andrethebusman Posted August 21, 2016 Report Share Posted August 21, 2016 September 1953 issue of Transit News has a very interesting item. Flxible propane 5501, supposedly the first in service, signed for 70-Division. Up until this photo surfaced, it was always thought that the 5500's were new at 69th Garage, and February 1954 assignment sheet shows this, with 5500-5580 at 69th and 5581-5694 at 77th. Note that the series has not even been completed yet. More oddities from 1964-1965 period: 5000-5499 Propane Twins, which have always been though of as north and west side buses, show up in small numbers at 77th, 69th, and even Archer, as CTA was very eager to rid themselves of the 1100-1300 series ex CMC diesels, which were, after all, almost 20 years old, and did not want to wait for 3500 Flxible new looks to come in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson Posted November 21, 2017 Report Share Posted November 21, 2017 CTA had the best propane buses and the coolest Mack Propane buses ever Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson Posted November 21, 2017 Report Share Posted November 21, 2017 Anybody Here Remember The CTA Chicago Transit Authority Mack Propane Transit Buses?(Series 7200-7299)Have you ever ridden on one of them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrethebusman Posted November 22, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2017 Rode them many times. For years they were at 69th and 77th garages. Then in late 1969-early 1970 a group were at Forest Glen. Mostly on Lawrence and Central, but did see one on Milwaukee, and supposedly one did make it out to O'Hare. At 69th they were used mostly on Ashland, Western, S Damen, 59th/61st. At 77th, on most routes except 74th/75th and South Deering. They were relatively slow on pickup as they were quite heavy, and on rough streets the air-ride leveling valves wheezed very loud. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pudgym29 Posted November 23, 2017 Report Share Posted November 23, 2017 Fairly certain I rode on them a few times when accompanying dad to data processing @ Lawrence and Ravenswood on a Saturday{!} in 1970. The buses had the new displays for the Jefferson Park transit center. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andrethebusman Posted November 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2017 Macks went to FG about early December 1969. Saw "mixed service" in last days of electric operation on Lawrence, Macks and Marmons. By about March 1970 they went back to 77th, traded for 5900 Flxibles. Never did understand why they were sent north - they were much slower than Marmons, and could not keep schedule. 5900's weren't much better at speed, and boy did they rattle! At least the Macks didn't sound like they were falling apart! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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