Toronto Railway Company

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

Yonge Line

Yonge St.

Sherbourne 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

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.

**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 ^[1]
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
King Carhouse	King Street East and River Street	1887-1921	Transfer to Toronto Transportation Commission and demolished upon completion of rebuilt Russell Carhouse. Suffered from fire twice (first in March 1912 and again on December 28, 1916) during operation.^[2] Now a courtyard for condo complex at 45 St. Lawrence Street.
Yorkville Stables	Yorkville Avenue near Yonge Street north of Bloor Street	1860s-?	Original Toronto Street Railway horsecar barn built next to Yorkville Town Hall and transfer to TRC which the facility; demolished 2007 and now a condo.

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

Preceded by Toronto Street Railways	Public Transit in Toronto 1891-1921	Succeeded by Toronto Civic Railways 1915-1921 and Toronto Transportation Commission

Passenger railways of Toronto

Operating	GO Transit LINK Train Toronto Streetcar Toronto Subway Via Rail Amtrak Maple Leaf Union Pearson Express

Defunct	Belt Line Railway Metropolitan Street Railway North Yonge Railways Toronto Civic Railways Toronto Railway Company Toronto Street Railway Toronto Suburban Railway Toronto and York Radial Railway Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company Toronto and Mimico Electric Railway and Light Company Toronto Zoo Domain Ride

Proposed	SmartTrack

Toronto Transit Commission

Buses	Blue Night Network Fleet Routes Wheel-Trans York University Busway

Rapid transit	Yonge–University Bloor–Danforth Scarborough Sheppard Eglinton Rolling stock Stations Signals

Streetcars	501 Queen 502 Downtowner 503 Kingston Rd 504 King 505 Dundas 506 Carlton 509 Harbourfront 510 Spadina 511 Bathurst 512 St. Clair 514 Cherry (2016) Cherry Street streetcar line Rolling stock Loops

Facilities	Arrow Road Bus Garage Birchmount Bus Garage Davisville Yard Eglinton Bus Garage Eglinton LRT Carhouse Greenwood Yard Hillcrest Complex Lakeshore Bus Garage Leslie Barns Malvern Bus Garage McCowan RT Yard Mount Dennis Bus Garage Queensway Bus Garage Roncesvalles Carhouse Russell Carhouse Toronto Coach Terminal Vincent Subway Yard Wilson Yard William McBrien Building Gray Coach

History	TTC incidents 1995 subway accident 2006 strike 2008 strike (Plans: Network 2011 Transit City The Big Move)

Predecessors	Williams Omnibus Bus Line (1849-1862) Toronto Street Railway (1861–1891) Toronto Railway Company (1891–1921) (Toronto and York Radial Railway (1898–1922), Metropolitan Street Railway (1885-1897)) Toronto Civic Railways (1912–1921) Hydro Electric Railways (1922-1927) Toronto Transportation Commission (1921-1953)

Miscellaneous	Accessibility Fares Metrolinx Personnel Font Trackage Transit Enforcement Unit

Approved expansions	Toronto-York Spadina subway extension Scarborough subway extension Finch West Sheppard East

Proposed expansions	Crosstown East Crosstown West Relief Line East Bayfront Yonge extension

Unbuilt or cancelled	Don Mills Eglinton West Jane Queen Scarborough Malvern Waterfront West 507 Long Branch 508 Lake Shore 521 Exhibition East 522 Exhibition West

Italics indicate a project under construction

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