Interesting CTA 6000 Trivia

[Tadman]

We never really talk about the CTA 6000's that went to SEPTA to run on the Norristown line. They were replaced in the early 1990's by Kawasaki N5 cars. However, I just found out there is a married pair of 6000's still sitting on the north side of the Rte 100 shops at 69th street. I'm not sure why they are there.

Great pic of CTA-liveried but SEPTA-logoed cars sitting at 69th. Borrowed from Daves Railpix, a great site.

[Chicagopcclcars]

Bet you would love to see some color VHS of the 6000s in action on the NORRISTOWN LINE......There are some other projects in the works ahead of that.

David

[Tadman]

Uh, yeah...

[Kamen Rider]

However, I just found out there is a married pair of 6000's still sitting on the north side of the Rte 100 shops at 69th street. I'm not sure why they are there.

They're privatly owned, IIRC. SEPTA has a knack for being forced to babysit cars it doesn't control and would love to see gone. they almost scraped the last few of the orignal Broad Street cars until one of thier own pointed out they were the property of the city and SEPTA couldn't touch them. proibly would have lost the elctro/liberty liners if IRM and Rockhill hadn't jumped on them.It's one of SEPTA's problems. Unlike, say, the MTA, which keeps at least a full train worth or more of each group of compatilbe equipment; SEPTA would just love to throw them all out the moment they no longer need them.

[byte]

SEPTA actually saved one Broad Street car on its own - the one that IRM now has. The story goes that IRM was promised one car before SEPTA decided to save one, but IRM's car was involved in a wreck on SEPTA property after the agency decided they also wanted to keep one for their own historical collection. At that time the only serviceable car left was the one they wanted for their historical collection, so IRM got it instead. It was shipped to the museum, along with the damaged car they were supposed to get, on its own wheels. The damaged car was scrapped for parts but the "good" car SEPTA originally wanted to save is operable and usually runs during the 4th of July trolley parade.

[buddah]

Great pic of CTA-liveried but SEPTA-logoed cars sitting at 69th. Borrowed from Daves Railpix, a great site.

Nice catch, there are two shot of them in action from one of my contacts on flickr here's his pics. I never even knew SEPTA stole some of our 6000 until a few years ago..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/8226029@N0 ... 9/sizes/l/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8226029@N0 ... 803879050/

I got to say it, I miss the old CTA cars ...aka: the green limo. I have to admit as A kid riding the 6000 and the 1-50 was the highlight of my CTA days, they are my favorite CTA rolling stock. The 2200 is OK, however it just does not have the same feel to it.

[Tritransit Area]

CTA's 6000s were among the first cars I ever got to ride on today's Norristown High Speed Line, back when I was brought into this world in the 1980's. I just missed out on the Bullet cars, unfortunately.

I never realized they kept the cars' former numbers at first. Great pictures!

Small nitpick for original poster. The N5s are actually built by ABB, a division of Bombardier.

[Kamen Rider]

Adtranz (which built the M4s for the MFL) is a division of Bombarder, not ABB. Asea Brown Boveri is an idependant corportation (trading on the NYSE as ABB) from Switzerland and Sweden. They built the N5s (and got sued for being late, that's why SEPTA has an ALP-44)

[Tritransit Area]

Adtranz (which built the M4s for the MFL) is a division of Bombarder, not ABB. Asea Brown Boveri is an idependant corportation (trading on the NYSE as ABB) from Switzerland and Sweden. They built the N5s (and got sued for being late, that's why SEPTA has an ALP-44)

Thanks for the correction. People keep putting N5s and M4s under the same manufacturer.

[Milwaukee_F40C]

SEPTA added running board extensions at the doors to fit the P&W's wider platform gauge, and changed the third rail gravity shoes with the spring kind. Were there any other modifications? The 6000s do look sharp with the SEPTA logo and paint scheme.

[Tritransit Area]

SEPTA added running board extensions at the doors to fit the P&W's wider platform gauge, and changed the third rail gravity shoes with the spring kind. Were there any other modifications? The 6000s do look sharp with the SEPTA logo and paint scheme.

Wait, spring kind? The rt 100 runs with overrunning third rails. I imagine they may have a different type of gravity shoe, but not necesarily the spring kind.

[polybalt]

Milwaukee_F40C wrote:
SEPTA added running board extensions at the doors to fit the P&W's wider platform gauge, and changed the third rail gravity shoes with the spring kind. Were there any other modifications? The 6000s do look sharp with the SEPTA logo and paint scheme.

Wait, spring kind? The rt 100 runs with overrunning third rails. I imagine they may have a different type of gravity shoe, but not necesarily the spring kind.

However Septa, and almost every other third rail line in America has a cover board. Gravity shoes don't work with a cover board. I think Chicago is the only user of gravity shoes in the country. The only other possible used of is Boston, which also has no cover board, but I think they use spring loaded paddles like everyone else.

[Chicagopcclcars]

The CTA 2200s still use paddles. The 6201 -6510 PCCs used a paddle shoe too.

David Harrison

P.S. Still got the Norristown 6000 videos on my schedule. Be patient.

[jayo]

Adtranz (which built the M4s for the MFL) is a division of Bombarder, not ABB. Asea Brown Boveri is an idependant corportation (trading on the NYSE as ABB) from Switzerland and Sweden. They built the N5s (and got sued for being late, that's why SEPTA has an ALP-44)

Actually, Adtranz was formed by a merger or joint-venture(not sure exactly, but there were at least two companies involved) of ABB and Daimler-Chrysler. The name is an acronym for "ABB Daimler-Benz Transportation." Daimler-Chrysler later sold Adtranz to Bombardier.

[keyboardkat]

I notice that the yard tracks underneath the overpass in the photo appear to have underruning third rails. Which line uses that? I thought the ex-NYC lines of Metro North was the only line to use underruning third rail (also the Moscow subway, but I'm talking about in this country).