Toronto Railway Company

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. A series of annexations, especially in 1908–12, significantly extended the city limits to include such areas as Dovercourt, Earlscourt, East Toronto, Midway (formerly between Toronto and East Toronto), North Toronto, and West Toronto. 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 Boulevard and Roncesvalles Avenue to Bloor Street West and Dundas Street Roncesvalles Av. Dundas St. Lansdowne Av. Dufferin St. Dovercourt Rd. Dundas St. (now Ossington Av.) Bathurst St. Bathurst St. Yonge Line N Yonge St. Yonge St. Sherbourne Av. Sherbourne Av. Broadview Av. Broadview Av. Pape Av. Coxwell Av. to Danforth Avenue and Broadview Avenue to Queen Street East and Kingston Road Yonge Line to Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue N   St. Clair Av. south of St. Clair Av. north of Davenport Rd. south of Davenport Rd. Bloor–Danforth Line Bloor St. Dundas St. Queen Line City Hall Front St.

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

TRC streetcars 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.

Carhouses

Other Facilities

• 165 Front Street East - acquired in 1891 for Toronto Street Railway, which had used it as horse stables 1887 to 1891; became electrical generating plant 1891-1906, then as storage space by TRC (1906-1921) and TTC (1921-1970s); deemed surplus and turned over to the City who lease it to the Young People's Theatre 1977

Demise

After losing routes to the TTC in 1921, TRC ceased to exist when it was legally dissolved in 1930.

References

• "A Very, Very Brief History of Transit in Toronto". Transit Toronto. 2006-11-10. Retrieved 2007-07-21. 

External links

• The charter of the Toronto Railway Company

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