See 2nd post below for new posting sized correctly
sorry about that, it’s a bear sometimes.
Back in the day the CPR and the CNR would not allow streetcar tracks to cross theirs at all. In Toronto on St. Clair Ave this resulted in the streetcar tracks terminating on each side of the Railroad tracks in loops and patrons would have to walk across the tracks from one loop to another.
Must have been fun in the rain and winter and slushy spring.
Eventually this was solved when the CPR and CNR constructed an overpass over the streetcar tracks and St. Clair streetcar patrons had a through route.
Interesting to see the stand alone bridge before the fill added to connect to the main lines.
St. Clair Avenue West
St. Clair Avenue West between Keele Street and Caledonia Road.
Back in the day the CPR and the CNR would not allow streetcar tracks to cross theirs at all. In Toronto on St. Clair Ave this resulted in the streetcar tracks terminating on each side of the Railroad tracks in loops and patrons would have to walk across the tracks from one loop to another.
Must have been fun in the rain and winter and slushy spring.
Eventually this was solved when the CPR and CNR constructed an overpass over the streetcar tracks and St. Clair streetcar patrons had a through route.
Interesting to see the stand alone bridge before the fill added to connect to the main lines.
St. Clair Avenue West
St. Clair Avenue West between Keele Street and Caledonia Road.
Not surprising. Back in those days there was usually a bit of hostility between the steam railroads and the electric 'roads, more in some places than others. Maybe CPR and CNR had their reasons, and good ones too, but sometimes I have to wonder.
Fascinating photos just the same. Does any of that still exist?
Pittsburgh’s trolleys have been converted into “Light Rail”, with only a couple of sections of street operation - the long Beechview stretch and the Allentown line that bypasses the Mt. Washington Tunnel are the two biggest ones.
I’m afraid I don’t get your point regarding San Francisco, which has the finest streetcar operation in the streets that I know of. Toronto’s new streetcars, while good-looking, are based on the looks of a PCC; San Francisco operates authentic PCC cars.
What other city would have the imagination and self-confidence to paint its streetcars in a variety of colors? This former Clevelander nearly swoons when I see a PCC in Cleveland colors cruising down Market Street or the Embarcadero. Kinda makes a tourist feel welcome.
They’ve got one painted in Public Service Coordinated Transport ( of New Jersey) colors as well! Which as a New Jersey exile I think is cool as hell, but in this day and age I wonder if any folks from NJ visiting San Francisco even know what they’re looking at when it rolls past?
What’s the big deal about the other colors? The Green Hornet car (CTA) is the real eye-opener. FYI, the Holiday Inn at Fisherman’s Wharf has rooms that overlook the turnaround on the F Line.
NKP: 1. Streetcars survived in SF only because of the two tunnels, and the J Church was then added because of vehement protests of riders concerning bus substitution. 2. Then came BART and the Muni Metro, much later, and like other cities, SF has had a wonderful rail revival, so now you are rught, during non-epidemic times, it is a wonderful streetcar mecca. 3. I belong to the Market Street Railway Association and have a great love for SF.
In the classic streetcar days, SF had four streetcar tracks on Market Street.
Now there are six. But four are underground, one pair wide-gauge.
Toronto: About 3/5ths of the WWII network remains intact, and more recently a few relatively minor additions with major ones planned and in construction.
SF: Reduction from about 36 WWII lines to only five, less than 10% the mileage, now seven or eight depending on how you count, one more under construction. Two lines heritage, combination of restoration and new. Cable not counted.
New Orleans, Only two left during WWII. The important one, Canal St., bus around 1960. Restored with branch and other new lines, now totalling four or five lines.
Toronto: a great city for the Streetcar fan especially on downtown streets…north-south cars meeting east-west cars especially in rush-hour traffic when they run so frequent you might see cars one behind the other.
And some intersections are ‘Grand Unions’ (turns can be made in all directions)
I have to agree with both Flintlock and ghCBNS: Those Toronto streetcars pictured do look a bit weird. I can’t explain it exactly, but they don’t look like streetcars so much as light rail vehicles.
Grand Union Junctions are, to a trolley fan, like a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth is to a baseball enthusiast: it’s thrill to see. Is it all the wires? All the tracks?
As with Grand Unions, rarity gives value in any hobby or interest. Certainly one has to give great credit to Toronto for its extensive streetcar system. Riding its PCC cars in the 1960’s & 1970’s was a wonderful experience and treasured memory.
May I tell an old Canadian joke from the 1940’s? “Did you know ‘Toronto’ is an Indian word for ‘Closed on Sundays’?” (I think even the newspaper wasn’t published on Sunday in those long-ago days.)
Though not quite a Grand Union, my favorite Toronto location c.1966 was Roncesvalles & Queen/King in Sunnyside. Beautifully painted and maintained PCC cars everywhere!
I may also add that the 2/5ths of the WWII Toronto streetcar network that went bus did so because most riders on those lines went to the newly-opened subway lines.
Yes exactly, the Young line being a prime example of that.
Also folks may think they look like light rail but they are streetcars. They roll like streetcars, ding ding like streetcars and in every sense act like streetcars, just bigger and more glass.
