Pittsburgh Railways PCCs/Toronto PCCs

[Kenneth Josephson]

Guys,

I will forward this to Roger and see what he says. He seems to keep up with TTC
streetcar happenings.

Ken

Fredbruhn at aol.com wrote:

> 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.
>