CTA Surplus Auction

Read an article on the Chicago Tribune today about the CTA auctioning off surplus equipment. Apparently for the first time, the auction is being performed online. A sampling of the goodies being auctioned off (asking prices accurate as of writing)

Station Stop Sign - California - $95
Speedometer - $85
Crossover Signal - $65
Railroad Spike - $11
Bus Stop Sign - 111th / King Drive - $30

And finally....

2200 Series Railcar (#2347) - $4,000

Links to the article and auction website below...enjoy!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... 9125.story

http://ricklevin.com/Auctions/Online-Auctions.aspx

Nice starting price ... practically affordable. I wish I had a place to put it ... It would make a nice playhouse.

I'll bet you could deck an old CTA car out as a place to live. Though the smell might be tough to get rid of.

Looks like two different bidders bought the Budds. Probably scrappers.

Article stated $4k was about scrap value... Both sold for 10k+

20 bucks for a spike? Who would bid that much on something worth pennies?

It looks like it was $21 for four spikes...$5.25 each (plus shipping?)

I guess it's the 'provenance' -- these are genuine CTA spikes! I doubt that they would come with a Certificate of Authenticity though...

Some interesting signs and other stuff. I wonder how much of it will show up on eBay in the coming months.

A news blurb on WBBM the other day indicated that the CTA was "unexpectedly" enjoying the reception to the signage auctions, in contrast to their past practice of donating many items to "a museum" (i.e., IRM). I guess they must have realized how well IRM was doing with their signage sales.

Also, anyone willing to pay five bucks for an old spike (make no mistake, they're all pretty much the same), obviously isn't quite "worldly" enough to just go take a walk along any old disused railroad track...

It's my understanding that IRM couldn't sell many of the signs. That doesn't surprise me, given that they're not really set up for high-volume retail and the marketing/processing it requires.

Auction's over, and CTA didn't make out too bad, it seems...

The Jungle Jim's grocery store bought one of the 2200s.
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?id=9418536" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I've seen this place on tv. They have a monorail, too.

The place is bonkers. I used to go there in college every week for groceries, it was so cool.

I saw on another forum I skimmed through, the other car might have been bought by Google for a decoration at Chicago offices. That would probably be at the Fulton Market Cold Storage building, which was stripped down completely to the reinforced concrete columns and floors for the remodeling. Probably way more live load capacity than an office building will ever need.

I hope both owners keep both cars relatively intact, other than interior furnishing and maybe taking out a couple of the blinker door posts for wheelchairs. And getting Servicemaster to sanitize the the hell out of them. They don't "need" stuff like traction motors, but it is still nice if things get preserved whole.

Here's what was done with a Leonard's PCC at an office building in Fort Worth, and it seems pretty complete:
http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/11/04 ... ns-to.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;