7000-series - Delivery & Updates

[garmon757]

4 hours ago, Busjack said:

So, in short, we're about half way there on the base order. Probably complete in late 2026, and then it's confusion.

BTW, does anyone know how many cars it would take to equip the Blue Line without unnecessary storage of junk? It used to be about 330 cars, but I haven't seen a recent estimate.

It seems very confusing with the slow rates of them being put into service while at the same time there’s hardly any 2600s out there at Skokie Shops awaiting scrapping. 

The last time I’ve checked before I’ve left the Blue Line, it was approximately 380 cars to equip the entire line. 

[artthouwill]

13 hours ago, garmon757 said:

It seems very confusing with the slow rates of them being put into service while at the same time there’s hardly any 2600s out there at Skokie Shops awaiting scrapping. 

The last time I’ve checked before I’ve left the Blue Line, it was approximately 380 cars to equip the entire line. 

How much of a spare ratio is included in that count?   If I assume  50 spare cars ( 3 consists in Forest Park Yard and 3 consists at Rosemont Yard) that would be 330 cars in service at peak times.  If 200 of those cars are 3200s and 100 cars are 7000s, that would leave about 30 2600s in service plus the 50 2600s spares .  But we know that sometimes some of those 3200s and 7000s are in the shops, so the Blue Line probably has another  40 or so cars in a bloated fleet.

I would imagine that the Orange Line Yard is also carrying a bloated fleet to better protect it against breakdowns. 

[Bus1883]

16 hours ago, garmon757 said:

It seems very confusing with the slow rates of them being put into service while at the same time there’s hardly any 2600s out there at Skokie Shops awaiting scrapping. 

The last time I’ve checked before I’ve left the Blue Line, it was approximately 380 cars to equip the entire line. 

If it wasn’t for Covid-19 the 2600s would of all been retired 

[garmon757]

On 3/20/2025 at 1:11 PM, artthouwill said:

How much of a spare ratio is included in that count?   If I assume  50 spare cars ( 3 consists in Forest Park Yard and 3 consists at Rosemont Yard) that would be 330 cars in service at peak times.  If 200 of those cars are 3200s and 100 cars are 7000s, that would leave about 30 2600s in service plus the 50 2600s spares .  But we know that sometimes some of those 3200s and 7000s are in the shops, so the Blue Line probably has another  40 or so cars in a bloated fleet.

I would imagine that the Orange Line Yard is also carrying a bloated fleet to better protect it against breakdowns. 

Well, Rosemont Yard capacity is 260 cars and Des Planes Yard capacity is 122 cars. Since the Blue Line currently have 80 runs (30 Forest Park and 50 O’Hare) while having to ton of runs terminating at UIC-Halsted, I wouldn’t be surprised if Rosemont have at least 100 cars of spares.

[Bus1883]

On 3/20/2025 at 1:11 PM, artthouwill said:

How much of a spare ratio is included in that count?   If I assume  50 spare cars ( 3 consists in Forest Park Yard and 3 consists at Rosemont Yard) that would be 330 cars in service at peak times.  If 200 of those cars are 3200s and 100 cars are 7000s, that would leave about 30 2600s in service plus the 50 2600s spares .  But we know that sometimes some of those 3200s and 7000s are in the shops, so the Blue Line probably has another  40 or so cars in a bloated fleet.

I would imagine that the Orange Line Yard is also carrying a bloated fleet to better protect it against breakdowns. 

Especially with all the junk that came off the blue line last year and hasn’t ran since

[garmon757]

7199-7206 are currently at Skokie Shops. 7177-78 should be in service while 7157-58 are yet to be mated. 7203-04 were delivered today and I decided to show how they’re delivered from the flat trucks. The unit we were using is called a shuttle wagon. It’s a diesel engine unit that can drag any unit anywhere around the yard when there’s no third rail available. We had to use a flatbed car to couple to the 7000s because of coupling issues in the past with the shuttle wagon. 

[artthouwill]

Today there were three consists of 7000s in the Forest Park Yard.  Also spotted six consists in service between Forest Park and Washington of which one was a UIC  short turn.