The Next Bus

Remember the tale of the painting of CTA 9631? Well the Trolley Bus Department is at it again - and, just as importantly, so are our generous donors! Richard Schauer relates the latest in contract painting news below. By the way, if you've got too much money lying around, you too can fund the transformation of your favorite trolley bus - just pick your favorite and drop us a line!

So we begin again!  M&ST Marmon 441 left today for the body shop, to come back as TMER&T 441 in its as-built paint scheme with the maroon stripe and the fancy V-shape on the front.

I've attached some pictures.  The first shows 441 on September 25, right after it operated on Bus Day for the last time in its old paint, and before removal of its appurtenances began.  The other three were taken today, and show the loading, the unloading, and 441 safely in the shop.

The first step will be to match paint colors, because unlike the CTA 9631, we do not have known-accurate samples for it.  There are several places that were hidden from light where we've identified good colors to match.  The paint colors, according to drawings from the time it was built, are Chrome Orange, Ivory, Maroon, Gold (actually Imitation Gold, a mustard yellow), Black, and Aluminum.  The shop hopes to have these matches done by the middle of next week.