Toronto Railway

Toronto Railway (Company)
Locale	Toronto
Dates of operation	1891–1921
Predecessor	Toronto Street Railways
Successor	Toronto Transportation Commission
Track gauge	1,495 mm (4 ft 10 7⁄8 in)
Headquarters	Toronto

Maintenance car, with crane, replacing track on Queen and Bond Streets (April 29, 1917)

The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was the first operator of horseless streetcars in Toronto.

Formed by a partnership between James Ross and William Mackenzie, a 30-year franchise was granted in 1891 to modernize transit operations after a previous 30 year franchise that saw horse car service from the Toronto Street Railways (TSR). At the end of the TSR franchise, the city ran the railway for eight months, but ended up granting another 30-year franchise to a private operator, the TRC. The first electric car ran on August 15, 1892, and the last horse car ran on August 31, 1894, to meet franchise requirements. There came to be problems with interpretation of the franchise terms, for the city. By 1912, the city limits had extended significantly, with the annexation of communities to the North (1912: North Toronto) and the East (1908: Town of East Toronto) and the West (1909: The Town of West Toronto - The Junction). After many attempts to force the TRC to serve these areas, the city created its own street railway operation, the Toronto Civic Railways to do so, and built several routes. Repeated court battles did force the TRC to build new cars, but they were of old design. When the TRC franchise ended in 1921, the Toronto Transportation Commission was created, combining with the city-operated Toronto Civic Railways lines.

Subway

TRC Subway

Legend Queen Line Bloor–Danforth Line to Lake Shore Bd. & Roncesvalles Av. to Bloor St. W. & Dundas St. Roncesvalles Av. Dundas St. Lansdowne Av. Dufferin St. Dovercourt Rd. (now Ossington Av.) Dundas St. Bathurst St. Bathurst St. Yonge Line Yonge St. Yonge St. Sherbourne Av. Sherbourne Av. Broadview Av. Broadview Av. Pape Av. Coxwell Av. to Danforth Av. & Broadview Av. to Queen St. E. & Kingston Rd. Yonge Line Front St. Queen Line City Hall Dundas St. Bloor–Danforth Line Bloor St. south of Davenport Rd. north of Davenport Rd. south of St. Clair Av. St. Clair Av. to Yonge St. & St. Clair Av.

The TRC had a proposal for a subway-like line under Queen Street using streetcars, but the idea died after a city vote rejected the proposal in 1910.

The proposed system consisted of three underground routes: streetcar tunnels under Queen and Bloor Streets, and a rapid transit subway along Yonge Street. These routes would have connected with surface streetcar routes and radial railways.

Routes

Map of Toronto streetcar routes in 1912

• Avenue Road
• Bathurst
• Belt Line
• Bloor and McCaul
• Broadview
• Carlton
• Church
• College
• Dovercourt
• Dundas
• Dupont
• Harbord
• King
• Parliament
• Queen
• Winchester
• Yonge

Roster

Toronto Railway trams on King Street in 1900.

The TRC streetcars were made of wood and after 1906 the basic design of their cars did not change. All but ten of the TRC cars were built in-house at their car works at Front and Frederick Streets.

Because of a narrow devilstrip (distance between tracks), later cars were built with a taper to the roof on the passing side, and car bodies were offset to the right by four inches. The idea was to build a wider car and still safely pass another car traveling in the opposite direction.

Very early on, in 1894 the TRC decided on single-end operation. Many of the early streetcars were 'open' cars, where one entered from either side of the car, but with single-ended operation, only the curb 'near' side of the car was left open. In other Canadian cities (e.g., London, Montreal), this form of open car became common. Open cars carried huge loads of people, because there were no aisles.

In warm weather, people loved open cars. When it rained, there were side curtains that one could unroll from the roof to keep one dry. When it was cold, open cars were not so attractive, so the TSR developed a 'convertible car' in which the nearside of the car could be removed in the spring, and re-connected in the fall, thus changing from an open car to a closed car.

The TRC also had a subsidiary company, the Convertible Car Company of Toronto, that built cars for systems in Mexico, South America, and Western Canada. Several large interurban cars were turned out for the Toronto and York Radial Railway.

The TRC never had a steel car, but by 1921, the city-operated Toronto Civic Railways had both single and double truck steel cars, including the standardized Birney Car.

Some used TRC cars were sold to Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company and Winnipeg Electric Railway Company.

Product list and details

Builder	Description	Fleet size	Year acquired	Year retired	Notes
TRC	SE-ST-T - single end single truck		1893-1894		rebuilt 363-409 (G2) sold to Monterrey, Mexico after 1908
James Crossen-Cobourg Car Works (Cobourg ON)	SE-ST-M - single end, single truck	10	c. 1911	1921?
TRC	DE-DT-T - double end, double truck		1896
TRC	SE-DT-M - single end double truck		1904?	1951	Car 1326 of this group is at the Halton County Radial Railway.

Carhouses

Facility details

Yard	Location	Year Open	Notes
Dundas Carhouse	Dundas Street West and Howard Park Avenue	1907-1921	transfer to Toronto Transportation Commission 1921-1954; demolished in the 1930s.
Roncesvalles Carhouse	Roncesvalles Avenue and Queen Street West	1895-1921	transfer to Toronto Transportation Commission 1921-1954 and rebuilt; still used by the Toronto Transit Commission
Russell (Connaught) Carhouse	Connaught Avenue and Queen Street East	1913-1921	transfer to Toronto Transportation Commission 1921-1954 and rebuilt; still used by the Toronto Transit Commission

References

• "A Very, Very Brief History of Transit in Toronto". Transit Toronto. 2006-11-10. http://transit.toronto.on.ca/spare/0012.shtml. Retrieved 2007-07-21. 

Preceded by Toronto Street Railways

Public Transit in Toronto 1891-1921

Succeeded by Toronto Civic Railways 1915-1921 and Toronto Transportation Commission