CTA 5000 Update

I've heard from a fairly reliable source that the 2200s will be out of revenue service completely by January. Get your pictures while you can.

Stinko.... I'd much rather retire the 2400's.

I stand by my "2400's suck" attitude. After assuming red line duties, the 2400s have kept up their luxurious service, including failure of lights/air con/doors... There's nothing like riding in a dark and hot/humid subway.

I like the 2200's also. There's nothing like a Budd railcar.

Amen bro. They built 'em like they knew what they were doing.

I'll miss those 2200s as well. Too bad that they will not be refurbished a second time. A second refurbishment probably would have saved them and kept them around for another 15-20 years.

The long-lasting Budd-built 2200's were the first CTA rapid transit cars paid for with the assistance of Federal funds, which I think is essentially why stainless steel was specified. With "someone else's money", it had became affordable. The CTA had to purchase the Pullman-Standard-built 2000's with their own farebox-generated money, and aluminum was cheaper.

In the years since, stainless steel has become the preference over aluminum for new rapid transit carbodies for most North American cities (BART being an exception along with the rubber-tired Montréal subway).

I seem to remember, at the time the 2200 cars were new, a reporter asking a CTA spokesperson why the cars had "blinker" doors instead of sliding doors like the subway cars in other cities. The response was that "Chicago riders are so used to the blinker doors and would become confused if the new cars (which would be mixed in with older 2000-series cars in the train) had sliding doors".

One innovation from the P-S 2000's was brought back for later orders after the 2200's -- the use of molded fiberglass front ends. The 2200's are the first, last and only CTA cars with stainless steel fronts that match the rest of the car.

Blinker doors were retained in the post PCC-car era because of their all-electric operation, and the fact that no CTA car built since 1947 has had an air system on it (4000s have air-operated sliding doors). Basically you have electric motors opening and closing the doors in a fairly uncomplicated manner. It wasn't until later an all-electric sliding door system was developed (see: 2400s). Also the 2000s and 2200s share some parts in the door mechanism. At one time those two variants of "L" cars were very similar to one another, aside from the shells/frames being different metal and the climate control being setup differently. Of course the 2000s were never given a mid-life rehab and stayed closer to their original configuration, whereas the 2200s were and have continued to get minor upgrades/new components. Now a 2000 and a 2200 have lots of differences between each other, but if coupled they would still MU.

Molded fiberglass has its pros and cons. It's easier to fix in-house when inevitably a couple cars brush up against one another, but will rot and crack if kept in kept in direct sunlight for too long.

Very interesting. I remember being terrified of the "PCC" blinker doors when I was about seven years old. I used to run and jump aboard the train before the doors could snap shut on me.

I didn't know there was a person (the conductor) looking down the length of the train waiting for all the passengers to finish boarding.

2200 retirements have been put on hold, and the latest word is that one can expect to see them in service until next summer. The cause of this is beefed-up rail service in lieu of certain bus routes which have been cut. A result of this plan to beef up rail service is that a group of ~50 2400s will be heading over to the Orange line. A whole bunch of them are already in the Midway yard, although as of yesterday they still had Green line rollsigns and weren't being used in revenue trains yet. This will be the first time anything except 3200s has been assigned to the Orange line.

Ready or not, Red Line, here they come!

Two 8-car trainsets of 5000's should roll through the State Street Subway today, according to the CTA:

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 0098.story

Interesting, I could've sworn I heard 5000's running up the Red Line on Friday night around 10p as I was walking down Sheffield at the DePaul gymnasium. I figured it was a deadhead to/from Skokie Shops.

Could have been a training train to get crews familiar with the new cars, making all "regular stops" but carrying no passengers.

You yourself can now buy a 5000!

The CTA has added a new Pink Line Wooden Train to its online store. Does it have a *pink* destination sign? No! It has yellow-on-black lettering saying "54/Cermak" - just like the (earliest built) 5000s. Clearly someone in the CTA's marketing department is a stickler for authenticity.

See: http://www.ctagifts.com/shop/childrens/ ... oden-train

2400s are now actually operating on the Orange line. So you can take a Boeing product to Midway, and then get on another Boeing product.

Also Tad, I saw your set of 5000s heading south on the Red line when my Orange line train was passing by Cermak/Chinatown. From a distance, the red colored LED destination signs are actually kind of pink-ish.

I want a window seat, and one that's not over the wing!