CTA Transmission History

[sw4400]

Today, all the CTA Buses have a push button transmission made by some manufacturer. But in the years past, I don't think all the buses were equipped with a push button tranny. Some might've been an automatic with a lever on the dashboard somewhere, while others may have been a stick shift. Does anyone know if the CTA did have a fleet of buses at one time that were automatic with a lever, or maybe manual(stick shift), and which ones were what?

[busfan]

The older green 70's buses had a "togle" switch on the dash to put the trans from neutral to forward or reverse. It was a mechanical linkage just like on modern cars but used an electric solenoid to move the linkage. The buses now use either a ZF or Alison Trans. Electronic solenoids are in the trans pan now and the bus also has a Trans ECU (computer). Farthest back I remeber was the buses with the long handle that was let down and that was for the parking brake. I do know they had a long lever in the early 60's late 50's for manualy shifting gears.

[Busjack]

In general (I can't speak for CTA in particular) the toggle switch started in the 1970s era models. Transit buses built basically from the late 1940s to the late 1960s had automatic transmissions, but there was a shift lever on the floor (near the parking brake release to the right of the driver) with RND positions. Before that, some books (like Lind's on the Chicago Surface Lines) indicate that transit buses had manual transmissions.

Also, buses used to have the turn signal stalk on the steering column but to the right. Self-canceling ones appeared in 1950s era buses; on some real old ones, the driver would have to flip the lever back off. I don't know when that changed to having the floor switches (which I first noticed on RTS and 1980s buses).