by Aaron M. Renn
Chronicling life riding the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA)
Visit The Weekly Breakdown on the web at http://www.urbanophile.com/breakdown/
In a piece of very sad news this week, George Krambles, who was the head of the CTA in the 1970's, died of a heart attack. He was 84 years old. Krambles was the consummate transit and railfan. He founded the Central Electric Railfans Association (CERA) in 1938, an organization that still exists today. He also owned the largest private collection of CTA photographs. Krambles administered an eponymous scholarship fund that awarded money to students planning to pursue a career in public transportation. George Krambles was truly a giant, and will be very much missed by the Chicago transit community.
Brian Beuchaw wrote in with this bit of info:
Read your Breakdown every week and get lots of good info - thanks for doing it. Anyway, I heard a DJ (on WXRT, I think) say that the CTA plans on stopping all trains at 11:55 PM 12/31 and restarting them at 12:15 AM 1/1. I don't remember seeing anything in the Breakdown about it and thought you might be interested (of course, I don't know if it's true and couldn't find confirmation on CTA's web site). Thanks for reading....
Yes, the CTA wants to make sure that all trains are in stations when the date rolls over in case of a power failure.
As the temperature dropped last week, commuters in Wheaton complained that there was no heat at their brand new train station. A repair man was dispatched, but found nothing wrong with the furnace. A later visit revealed the true culprit: the thermostat was set to 50. [ Source: Chicago Sun-Times 30 November 1999 ]
The Weekly Breakdown is a small Internet journal devoted to the trials and tribulations of being a regular rider of the Chicago Transit Authority. I would be happy to hear about and include your experiences. Just send mail to breakdown@urbanophile.com. The views expressed by contributors are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the publisher.
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