Bus Photo of the Month: October 2026

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New Flyer D40LF 3694

Location: Queen Anne Avenue at Mercer Street, Seattle, WA
Operator of Vehicle: King County Metro
Date of Photo: August 14, 2004

Following up from last month’s post about bus fleets with multiple paint schemes, here is a look at another agency that has multiple versions of the same livery with different colors across its fleet.  In Seattle, King County Metro opted to paint its 1996 Gillig Phantom buses with yellow on the bottom half, but the top half of the bus is either teal, blue, or green.  Starting with that order and every subsequent order, a third of each order is painted teal, a third is painted blue, and a third is painted green.  This scheme remains current, though it has been modified with the introduction of RapidRide BRT services which get a red top half of the bus.  In addition, zero emission vehicles have a unique yellow and blue livery.  

Do you have a favorite version of King County Metro’s livery?

For more photos of King County Metro buses, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: October 2026

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F59PHI 465

Location: Portland Union Station, Portland, OR
Operator of Vehicle: Amtrak
Date of Photo: August 2, 2007

This past Wednesday, September 30, 2026, Amtrak’s first Airo Trainset entered service on the Cascades route in the Pacific Northwest.  The Airo represents one of the largest equipment purchases by Amtrak and will be entering service across much of the United States in the coming years, replacing outdated Amfleet I and Horizon equipment that is currently in use.  One of the defining features of the Airo is that most trainsets will be able to operate on electrified and non-electrified lines without needing to change locomotives, as is currently the practice as trains enter and leave the Northeast Corridor.  This process requires a long layover of about 30 minutes to accomplish the engine swap, and trip times will be shortened when this layover is no longer needed.  The Airo also features other amenities that have been included on other recent rolling stock orders, including individual AC power outlets and USB charging points at each seat, prominently placed digital information signs, an updated cafe car with a grab and go section, water bottle filling stations, and touchless bathroom controls.  In addition, passengers who bring bicycles on board will have a dedicated space to store them that does not require the removal of the front wheel, as is currently the case on the Amfleet.

When I rode the Cascades in 2007, it was operated with Talgo VI trainsets with a non-powered control cab at one end and a diesel engine, such as the one pictured here, at the other.  Both the F59PHI locomotive and the Talgo VI have been retired.  Two newer Talgo trainsets remain in service, but the remaining Cascades trains consist of standard passenger cars from across the national Amtrak fleet alongside the first two Airo trainsets.  Airo trainsets are expected to enter service on the Northeast Corridor starting in 2027.

For more photos of Amtrak’s F59PHI diesel locomotives, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: September 2026

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Gillig Advantage/HEV 5733

Location: Fifth Avenue at University Place, Pittsburgh, PA
Operator of Vehicle: Pittsburgh Regional Transit
Date of Photo: November 27, 2015

I’ll be Pittsburgh bound in a few days for the first time since 2024, and I expect the OTP Son to be enthralled by the Steel City’s multicolored bus fleet.  For many years, buses seemed to be randomly painted in an array of colors, such as red, gold, green and blue.  As far as I can figure out, there is no rhyme or reason to which color a bus might be painted.  For example, in this photo, you can see the photo focuses on a green vehicle, but other buses in the background of the photo are gold.  In 2022, the Allegheny County Port Authority announced that it would be rebranded as Pittsburgh Regional Transit, with a new gray and gold color scheme.  When this rebranding was announced, PRT said that buses would be repainted gradually while all new buses would arrive in the new scheme.  So it will certainly be interesting to see how my son reacts to the different bus colors, given that he usually notices such things and is more accustomed to fleets having standardized colors.

For more photos of PRT buses, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: September 2026

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GE ET44AH 2607

Location: Near Lordsburg, NM
Operator of Vehicle: Union Pacific
Date of Photo: January 20, 2020

Depending on what circles you travel in or what email lists you are subscribed to, you might have seen discussion about the proposed merger between the Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern freight railroads.  If the merger goes through, it would result in a freight railroad company with 50,000 miles of track in 43 states, and it would be the first freight railroad in the United States to operate a coast-to-coast network.  In 2024, the two railroads accounted for 43 percent of total freight movement in the United States.

The Surface Transportation Board (STB), an independent federal agency that was established following the abolition of the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC), is responsible for reviewing the merger and deciding whether to approve it or not.  This decision is expected in 2027.  There are existing freight customers, advocacy groups, and others who are in favor of or opposed to the merger.  The railroads expect the STB to make its decision about whether to approve the merger, deny it, or approve it with conditions in 2027, after a lengthy process that includes a full evidentiary review, public comments, and hearings

For more photos of Union Pacific, please click here.  

Updates of a sort…

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As you may be aware, there has been no “official” update to this website since January of 2023, which is over three years ago.  More recently, there was an unannounced gap in photos of the month.  So what gives?

The more recent disruption was a result of an injury that occurred this past April.  I haven’t shared this online on account of the potential for legal action as a result of this incident, and hopefully anyone reading this will understand the rationale for that decision.

The longer term disruption comes down to the realities of “real life.”  There are now two OTP children.  I love them very much, but parenting and running a website as a hobby aren’t necessarily compatible activities.  I also have a full time job that requires my time and attention for 40+ hours each week.  I’ve never run this website with the intention of having it somehow support myself and my family.  Perhaps if I was 15 years younger, maybe I’d be a “content creator” and run this website full time, but I also find the idea of asking other people to subsidize my hobby repulsive.  This website has never featured advertising its nearly 26 years of existence and the costs of running it are pretty low.  I have no plans to make any money off my hobby.

I do upload content to the Uncaptioned & Unsorted Photos gallery once it is ready to do so, so you may find much of what I’ve photographed on that page.  This includes photos from 2022 travels in both Greece (where I had never been before) and Israel (where I’ve been a lot), in addition to the usual North American content that I photograph more frequently.  Also awaiting upload are photos from a 2023 trip to Montreal (my first trip there in 23 years), 2025 trip to London (my first trip there in over 15 years), the WMATA 8000 Series mockups that were on the National Mall as part of the Fleet of the Future Expo in 2024 and Great American State Fair in 2026, and a trip to Panama in 2024.

For those of you who visit my website primarily to use the Jerusalem Bus Map, that continues to be updated on an as needed basis, although my ability to provide updates for street closures and other special events is more limited than it has been in the past.  Since like the rest of this website, the bus map earns me no income, I hope people understand this reality and still find it to be useful.

I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to caption what I’ve uploaded to the site thus far or when I’ll clear out the photo queue, but I hope you find the wait worthwhile, no matter how long it ends up being.  That being said, I’ve given though to ways I could potentially get content out via social media such as Facebook and Instagram more quickly and more frequently, and I’m open for suggestions for how to do that. 

Once again, this website is a labor of love, but at the end of the day, I do have to prioritize other things and I hope everyone understands that.  Thank you for visiting and reading this far, it is much appreciated! 

Bus Photo of the Month: August 2026

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Gillig Advantage 5077

Location: Silver Spring Transit Center, Silver Spring, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Montgomery County Division of Transit Services
Date of Photo: July 6, 2026

In recent years, it seems transit agencies have taken to wrapping their vehicles to commemorate all sorts of special events.  Pride month and winter holiday wraps might be among the most common, but there are certainly plenty of other occasions that transit agencies have deemed wrap worthy.  While WMATA wrapped trains and buses to commemorate the 250th anniversary of American independence, Ride On in Montgomery County has a different semiquincentennial to commemorate as the county was founded on September 6, 1776.  The county seat was established in what is now Rockville shortly thereafter.  Over the past 250 years, the county has grown to become Maryland’s most populous.  In 1975, Ride On was established as the first locally operated transit agency in the DC area, initially serving Silver Spring and Takoma Park.  Ride On has since expanded to serve over 60,000 passengers each day on over 80 routes.

What wraps have you seen transit agencies develop to mark special occasions?  Leave a comment below to share what you’ve seen!

For more photos of Ride On’s 30 foot Gillig Advantages, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: August 2026

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R46 6166

Location: Rockaway Park-Beach 116th Street, New York, NY
Operator of Vehicle: MTA New York City Transit
Date of Photo: September 2, 2019

Last month, the R46 subway cars marked 51 years of revenue service.  These cars first entered service on July 14, 1975.  Since the retirement of the R32 cars in early 2022, the R46 cars are the oldest currently running on the New York City Subway, but they are being phased out as this is written.  As the new R211 cars are delivered, additional R46 cars are being removed from service.

The R46 order was the largest single order of passenger train cars at the time of its completion, with 754 trains built.  The R46s were the second 75 foot long cars ordered for the B Division (former IND and BMT lines) with the expectation that they would soon be operating on the Second Avenue subway.  That eventually happened, but it took quite a few decades.  The R46 trains also incorporated some design improvements from the similar R44 cars, including a larger operator’s cab.  Unfortunately, this cab is a full width cab so there is no railfan window on these trains.  Although not as sluggish as the R68 or R68A fleet, which are nicknamed hippos, I’ve never felt that they were particularly fast.  Perhaps these characteristics are part of why these cars have never been my favorites.

After being a mainstay on the E, F, G, and R train for many years, the R46s were moved to the A as R160 trains arrived and R44 trains were retired.  The remaining cars now run on the N, Q, and W.

Happy 51st birthday R46s!  We’ll have to wait and see if they make it to a 52nd one.

For more photos of the R46 subway cars, please click here.  

Rail Photo of the Month: March 2026

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Rohr 1000

Location: Friendship Heights Station, Washington, DC
Operator of Vehicle: Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Date of Photo: September 11, 2002

In just a few weeks, Metrorail will be marking its 50th anniversary.  The first segment of Washington, DC’s subway opened on March 27, 1976 between Rhode Island Avenue and Farragut North.  Lots has changed since then.  Fifty years ago, the Rhode Island Avenue station functioned as a park and ride; none of the current development around the station existed.  The New York Avenue infill station (or Noma-Gallaudet if you prefer the official name) also didn’t exist and wasn’t included in the original system plans, but it was the 7th busiest station in terms of average daily entries in calendar year 2025.  Gallery Place didn’t even open as planned on March 27 due to a lawsuit about the lack of an elevator at the station, and the Capital One Arena (formerly Verizon Center and MCI Center) wouldn’t become a catalyst for development in that neighborhood until two decades after the station opened.  Metro Center as a naming concept for the area around the station was brand new, as the name for the station was established when then General Manager Jackson Graham gave a planner 20 seconds to propose a better name than “12th & G”.  These are just a handful of examples of how Metrorail changed various parts of DC in the past five decades, and additional examples can be found at many of the other 86 stations that have opened in the subsequent five decades.  

The original 1000 Series cars that operated on the Red Line on its inaugural day have all been retired and all but two have been scrapped.  One of the preserved cars is this one, numbered 1000, the “A Car” in the first pair to be delivered to Metro property from Rohr Industries in 1974 (its mate, car 1001, was actually delivered first however).  This photo of car 1000 was taken about 18 months after Metro’s 25th anniversary, when all of the Rohr cars received a plaque on the front of the car indicating they were the original 300 cars to serve the Metrorail system.  

As of this writing, it is not known what Metro plans to do to mark the 50th anniversary of Metrorail’s opening, but I hope they do more than they did for the 50th anniversary of Metrobus in 2023, when the largest celebration seemed to be special headsigns on the buses.  

For more photos of the WMATA 1000 Series railcars, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: March 2026

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New Flyer C40LF 1810

Location: Broadway at 1st Avenue, San Diego, CA
Operator of Vehicle: San Diego Metropolitan Transit System (MTS)
Date of Photo: July 16, 2014

It has been a very cold and snowy winter in many parts of the United States (though oddly warm in places such as Denver according to my social media feeds).  So why not feature a photo from somewhere sunny and warm, and hope that spring weather is upon us soon?  This photo was from my first trip to San Diego back in July of 2014.  Needless to say, the weather there was hot (albeit still quite pleasant for mid-July).  This New Flyer C40LF was acquired prior to the integration of San Diego Transit and Chula Vista Transit into the single entity known today as MTS.  All the former San Diego Transit buses retained their blue and red liveries throughout their service lives, and only new buses were painted in the red and white livery that MTS still uses to this day.

For more photos of MTS buses, please click here.  

Bus Photo of the Month: February 2026

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Orion V 5711

Location: Wisconsin Avenue at Woodmont Avenue, Bethesda, MD
Operator of Vehicle: Montgomery County Division of Transit Services (Ride On)
Date of Photo: August 1, 2016

In keeping with the “2026 is the new 2016” theme, I am also featuring another photo from 2016 for the Bus Photo of the Month.

Unlike yesterday’s post, today’s post features a vehicle that was at the end of its service life in 2016.  Ride On ordered two sets of 40 foot long Orion V buses.  The first set were diesel buses that arrived in 1999, marking the first time Ride On acquired 40 foot buses directly (the Flxible Metro-Ds and Orion VI/CNGs were secondhand acquisitions).  A set of CNG powered 40 foot Orion Vs arrived the following year.  The CNG variant was retired in 2014, as were most of the diesels.  However, Ride On kept some of the diesel Orion Vs in its “ready-reserve fleet.”  During WMATA’s yearlong “SafeTrack” program that started in mid-2016, segments of the Metrorail system were either single tracked at all times or shut down entirely in order to conduct accelerated track work and system rehabilitation.  During the SafeTrack surges that impacted the Red Line in Montgomery County, Ride On provided free shuttles as an alternative to the reduced train service, and used buses in the ready-reserve fleet to do so.  In this case, one of the 40 foot Orion Vs in the reserve fleet was operating a Red Line shuttle between Grosvenor and Friendship Heights, and I photographed it as it passed through Bethesda.

The Orion V might not be the “prettiest” bus to ever ply the streets of North America, but it was a mainstay in the DC area in the late 1990s and early 2000s, as it was operated not only by Ride On but also WMATA, DASH, Fairfax Connector, and PRTC.  I personally liked them and recall many high speed rides on these buses throughout Montgomery County.  I don’t know if all transit fans liked them as much as I did, but I was certainly sorry to see them go.

For more photos of Ride On’s 40 foot Orion Vs, please click here.