Random CTA

[YoungBusLover]

15 hours ago, artthouwill said:

He may have known the air wasn't working,  but may not have known the windows were screwed shut.  Um I'm surprised  he didn't try to swap at the garage since that's where the J14 starts.  That was a safety issue 

They've been screwed shut on a majority of the buses for years now.  I don't understand why because a lot of buses regardless of make are having a/c issues or lack thereof. I had #1315 twice last week and the a/c didn't work at all, #7962 had no functional a/c working in the cockpit but throughout the entire bus minus the rear it sort of worked. I haven't  encountered any #4000 out of my garage that has good a/c either when I'm operating on the weekends on 87th. The #1000s and #4000s are understandable as to why they have inconsistent a/c due to there age but the #7900s shouldn't have inconsistent functioning a/c.  It's bad enough the rear exhaust overheats on them to begin with. 

[YoungBusLover]

5 hours ago, geneking7320 said:

Have the A/C units on the 1000s always made as much noise as they seem to now?

I did not notice the sound until somewhat recently.

Those are the rear fans that you're hearing.

[YoungBusLover]

15 hours ago, artthouwill said:

He may have known the air wasn't working,  but may not have known the windows were screwed shut.  Um I'm surprised  he didn't try to swap at the garage since that's where the J14 starts.  That was a safety issue 

A lot of operators are aware or should be aware about select windows being screwed shut. I'm not sure as to why they're screwed shut either. That was always a mystery to me.

[strictures]

On 7/17/2020 at 11:39 AM, artthouwill said:

Were you going NB or SB?

 

 

Was this a 6, J14,  or 26?

Having driven buses before, I have had buses with ok a/c in the morning and in the shade, but by the afternoon and continually being in the hot sun, the a/c has crapped  out.  This was especially true in older buses.  It's one thing to realize you have a hot bus before you pull out, but it's something else to have the a/c fail you while you're on the street.   At that point,  replacement vehicles may not be available.  The driver at least has a window to get air.  As a passenger you can choose to wait for the next bus, or if time is not on your side, sweat it out.

From my observation,  most CTA and Pace drivers just deal with it.  I remember a 318 bus at Forest Park had no a/c (NABI).  An Eldorado Axxess 757 pulled in with going air.  The 318 and the 757 swapped buses and passengers.   The 757 had 2 or 3 passengers going to the Green Line,  but once the 757 ended at the Harlem Green Line,  he was headed to the garage.  I don't think its that simple for CTA 

Like I said,  most drivers seemingly deal with it.  They won't take a bus with no heat in the winter.

 

The NABIs out of North Shore had the weirdest A/C.  Every single one I rode on, also had the hot water circulating along the walls, making it impossible to sit against the windows. 

But on the L trains, always sit at the B end of the car on hot days.  The B end is the one without the motorman's cab & is almost always the coolest area on the train car, except on the South Side red & Green Lines, where guys selling crap are always going from car to car, screwing that up.

[artthouwill]

57 minutes ago, strictures said:

The NABIs out of North Shore had the weirdest A/C.  Every single one I rode on, also had the hot water circulating along the walls, making it impossible to sit against the windows. 

But on the L trains, always sit at the B end of the car on hot days.  The B end is the one without the motorman's cab & is almost always the coolest area on the train car, except on the South Side red & Green Lines, where guys selling crap are always going from car to car, screwing that up.

I don't know how the cooling system on the newer buses work.  The old buses (and maybe the 2600 series CTA railcars] had condenser motors which you can clearly hear when the AC is on.  Generally the water valve was nearly closed to allow a little water through the system to avoid freezing.  If the water valve is fully open, hot water circulates through the system, causing warm air to come out the vents.  

Both the NABIs and the Axxess seem to have cool air coming from overhead vents and warm air coming from the floor vents.  I don't understand it.  Are they computer operated?  Are these due to sensor malfunctions?

[NewFlyerMCI]

2 hours ago, strictures said:

The NABIs out of North Shore had the weirdest A/C.  Every single one I rode on, also had the hot water circulating along the walls, making it impossible to sit against the windows. 

But on the L trains, always sit at the B end of the car on hot days.  The B end is the one without the motorman's cab & is almost always the coolest area on the train car, except on the South Side red & Green Lines, where guys selling crap are always going from car to car, screwing that up.

“LOUD LOUD LOUD”

”Loosies for sale, loosies for sale”

”got those squares”

It’ll never beat Baltimore though, where someone was advertising some drug at the Penn-North train station (presumably heroin) as “Chicago” ??‍♂️

[NewFlyerMCI]

4337 is sporting a “BUS IS FULL” message

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

18 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

“LOUD LOUD LOUD”

”Loosies for sale, loosies for sale”

”got those squares”

It’ll never beat Baltimore though, where someone was advertising some drug at the Penn-North train station (presumably heroin) as “Chicago” ??‍♂️

When I was in New York City in February I was at the Fulton St subway station complex outside the fare paid zone and I saw one of those fare card amount checkers so I started walking over to swipe my card but at the same time I could see a guy in the direction of the fare checker watching me out of the corner of his eye. I felt like he was trying to solicit something from me and when I was walking by he said “Yo excuse me sir!” I wasn’t in the mood to stop and also I was trying to get to a dinner near Penn Station, so I just kept walking because when I’ve done that in Chicago people just back off. The second I pass him I hear him go “Aw hell no!” and the next thing I know he’s got his phone out and is videoing me while almost chanting “I got you! I got you! You’re Instagram famous!” while I’m checking my balance and getting ready to pass through the turnstiles. I guess his popular little Instagram account doesn’t give him access to the subway system because the second I started heading towards the turnstiles for the A and C train platforms he started walking away while still shouting at me.

[i8itall4u]

Hey everyone, found this on ebay. I've studied cta buses and trains for years, but this one escapes me; never saw it or heard about it. Can anyone confirm this 'Demo' was once on Chicago streets?

[rvwnsd]

6 hours ago, i8itall4u said:

Hey everyone, found this on ebay. I've studied cta buses and trains for years, but this one escapes me; never saw it or heard about it. Can anyone confirm this 'Demo' was once on Chicago streets?

"Forster Bros" having that phone number is located in Flushing, Queens New York. Therefore, it is extremely unlikely that pic was taken in Chicago. 

 

Here is a pic of the CTA demo, which is the older style bus:

 

[i8itall4u]

Thank you for the information. Imagine that, misinformation on the internet?

[Shannoncvpi]

@YoungBusLover seen what u said about 1957 being hit. & for those of y'all that was wondering about 1629 here go the pics of that also at SS with a FG sticker 

[NewFlyerMCI]

Whoever can guess where this is will win a free ticket to the zone of their choice on any Metra UP line*

*fares not currently being accepted on UP lines

[MTRSP1900-CTA3200]

16 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Whoever can guess where this is will win a free ticket to the zone of their choice on any Metra UP line*

*fares not currently being accepted on UP lines

You’re across the street from the CTA control center. On some of the IRM Snowflake Specials I rode the control center was mentioned, along with 567 W. Lake St.

Always look for that big antenna!

[NewFlyerMCI]

1571’s headsign is suffering pixel death. Also, I saw this weird phenomenon on 4329’s rear route sign

[NewFlyerMCI]

Any reason the 56 runs with only Novas?

[Mr.NewFlyer1051]

3 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Any reason the 56 runs with only Novas?

nowadays you’ll catch a flyer as well

[artthouwill]

12 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

Any reason the 56 runs with only Novas?

I suppose that CTA would probably like to showcase its newer buses downtown  and the 56 is FG's only downtown route    Remember C dust the same thing when ur gas the 6400 series Novas.  The 20 eab all  Novas. 

[NewFlyerMCI]

25 minutes ago, artthouwill said:

I suppose that CTA would probably like to showcase its newer buses downtown  and the 56 is FG's only downtown route    Remember C dust the same thing when ur gas the 6400 series Novas.  The 20 eab all  Novas. 

They haven’t even been doing that lately, I asked because I noticed more 6400s than usual on the 56 lately 

[NewFlyerMCI]

1439 has some sort of acceleration lag? Only way to describe it, it took several seconds for the bus to pull off and during that time it sounded like the bus would if it were on the highway

[artthouwill]

40 minutes ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

1439 has some sort of acceleration lag? Only way to describe it, it took several seconds for the bus to pull off and during that time it sounded like the bus would if it were on the highway

A delay in the brake release?

[Shannoncvpi]

12 hours ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

1439 has some sort of acceleration lag? Only way to describe it, it took several seconds for the bus to pull off and during that time it sounded like the bus would if it were on the highway

5527 was like that driver would hit the gas you hear the motor kick in the bus woukd take a few seconds to start moving once it started moving it would take off slow af took about a whole block for it to reach 20 mph

[NewFlyerMCI]

1 hour ago, Shannoncvpi said:

5527 was like that driver would hit the gas you hear the motor kick in the bus woukd take a few seconds to start moving once it started moving it would take off slow af took about a whole block for it to reach 20 mph

 

13 hours ago, artthouwill said:

A delay in the brake release?

It was exactly like how @Shannoncvpi described it

[artthouwill]

3 hours ago, Shannoncvpi said:

5527 was like that driver would hit the gas you hear the motor kick in the bus woukd take a few seconds to start moving once it started moving it would take off slow af took about a whole block for it to reach 20 mph

 

1 hour ago, NewFlyerMCI said:

 

It was exactly like how @Shannoncvpi described it

Sometimes the air brakes don't fully "release".  This causes the bus to drag until the brakes are fully released.   My understanding if the newer transit buses is that once the doors are open, it automatically becomes a brake.   On old models, once the doors were closed,  the door brakes automatically released,  but newer models require a brake application after the doors are closed.  Perhaps the driver needed to make a full brake application (mash brake to floor) to fully release.  

It could be something else like an engine or transmission,  but the brakes were the first thing to come to mind.   Making sure that the brakes are released is simple and can be a quick fix or let you know you have a more serious problem. it is an easy troubleshoot    From the outside I can tell the brakes aren't released fully when the bus is taking off abs accelerating but the brake light's are still on.  On the driver sashtge brake light shot go off once the brakes are released   uf it's still on even though the bus is moving,  they aren't fully released 

[Shannoncvpi]

7 hours ago, artthouwill said:

 

Sometimes the air brakes don't fully "release".  This causes the bus to drag until the brakes are fully released.   My understanding if the newer transit buses is that once the doors are open, it automatically becomes a brake.   On old models, once the doors were closed,  the door brakes automatically released,  but newer models require a brake application after the doors are closed.  Perhaps the driver needed to make a full brake application (mash brake to floor) to fully release.  

It could be something else like an engine or transmission,  but the brakes were the first thing to come to mind.   Making sure that the brakes are released is simple and can be a quick fix or let you know you have a more serious problem. it is an easy troubleshoot    From the outside I can tell the brakes aren't released fully when the bus is taking off abs accelerating but the brake light's are still on.  On the driver sashtge brake light shot go off once the brakes are released   uf it's still on even though the bus is moving,  they aren't fully released 

Yea that could be the issues with these buses