CHICAGO: Transit Developments

[the urban politician]

^ I like it too but somehow the brown color seems more “Chicago”. It matches the bridges

[Handro]

Originally Posted by Kippis

^ Part of me wished that the CTA would paint all of the elevated structures that cool gray color. Seems a bit less 'heavy' than the brown that they use. Or even the yuck yellow on some of the other structures around the city...

My dream is to see the CTA paint the structures bright red/blue/yellow/whatever. Add a pop of color during the dreary, bleak winter months. Same with the bridges. I'm admittedly a big baby when it comes to winter but I think Chicago could gain a lot by fighting the image of grey beigness for 5 months a year.

[Busy Bee]

I actually like the white of that primer. If only it was remotely possible to keep it clean and maintained. That would be asking too much.

I'm sure I could find the answer pretty easily if I tried, but on a related note, what was the original Loop 'L' structure's paint color when it was built? Was it the burgundy/maroon color that the Wabash structure is painted for that streetscaping?

[denizen467]

^ Some kind of dark green maybe?

The color of the contemporary paintwork is called bordeaux.

Originally Posted by Mr Downtown

^Well, they have a free trial thing that wasn't too hard to game if you know how to generate new email addresses. Though I haven't tried recently.

The short application form seemed to emphasize business contact info like phone number and title, so I kind of thought there might be some actual biological salesperson who might review their leads. I guess I'll give it a shot once I decide on how to respond to the phone number question (also, some online services have gotten wise to certain disposable email domains and reject those when submitted; hopefully they haven't).

[MayorOfChicago]

I like the brown, mostly because it matches the bridges. Much better than the beige/orange whatever color on the Lake Street side. Also walked home through River North last night, the L there REALLY - REALLY - needs painting. It looks like it's just flaking apart.

I wish they would paint the Lake Street side and then get to Wells and Van Buren. Why just Wabash? For tourists?

[IrishIllini]

Originally Posted by Handro

My dream is to see the CTA paint the structures bright red/blue/yellow/whatever. Add a pop of color during the dreary, bleak winter months. Same with the bridges. I'm admittedly a big baby when it comes to winter but I think Chicago could gain a lot by fighting the image of grey beigness for 5 months a year.

It irks me when people complain about the weather, lol, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't occasionally. Chicago's definitely not a tropical paradise, but it's far from Siberia. We do get a lot of partly cloudy days, but the sun is only truly hidden for Dec./Jan. Things start to brighten up by February, although at that point spring showers can bring about a partly cloudy forecast once or twice a week.

I guess it annoys me because people seem to be under the impression that it's regularly -50 degrees (without windchill) in Chicago (it never is, even with windchill) and you won't see the sun from September-May. I have coworkers who aren't from here that started wearing those $1,000 Canadian Goose jackets the second week of October...totally unnecessary, lol.

[Handro]

Originally Posted by IrishIllini

It irks me when people complain about the weather, lol, although I'd be lying if I said I didn't occasionally. Chicago's definitely not a tropical paradise, but it's far from Siberia. We do get a lot of partly cloudy days, but the sun is only truly hidden for Dec./Jan. Things start to brighten up by February, although at that point spring showers can bring about a partly cloudy forecast once or twice a week.

I guess it annoys me because people seem to be under the impression that it's regularly -50 degrees (without windchill) in Chicago (it never is, even with windchill) and you won't see the sun from September-May. I have coworkers who aren't from here that started wearing those $1,000 Canadian Goose jackets the second week of October...totally unnecessary, lol.

Yes, I'm a coward and I can't deny it. But temperature aside, I'm going to have to respectfully disagree about the brightness. It's cold, grey, and dark pretty much November-March. Getting creative and bold with color could make Chciago more of a destination year round. You say yourself that people have a certain impression of Chicago--we need to start doing things that generate the positive PR the city deserves.

[Busy Bee]

^I know what you're saying about using bright primary colors on certain infrastructures, I agree, but I don't think it should be the L structure itself. Too much of a good thing if you will.

Speaking of things in bright bold colors, Daley's West Loop bridges over the Kennedy are really going to hell.

[ardecila]

Originally Posted by Busy Bee

I actually like the white of that primer. If only it was remotely possible to keep it clean and maintained. That would be asking too much.

I'm sure I could find the answer pretty easily if I tried, but on a related note, what was the original Loop 'L' structure's paint color when it was built? Was it the burgundy/maroon color that the Wabash structure is painted for that streetscaping?

For some reason I want to say olive green, but maybe just because many of NY's el structures are painted that way.

I know Quincy was supposed to have historically accurate paint colors, and red oxide is a traditional color for bridges and metalwork.

[electricron]

Originally Posted by ardecila

For some reason I want to say olive green, but maybe just because many of NY's el structures are painted that way.

I know Quincy was supposed to have historically accurate paint colors, and red oxide is a traditional color for bridges and metalwork.

Red oxide was, and still is a traditional color for metalwork. Ever wondered why?
You might find this interesting....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead(II,IV)_oxide

[ardecila]

It's hard to know what the original color was, since (obviously) the only photos of the L's early days were shot in black and white. Postcards were false color (not necessarily accurate). Then are some early color photos from the 40s, but the L structures were already 50 years old by that point and must have been repainted several times.

Almost every source shows one of three colors, though:
-dusty red/red oxide
-charcoal gray
-olive green

What's not on this list is the tan color that CTA painted structures in the mid-late 20th century to present a "modernized" appearnace. Likely the L, and the Loop itself, was always a mishmash of different colors, it was initially a group of several companies before Yerkes united them all.

For new structures it seems like CTA prefers a metallized coating (zinc/aluminum alloy, applied through special techniques in the shop) over paint. Kinda looks like a satiny light gray. IDOT has used the same coating for the Circle Interchange steel. It's a more expensive option but provides a much longer lifespan, which comes in handy when you can't afford disruptions caused by repainting.

[Mr Downtown]

When Quincy was restored in the 1980s, they did paint analysis, scraping down to the next-to-last coating, that resulted in the dark red. But now we're pretty sure that was a second primer coat, as a few years later Bruce Moffat turned up a newspaper article from opening day saying the stations were pearl gray. I'm still trying to learn whether the structure was the same color.

In the early 1980s, the Loop was repainted in the ocher-buff (from white, IIRC). In the mid-1990s, Mayor Daley and Sara Bode of the State Street Council supposedly personally chose the bordeaux used to redo the Wabash section.

[trvlr70]

The bordeaux is just fine. However, the tan just looks grimy almost immediately. Why is this even a choice?

[Busy Bee]

Very interesting Mr. Downtown...

[LaSalle.St.Station]

So shocked, that Metra is instituting frequent fare hikes and service cuts not that many years after Madigan started packing the metra payroll with Madigan's patronage army. Payroll is up 32 percent in four years with increased head count according to Tribune.

Just wait til pension cost from the added fat starts sucking the system down. Good bye off hour service.

[the urban politician]

^ If anyone out there hasn’t yet figured out that Madigan is Illinois’ biggest menace, then I’ve got a bridge to sell you.

[BVictor1]

.

[Mr Downtown]

The guys repacking bearings at the Rocket House and Bensenville are all buddies of Madigan? Call me skeptical.

Metra has had to hire additional maintenance staff (the head count is only up 14 percent from 2012) because much of the rolling stock is 50 years old. Some is 60 years old.

[Randomguy34]

I am really excited about this. Kenosha to Racine for $2.50 cash, and Kenosha to Milwaukee for $4.50! Combine that with a Metra weekend pass, and you can get from Chicago to Milwaukee for $19 roundtrip.

New commuter bus service takes Racine residents to Kenosha Metra
http://www.tmj4.com/news/local-news/...-kenosha-metra

Schedule & Route map: http://web.coachusa.com/CoachUsaAsse...d%20Racine.pdf

[the urban politician]

^ Hmmm... sounds like driving is both cheaper and faster.

And why not just use the Amtrak Hiawatha?