That means 10 later (5011) is the 11th (1 + 10 = 11), and the 10th is 5010. 5500 is the 500th car made.

[Juniorz]

And 3200 was the last car Budd made, after that Budd went out of "business"

[Busjack]

And 3200 was the last car Budd made, after that Budd went out of "business"

Technically, "Transit America" not Budd. According to Bombardier:

"In the mid-1980s, we significantly strengthened our engineering resources and our ability to serve the North American market by acquiring Pullman Technology of Chicago and the assets and designs of Philadelphia-based Transit America, the mass transit equipment division of the Budd Company."

A Philadelphia newspaper article indicates that both Budd and Transit America were owned by Thyssen, which apparently separated the operations and then shut down Transit America. Thus, Bombardier bought the designs of both shut down Pullman Standard and Transit America.

It was noted earlier with regard to whether CTA "owned" the intellectual property in its specs that since 1969, the car bodies were either Budd or licensed by Budd to some foreign fabricator. In that sense, the current car bodies are still Budd, or at least from the corpse of Budd.

[Brandon93]

And 3200 was the last car Budd made, after that Budd went out of "business"

Budd's last car was the 2600's; Morrison Kndusen made the 3200's

[briman94]

Budd's last car was the 2600's; Morrison Kndusen made the 3200's

See above; 3200 is not part of the 3200-series. It's a 2600.

[Busjack]

See above; 3200 is not part of the 3200-series. It's a 2600.

He was referring to series, not car number, although his diction was a bit ambiguous..

[briman94]

He was referring to series, not car number, although his diction was a bit ambiguous..

Looked like he was correcting Juniorz' statement that 3200 was the last car made by Budd.

[jajuan]

He was referring to series, not car number, although his diction was a bit ambiguous..

Looked like he was correcting Juniorz' statement that 3200 was the last car made by Budd.

Yes he may have been speaking of series, but the context of his words does make it appear he was indeed making a correction about 3200, which as briman94 points out is a 2600 and not a 3200 (regardless of the ambiguity and technicality of the 2600s being made by Transit America but still referred to as Budd cars by plenty of sources including in a few cases CTA itself) since CTA starts off a rail series with car xx01 of that series and not xx00 like it does for buses.

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

To clear things up, car 3200 is in fact a Budd/Transit America railcar of the 2600 Series. Car 3201 is a MK railcar of the 3200s and thus starts the 3200 Series.

[andrethebusman]

Technically, "Transit America" not Budd. According to Bombardier:

"In the mid-1980s, we significantly strengthened our engineering resources and our ability to serve the North American market by acquiring Pullman Technology of Chicago and the assets and designs of Philadelphia-based Transit America, the mass transit equipment division of the Budd Company."

A Philadelphia newspaper article indicates that both Budd and Transit America were owned by Thyssen, which apparently separated the operations and then shut down Transit America. Thus, Bombardier bought the designs of both shut down Pullman Standard and Transit America.

It was noted earlier with regard to whether CTA "owned" the intellectual property in its specs that since 1969, the car bodies were either Budd or licensed by Budd to some foreign fabricator. In that sense, the current car bodies are still Budd, or at least from the corpse of Budd.

I believe the 2400's bodies came from Portugal, and the 2600's (and 3200's) from Brazil.

[andrethebusman]

The whole issue of Budd vs Transit America is very, very fuzzy. The order was placed with Budd, bjut at some point during production Budd became Transit America. However, am I not correct that every single builder's plate up to 3200 still had "Budd" on it? MK is even fuzzier as MK went bankrupt while 3200's (and Metra 7400's and 8400's and New York's R68's and Metro-North's M-6's) were in production, and the creditors set up Westinghouse-Amerail (Westinghouse, Alstom, and several other subcontractors to MK) to complete the orders, but for most practical purposes they are still considered "MK" by everybody.