April 2011 Observations

[WES]

I guess the exhaust package type contraptions that are on Landover's buses are now starting to be put onto Western's buses.  I saw 6449 with it this morning.  I also saw the white C40LFR heading towards Rosslyn via I-66.

From Sunday,
This might be considered a weird sighting as I wouldn't think these would go out on a Sunday  but saw a transit seated Orion V, 4383 heading Not In Service from Landover Division.  I also saw what looked to be a DC Trails Double Decker heading onto the Wilson Bridge with a destination signboard.

[NewFlyer9736BCT]

-3904 makes the same noise that 4309 makes (correction: 4309 still makes that noise) here's the audio clip
-4392 and 4394 still have suburban seating while 4393 and 4395 now have regular seating, not sure about 4390 and 4391 yet
-4316 makes some kind of loud noise when it accelerates, i wanna say it's a screamer, but not really like the other ones
-4317 and 2018 are also screamers for the record

[79MetroExtraMD]

I guess the exhaust package type contraptions that are on Landover's buses are now starting to be put onto Western's buses.  I saw 6449 with it this morning.  I also saw the white C40LFR heading towards Rosslyn via I-66.

From Sunday,
This might be considered a weird sighting as I wouldn't think these would go out on a Sunday  but saw a transit seated Orion V, 4383 heading Not In Service from Landover Division.  I also saw what looked to be a DC Trails Double Decker heading onto the Wilson Bridge with a destination signboard.

I still have no idea why the modifications were made. I'm guessing either for EPA2010 compliance or something emissions related.

[WES]

-3904 makes the same noise that 4309 used to make (sadly they fixed it on 4309, here's the audio clip of it)
-4392 and 4394 still have suburban seating while 4393 and 4395 now have regular seating, not sure about 4390 and 4391 yet
-4316 makes some kind of loud noise when it accelerates, i wanna say it's a screamer, but not really like the other ones
-4317 and 2018 are also screamers for the record

4391 and 90 still have surburban seating, saw 4391 on the A12 yesterday.

[WMATAGMOAGH]

Saw an express branded bus on the J4 at about 5:30ish at Bethesda today displaying the MetroExtra sign.  Also, after the Nationals game, I was going down the center escalator at Navy Yard west side, the escalator on the left (while going down) was heading up and as a result going unused, and I was maybe two thirds of the way down when the right side escalator came to a sudden stop.  People were surprised and it isn't clear what caused the escalator to stop, but no one was hurt and people just started walking down.  Finally, lots of space in the center of each car was going unused on the Green Line waiting for us once I got to the platform. 

[WMATAGMOAGH]

On my way to the airport this morning, my 6 car Yellow Line train was a solid consist of 5000 Series cars. 

[WMAveteran]

MTA: a D4500 coach wrapped in the ICC scheme was operating route 950 service, destination KENT ISLAND EXPRESS, on northbound New York Avenue NE at about 6:30PM, Friday, 4/29/2011.  Due to traffic and my direction of travel I couldn't record the coach number but it was interesting to note that ICC wrapped coaches are operating on MTA routes other than the 201 and 202. 

[79MetroExtraMD]

MTA: a D4500 coach wrapped in the ICC scheme was operating route 950 service, destination KENT ISLAND EXPRESS, on northbound New York Avenue NE at about 6:30PM, Friday, 4/29/2011.  Due to traffic and my direction of travel I couldn't record the coach number but it was interesting to note that ICC wrapped coaches are operating on MTA routes other than the 201 and 202. 

That's odd. I know Eyre runs the 202 and Atlantic Coast Charters runs the 201, but it's odd at how Dillons got a hold of some ICC buses (unless they wrapped more buses than they needed).

[RideOn5905]

Something must've happened to Ride-On's stop announcers over the weekend:
1) The "Stop Requested" message now scrolls down from above, as opposed to flashing like before.
2) It announces stops earlier than normal ("Germantown Rd. & Wisteria Dr." when we're approaching Middlebrook Rd.), and sometimes even at random ("Odendhal Ave. & Frederick Ave." when turning onto Germantown Rd. from Montgomery College; "Kingsview Village Ave. & Clopper Rd." a bit before the aforementioned "Wisteria Dr." announcement)

In addition to that, 5225's announcer was displaying stops on the 97, but not announcing them; this led to the driver overshooting a fair few "requested" stops.
And one more thing: when we returned to GTC, 5717 was sitting at the area for the 74; it's front and side signs both said "100 GERMANTOWN TRANS CNTR EXPRESS", but it's rear sign said "HELP!" Once it moved into the 100's spot and changed its destination to Shady Grove, the rear sign went back to saying "100".