Pittsburgh Railways PCCs/Toronto PCCs

[Fredbruhn at aol.com]

Matt -

As Ken mentions there are a few (I'll guess 4 but maybe 3) that are stored at 
Russell Division, a car house on Queen St. East in the East end of Toronto.  
The CLRV and ACLVR go right past there.  Either all or most of the Queen cars 
use the honor system of payment, can't remember the name.  Best deal on a 
weekday is go to any subway entrance and tell the booth operator you want a 
day pass.  It should be about $6.00 "Canadian" and they will scratch the day 
off.  You can use it after 10:00 I believe and I don't remember how late at 
night.  Its good on subways, surface cars, and buses.  By checking a TTC map 
you can have a great day of trolley riding, and ride surface one way and zip 
back by subway if you like.  

Queen runs East to West and used to terminate at Humber Loop after running ala
87 Ardmore (but on better track) along the Queensway, but now most run 
through to Long Branch which is a few more miles on street running.  Prior to 
the through routing Long Branch was a route terminating at Humber.  Get off 
at Roncesvalle car house and pick up a King car and take it to Broadview loop 
and return via a Dundas car or subway.  Stop off at Main loop and take a 
Carlton/High Park car across town 
to a great city park (High Park).  These routes are all tied together.  The 
best place to catch a Spadina car is at Union Station (Spadina is new track 
1999, replacing 
a line that went out probably in the 60's).  There is a grand union at King 
and Spadina I think or Queen and Spadina.  The whole line from Union to the 
subway at 
Bloor is new track.  There is a rebuilding of the waterfront into shops, 
apartments, condos and big bucks.  You will need to take a subway north to 
catch the St. Clair surface line that also runs east and west and has some 
interesting subway/surface
transfer in a new underground loop mid way along the line.  St. Clair was the 
first line to get PCC's in 1937-38 or thereabouts.  Oh, back to your 
question, my guess is the PCC's are stored outside at Russell and if you ask 
nicely they are usually decent, although I have not been to Toronto for a bit 
and railfans can wear out their welcome.

There are a couple of short turn lines running and Bingham loop is worth a 
ride to see too.  You will like the TTC and its worth a day or two to visit.  
Impressive, and seeing pole operated cars, good overhead, and good rail is 
almost worth the trip in itself.

Fred Bruhn  - off the subject but Matt did preface it by saying the colors 
were similiar to PRCo.