Lake/Dan Ryan car assignments

[Chicago80]

Before the south side routes were flipped, I know that the west/south route had the 2400s. Did it also have 2600s?

From 1981 to when it became the Red Line on Sunday, February 21, 1993.

[Chicago80]

Yes, the West-South Route did have 2600s in addition to 2400s. 2400s replaced 2000s in West-South service in the early to mid 1980s, while at roughly the same time, the West-South Route traded its remaining 2200s to the West-Northwest Route for some of that line's 2600s.

Before the arrival of the 2400s and 2600s (which originally ran on the Ravenswood, North-South and West-Northwest routes), the West-South Route opened with 2000s (140 of which originated on the Lake line, and 40 transferred from the West-Northwest Route) and some 2200s. And when the Lake line ran only between Harlem and downtown, it was entirely equipped with 2000s from mid-1964 to the day the new West-South through-routing began operating in 1969. The Lake Line (or the West-South Route, for that matter) was never officially assigned 6000s (although a few 6000s did run in revenue service on the West-South Route in the late 1970s as fill-in runs); prior to the arrival of the 2000s, the Lake line ran with 4000s, and before that, with old wood-bodied cars.

After the South Side through-routings were flipped, the Lake-Englewood-Jackson Park line ran with 2000s and 2600s until the line closed in 1994 for renovation. The 2000s were officially retired a month or so before the temporary closure of what is now the Green Line, with the higher-numbered units of that series finishing out their revenue service days on the Evanston Line (now the Purple Line).

That switched occurred around June 1982.

[RJL6000]

That switched occurred around June 1982.

With the higher-numbered 2000-series units going to the North-South first, followed by the lower-numbered units a few months later. In August 1982, about half the 2000s ran on the West-South, the other half on the North-South; this was in the transition period.