It's a summer holiday weekend, in fact the busiest weekend of all, the day before the Fourth and Taste of Chicago is downtown; thus eight cars on this Brown Line train pulling out of the terminal at Kimball AV. The line operates on the surface here, a unique aspect of Chicago's "L" and this train won't climb up onto the typical steel structure for another mile. This train has the one-of-a-kind pair of cars in the consist. All CTA trains are made up of married pairs...with both cars identical. But the third and fourth cars are the "hermaphrodite" pair, made from a left over smooth sided 2600 series car mated with a specially ordered extra 3200 series car. The different arrangement of the tilt-in hopper windows are another distinction.
