Destination Sign Curtins

In the old days of manual destination sign boxes, it seemed that each curtin contained all or almost all the routes current at the time; Englewood-Howard, /A\ Englewood-Howard, Jackson Pk.-Howard |B|, Jackson Pk.-Howard, /A\ Ravenswood, Ravenswood, Ravenswood |B|, etc.

I am guessing that with the automatic destination sign boxes, there is only a limited number of settings. Does anyone know if this is true? And if so, how many different curtins are there and what is on each?

F40C: I remember the CTA would put all possible rail lines on their rollsigns. A slight correction on your examples are: Englewood-Howard A and ALL STOP; Jackson Park-Howard B and ALL STOP; Ravenswood A,B and ALL STOP;Lake-Dan Ryan A,B and ALL STOP;O'Hare-Congress A and ALL STOP;O'Hare-Douglas B and ALL STOP; Evanston Express,Linden-Wilmette,Howard,Skokie Swift and remember the Loop Shuttle?: Loop-All Stations. The Midway line was later after the CTA changed the rollsigns to emphasize the color lines. I learned this because my uncle was a CTA motorman from 1958-1986. With the automatic signs my guess is it depends on the program and how many sign combinations it provides. Someone in the know on the current signs can elaborate. MACTRAXX

I actually have an old sign box from a 6000 with a curtin in it and the all stop signs do not say all stop, they just have the route name in white letters on a black background.

If you go to;
http://www.chicago-l.org/signage/train/index.html

and scroll about half way down, there is an animated roll sign that is almost exactly what I have. Mine is slightly newer as I have the Lake-Dan Ryan rather than just the Lake route.

yes-the older signs from the 60s or so were lettered that way. F40c-if it what I think it is you have a neat collectible! MACTRAXX

F40CFan wrote:In the old days of manual destination sign boxes, it seemed that each curtin contained all or almost all the routes current at the time; Englewood-Howard, /A\ Englewood-Howard, Jackson Pk.-Howard |B|, Jackson Pk.-Howard, /A\ Ravenswood, Ravenswood, Ravenswood |B|, etc.

I am guessing that with the automatic destination sign boxes, there is only a limited number of settings. Does anyone know if this is true? And if so, how many different curtins are there and what is on each?

When the 2000s and 2200s were first delivered, they were initially used on the newer (at the time) "expressway" routes only, and as such, were outfitted with the following sign curtain:

/A\ Congress-Milwaukee, Douglas-Milwaukee |B|, all stops Congress-Milwaukee, Douglas-Milwaukee all stops, /A\ Lake-Dan Ryan, Lake-Dan Ryan |B|, and all stops Lake-Ryan. "Not in service" and "Chartered" appeared on all sign curtains on the system as well, while some, but not all, also had a sign that read: "CTA: Spirit of Chicago". In all cases, the "/A" signs were red, the "|B|" signs were green, and the "all stops" signs were black on the Lake-Dan Ryan line, with the word "all stops" appearing as black text on a white background. On the Congress/Douglas lines, the all stops signs were either red (Congress) or green (Douglas), again, with "all stops" in black text on a white background.

A notable exception to the red/green A-B standard was the Ravenswood line, which had yellow /A\ signs, and blue |B| signs. Don't know how or why that happened, but I do remember the 2400s were outfitted with those curtains, since many of them were assigned there during the 80's...

Around the time the 2400s were delivered, the Englewood/Jackson Pk "all-stops" signs were changed to the same red/green standard that existed on the Congress/Douglas lines. By the time the Midway line opened in 1993, and the CTA rapid transit system officially changed to color designations, the newer 3200's had the following sign curtain:

(Brown): Kimball, Loop, Belmont,
(Purple): Linden, Loop, Howard
(Orange): Midway, Loop, Ford City (named for a possible future extension)
(Red): 95th/Dan Ryan, Howard, Roosevelt, Wilson
(Yellow): Skokie

Today, about half of the 2600 series (to about 2950 or so) have the Red, Purple, and Yellow curtains, some may have Brown as well. Also, since the 2400s operate exsclusively on the Green line, I don't know if they've got any additional routes on their curtain. I think the Green, Blue, and now Pink curtains are grouped together, but I'm not sure about that...

Dorian: Interesting info on the more recent CTA rollsigns. It must be a pain to switch rollsigns when cars are interchanged between lines-does the CTA assign cars to lines due to the shop that maintains them as NYCT does? My favorite designation other than the special CTA CHICAGO sign are the Skokie Swift yellow bird logo-a nice touch. There should be one for the Evanston Express-slanted Helvetica on purple with one large E with EVANSTON EXPRESS. C'mon guys- Those unique CTA names sound much better than the Purple or Yellow line any day! MACTRAXX

doepack wrote:A notable exception to the red/green A-B standard was the Ravenswood line, which had yellow /A\ signs, and blue |B| signs. Don't know how or why that happened, but I do remember the 2400s were outfitted with those curtains, since many of them were assigned there during the 80's...

The yellow for /A\ and blue for |B| were used on lines that terminated in the loop, whereas the red/green A/B signs were used on lines that ran through the loop. That is why the original Lake line had yellow and blue signs until it became the Lake-Dan Ryan line and got red and green signs.

MACTRAXX wrote:C'mon guys- Those unique CTA names sound much better than the Purple or Yellow line any day!

I'm going to agree with you there. I was in Chicago for the first time in my life in 1992, so the old names ("Lake-Englewood-Jackson Park" still rolls right off my tongue!) are the ones I learned. And I still think "Ravenswood service" sounds way, way better than "Brown Line" (blah!).

Lest anyone be misled, I've visited Chicago a total of four times in my life. I'm not *that* familiar with it. I just like those old CTA names.

Best,
Tim

Keep in mind 2400's are showing up on evanston and ravenswood trains these days. It seems I always get that "tweener" train that does both routes, and it inevitably has a few crusty old 2400's. The scrap yard can't come too soon for those cars, they are gross. I'll take a 2600 or 3200 any day.

Tadman wrote:Keep in mind 2400's are showing up on evanston and ravenswood trains these days. It seems I always get that "tweener" train that does both routes, and it inevitably has a few crusty old 2400's. The scrap yard can't come too soon for those cars, they are gross. I'll take a 2600 or 3200 any day.

The 2200s seem to be lasting OK. I kind of like them the best of all the current operating equipment. The original 6000s will allways be my alltime favorites, though.

Tadman wrote:It seems I always get that "tweener" train that does both routes

The proper name for that train, if you didn't know, is the "Ravenston."

Tadman wrote:Keep in mind 2400's are showing up on evanston and ravenswood trains these days. It seems I always get that "tweener" train that does both routes, and it inevitably has a few crusty old 2400's. The scrap yard can't come too soon for those cars, they are gross. I'll take a 2600 or 3200 any day.

They still beat the 2200s in my book, though. Especially in the winter - the cracks around the blinker doors let just about all the cold air in mother nature can provide, and the really, really passive heating system doesn't do much to stop it.

Tim: Thanks-enough said! Tadman and Byte: Have the Boeing 2400 cars deteriorated really that much? It seems that the Budd 2200s are holding up well. If anyone of you know when does the CTA plan to retire them? MACTRAXX

Both the 2200's and the 2400's are supposed to be retired with the arrival of the "5000 series," expected in late 2009.

The Boeings aren't deteriorated or anything, they just seem to get the least amount of TLC from the CTA shop forces. For that reason, there's always gum stuck to their seats, or a sticky floor (like at a movie theater). They were also rehabbed in-house (whereas the 2200s and 2600s were sent out) so I'm sort of guessing that they cut little corners here and there to bring the cost down - one example would be the lighting. The 2600s, as built, had the same kind of lighting the 2400s have (where it serves as a backlight for the ads and maps), but it was replaced by the type of lights the 2200s have when they got their rehab (which is a single flourescent tube above the ads, not behind them). Coincidentally, the old-style lights, with their backlit translucent plastic, are prone to getting dust and other airborne particles trapped behind them, so after a while it gets dirty and needs cleaning. I think it's little things like that which were never replaced that make the whole series seem ratty.