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62-528: The Toronto Railway Company (TRC) was the operator of the streetcar system in Toronto between 1891 and 1921. It electrified the horsecar system it inherited from the Toronto Street Railway , the previous operator of streetcar service in Toronto. The TRC was also a manufacturer of streetcars and rail work vehicles, a few of which were built for other streetcar and radial operators. On August 15, 1892,

124-462: A Torontonian developed an air brake for streetcars. Initially, streetcars did not carry an air compressor; thus, air recharging stations were required along streetcar routes. Later, on-board air compressors were installed. After the TRC completed electrification, some horsecars were converted into trailers where one or two would be hauled by a motor car. However, horsecar trailers were found to be unsuited for

186-577: A design of a partly enclosed double-decker carriage hauled by two horses. The last horse-drawn tram was retired from London in 1915. Horses continued to be used for light shunting well into the 20th century. The last horse used for shunting on British Railways was retired on 21 February 1967 in Newmarket, Suffolk . In the United States the very first streetcar appeared in New Orleans in 1832, operated by

248-471: A large part of the TTC operations today, but before the 1960s they played a lesser role to streetcar operations. Bus service in Toronto started in 1921, but it was not until the creation of the TTC that buses become a part of public transit. There were a few independent bus operators that continued to provide inter-urban bus services: Here is a list of historic and current buses used by the old TTC: Gray Coach Lines

310-698: A number of other operators, including: Prior to the establishment of the TTC, the City of Toronto operated its own system under the Toronto Civic Railways (TCR). However, the TCR routes were operating in areas not served by the private TRC. In 1920, a Provincial Act created the Toronto Transportation Commission (TTC) and, in 1921, the Commission took over and amalgamated nine existing fare systems within

372-401: A referendum during the 1910 election, but also elected a mayor who opposed it. Thus, this proposal died. By 1912, there was a second city proposal to build 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. The idea died after voters rejected

434-424: A referendum earlier that month. This was controversial at the time; churches feared Sunday streetcar service would lead to other activities inappropriate for a Sunday such as sporting events and the sale of alcoholic beverages. The referendum, which had been preceded by two prior unsuccessful attempts, was won by a narrow margin of 0.7 per cent out of 32,000 votes cast. There came to be problems with interpretation of

496-673: A wheel to travel along the wire. In late 1887 and early 1888, using his trolley system, Sprague installed the first successful large electric street railway system in Richmond, Virginia . Long a transportation obstacle, the hills of Richmond included grades of over 10%, and were an excellent proving ground for acceptance of the new technology in other cities. Within a year, the economy of electric power had replaced more costly horsecars in many cities. By 1889, 110 electric railways incorporating Sprague's equipment had been begun or planned on several continents. Many large metropolitan lines lasted well into

558-698: Is a partial list of sales: About that time, the Toronto and York Radial Railway, the Toronto Suburban Railway and the Winnipeg Electric Street Railway Company were all affiliated with the owners of the Toronto Railway Company. According to a source, the Monterrey Railway, Light & Power Co. was founded in Toronto. The following is a list of preserved TRC passenger and work cars. All except car 327 were built by

620-532: Is still used today by the Toronto streetcar system and three lines of the Toronto subway . The Metropolitan Street Railway operated a horsecar line in then-suburban North Toronto from 1885 until the line was electrified in 1890; this horsecar line also used Toronto gauge. The first horse-drawn trams in India ran a 2.4-mile (3.9 km) distance between Sealdah and Armenian Ghat Street on 24 February 1873. The service

682-667: The Pontchartrain Railroad Company, followed by those in 1832 on the New York and Harlem Railroad in New York City . The latter cars were designed by John Stephenson of New Rochelle, New York , and constructed at his company in New York City. The earliest streetcars used horses and sometimes mules, usually two as a team, to haul the cars. Rarely, other animals were tried, including humans in emergency circumstances. By

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744-578: The Swansea and Mumbles Railway in Wales , using specially designed carriages on an existing tramline built for horse-drawn freight dandies . Fare-paying passengers were carried on a line between Oystermouth , Mumbles and Swansea Docks from 1807. The Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad (1809) carried passengers although its main purpose was freight. In spite of its early start, it took many years for horse-drawn streetcars to become widely acceptable across Britain;

806-530: The Yucatan , which sported over 3,000 kilometers (1,900 mi) of such lines). Surviving examples may be found in both Brazil and the Yucatán, and some examples in the latter still use horsecars. Problems with horsecars included the fact that any given animal could only work so many hours on a given day, had to be housed, groomed, fed and cared for day in and day out, and produced prodigious amounts of manure, which

868-533: The České Budějovice - Linz railway . Europe saw a proliferation of horsecar use for new tram services from the mid-1860s, with many towns building new networks. Tropical plantations (for products such as henequen and bananas ) made extensive use of animal-powered trams for both passengers and freight, often employing the Decauville narrow-gauge portable track system. In some cases these systems were very extensive and evolved into interurban tram networks (as in

930-424: The 1930s, municipal governments had to cope with general welfare costs and assistance to the unemployed. The TTC realized that improvements had to be made despite the depression and in 1936 purchased the first of the newly developed PCC streetcars . The war put an end to the depression and increased migration from rural to urban areas. After the war, municipalities faced the problem of extending services to accommodate

992-586: The 20th century; the last mule tram service in Mexico City ended in 1932, and a mule tram in Celaya, Mexico , survived until 1954. A few original horsecar lines have survived or have been revived as tourist attractions, and in recent years several replica horsecar lines have been built. Below is a list of locations around the world with operational horsecars that are open to the public. Toronto Transportation Commission Toronto Transportation Commission ( TTC )

1054-655: The American George Francis Train first introduced them to Birkenhead Corporation Tramways ' predecessor in Birkenhead in 1860 but was jailed for "breaking and injuring" the highway when he next tried to lay the first tram tracks on the roads of London . An 1870 Act of Parliament overcame these legal obstacles by defining responsibilities and for the next three decades many local tramway companies were founded, using horse-drawn carriages, until replaced by cable , steam or electric traction. Many companies adopted

1116-481: The Gray Coach: The TTC once operated trolley buses on 10 routes, mostly on downtown routes and a few in the northern limits of the City of Toronto. The first route began operation with four buses on June 19, 1922, from a shed on Merton St. This early trolley coach operation was replaced by a streetcar line. In later years, many of these routes replaced streetcar routes, using the old overhead power system which

1178-451: The St. Lawrence Market and the village of Yorkville for sixpence in 1849. The city granted the first franchise for a street railway in 1861 to Alexander Easton under the franchise of Toronto Street Railways (TSR) and Metropolitan Street Railway of Toronto (MSR) in 1885. In 1891, the franchise was passed onto William Mackenzie's Toronto Railway Company for 30 years. Outside of the city there were

1240-551: The TRC became the second operator of horse-drawn streetcars in the Toronto area to convert to electric trams, the first being the Metropolitan Street Railway which electrified its horsecar line along Yonge Street within the Town of North Toronto on September 1, 1890. (In 1912, the City of Toronto would annex North Toronto.) In 1891, the 30-year franchise with the Toronto Street Railway (TSR) for horsecar service expired. At

1302-617: The TRC roster at four points during its franchise: The TRC had several types of work cars, all built in the TRC car shops. Here is a brief description of some of the types of non-revenue cars the TRC had: The TRC sold a small percentage of the streetcars it built to other operators. The TRC had a subsidiary company, the Convertible Car Company of Toronto, that built cars for systems in Mexico, South America, and Western Canada. Some sales were for used streetcars that had run in Toronto. Here

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1364-433: The TRC took control of the Toronto and Mimico Electric Railway and Light Company along Lake Shore Road, and in 1895, the Toronto and Scarboro' Electric Railway, Light and Power Company along Kingston Road. In 1904, both suburban operations were turned over to the Toronto and York Radial Railway , thus ending the TRC's suburban operations. On May 23, 1897, Sunday streetcar service started after city voters gave approval in

1426-537: The TRC's surface streetcar lines. At this time the city was unhappy with the quality of TRC service and with the TRC's refusal to serve newly annexed areas. The TRC had an exclusive franchise for surface streetcars but competing subways would not violate the franchise. In 1909, a British syndicate proposed two lines, one under Yonge Street and a second from East Toronto via Queen Street East, Dufferin Street and Dundas Street West to West Toronto. Voters supported this proposal in

1488-468: The TRC, and all were used by the TTC. In all, the TRC had seven carhouses, although no more than six at any one time. They are listed here alphabetically by name: The TRC had several facilities near the intersection of Front and Frederick streets. Many of these facilities were inherited from the Toronto Street Railway (TSR), and the TRC repurposed them for the electric streetcar system. In 1924,

1550-469: The TTC moved some functions from the facilities in this area to the then-new Hillcrest Complex . The following is a list of facilities in the Front and Frederick area: Today, only the powerhouse building still stands, now occupied by a theatre. Condominiums occupy most of the former facility sites. Away from downtown, the TRC had a revenue-generating facility: Horsecar The horse-drawn tram (horsecar)

1612-423: The TTC retired 471 of the 830 streetcars the city accepted from the TRC, including the double-ended and Crossan-built streetcars. It retained only 351 single-end, double-track motor cars for longer term use, the last of which were retired in 1951. The TTC did retain one horsecar trailer and a single-ended streetcar from 1892, preserving them as relics ultimately to be given to a museum. The following are summaries of

1674-419: The Toronto Railway Company's operations were taken over by the Toronto Transportation Commission. Routes marked 1923 by TTC were TRC routes discontinued by the TTC as a result of a major reorganization of routes on July 1, 1923. The city built and owned some of the streetcar trackage operated by the TRC. The city-owned, TRC-operated tracks were: By 1909, there were proposals to build subways in competition to

1736-485: The assets of the TSR, the same amount the city paid for TSR assets when it took over the horsecar system in 1891. Each year, the TRC was required to pay the city $ 800 per mile of track, plus a percentage of the gross earnings. Fares were: five cents cash for adults, six tickets for twenty-five cents; three cents cash for children with school tickets at ten for twenty-five cents; ten cents cash for night streetcars. The fare entitled

1798-586: The building of the Yonge subway line, the Toronto Transportation Commission was renamed the Toronto Transit Commission . The Toronto Transportation Commission was mainly a streetcar operator and this remained the core operations before 1954: All remaining Toronto Railway Company cars as of 1921 and all Toronto Civic Railways cars as of 1921 was absorbed into the TTC. Some older wooden cars were retired due to wear and replaced by Peter Witt orders. Buses are

1860-421: The city agreed to accept along with a number of work cars. It also had 18 open motors and 43 open trailers in storage which the city refused to accept due to the 1915 ban on open streetcars. In 1921, the TRC had twelve double-ended streetcars, three double-truck and nine single-truck; all other streetcars were single-ended. Two of the ten Crossan-built, single-truck streetcars survived to 1921. Between 1921 and 1924,

1922-457: The city granted the TRC an exception to purchase ten single-ended, single-truck streetcars from James Crossen-Cobourg Car Works in Cobourg, Ontario in 1893. The TRC streetcars were made of wood over a steel underframe. Cars had a clerestory roof with a destination sign fixed near the front edge of the roof. Seats were wood slat but the TRC provided each with a seating cushion. There was a stove at

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1984-498: The city limits. Between 1921 and 1953, the TTC added 35 new routes in the city and extended 20 more. It also operated 23 suburban routes on a service-for-cost basis. It abandoned money-losing radial railway line (known as 'interurbans' elsewhere in the continent), North Yonge Railways . The Great Depression and the Second World War both placed heavy burdens on the ability of municipalities to finance themselves. During most of

2046-663: The early twentieth century. New York City had a regular horsecar service on the Bleecker Street Line until its closure in 1917. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , had its Sarah Street line drawn by horses until 1923. The last regular mule-drawn cars in the US ran in Sulphur Rock, Arkansas , until 1926 and were commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1983. Toronto 's horse-drawn streetcar operations ended in 1891. In other countries animal-powered tram services often continued well into

2108-463: The end of the 19th century the company owned 166 tram cars, 1000 horses, seven steam locomotives and 19 miles of tram tracks. In 1900, electrification of the tramway and reconstruction of its tracks to 4 ft  8 + 1 ⁄ 2  in ( 1,435 mm ) ( standard gauge ) began. In 1902, the first electric tramcar in India ran from Esplanade to Kidderpore on 27 March and on 14 June from Esplanade to Kalighat . The Bombay Tramway Company

2170-399: The end of the TSR franchise, the city ran the horsecar system for eight months, but ended up granting another 30-year franchise to a private operator, a group involving railway entrepreneur William Mackenzie . The franchise, which involved converting the horsecar system to electric operation, went into effect on September 21, 1891. The TRC made a one-time payment to the city of $ 1,453,788 for

2232-552: The end of the franchise. By 1915, there were complaints of overcrowding due to a shortage of streetcars. In December 1916, a fire destroyed the TRC's King carhouse and 163 motor cars and trailers within it. Repeated court battles did force the TRC to build new cars, but far less than what the city was requesting, and the new cars were of an old design dating from 1906, or 1908 for the newest cars. Streetcars and track were not well maintained, and carhouses and shops were obsolete or deteriorating. The TRC franchise ended on August 31, 1921, and

2294-492: 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. The TRC system deteriorated towards

2356-424: The front of the car for winter heating. Early streetcars had open platforms; later cars had enclosed vestibules. The rear vestibule could have a single or double rear door. Cars with a double rear door could haul a trailer and had a two-man crew. One-man cars had a treadle-operated single rear door. There was a hook at the rear of each car to hang a baby carriage. At first, TRC streetcars had hand brakes, but in 1905,

2418-400: The higher speed of electric streetcar operation. Very early on, in 1894, the TRC decided on single-ended operation. Many of the early streetcars were "open" cars, where there was benches across the width of the car and thus no centre aisle. Passengers had to board on the curb-side of the open car, and for safety, there had to be a barrier along the length of the car on the opposite side. Before

2480-431: The horsecar system, the distance between the tracks (the devil strip) was 3 feet (910 mm); the TRC widened the devil strip to 3 feet 10 inches (1,170 mm). Until 1908, the city prohibited the TRC from making the devil strip wider. Because of the narrow devil strip, 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, sitting off-centre on

2542-428: The horsecars between 1892 and 1894. The Toronto Street Railway created Toronto's unique broad gauge of 4 ft  10 + 7 ⁄ 8  in ( 1,495 mm ). The streets were unpaved, and a step rail was employed. The horsecars had flanged wheels and ran on the upper level of the step. Ordinary wagons and carriages ran on the broad lower step inside. This necessitated a wider gauge. This broad Toronto gauge

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2604-429: The increased population. Ironically, the one municipal service that prospered during the war years was public transit; employers had to stagger work hours in order to avoid overcrowding the streetcars. Toronto continued their program of purchasing PCC cars, running the world's largest fleet, including many obtained second-hand from U.S. cities that abandoned streetcar service. With the creation of Metro Toronto in 1954 and

2666-459: The king pin. The offset allowed a wider car to safely pass another traveling in the opposite direction. From 1903, the TRC built all new track with a devil strip of 5 feet 4 inches (1,630 mm). In 1921, there was still 27 kilometres (17 mi) of double track with a narrow devil strip which the successor TTC widened as it replaced old TRC tracks to handle wider equipment. Routes marked to TTC were operating on September 21, 1921, when

2728-460: The mid-1880s, there were 415 street railway companies in the US operating over 6,000 miles (9,700 km) of track and carrying 188 million passengers per year using horsecars. By 1890 New Yorkers took 297 horsecar rides per capita per year. The average street car horse had a life expectancy of about two years. The first horse-drawn rail cars in Continental Europe were operated from 1828 by

2790-510: The next day, the Toronto Transportation Commission started operating a system that combined the TRC system with the city-operated Toronto Civic Railways lines. In 1924, the city paid $ 11,483,500 for the assets of the TRC. The TRC ceased to exist when it was legally dissolved in 1930. In 1891, the TRC inherited 109 kilometres (68 mi) of horsecar track from its predecessor, the Toronto Street Railway. The TRC learned from

2852-419: The omnibus, because the low rolling resistance of metal wheels on iron or steel rails (usually grooved from 1852 on ) allowed the animals to haul a greater load for a given effort than the omnibus, and gave a smoother ride. The horse-drawn streetcar combined the low cost, flexibility, and safety of animal power with the efficiency, smoothness, and all-weather capability of a rail track. Animal power at

2914-401: The proposal out of fear of higher taxes. As part of the franchise agreement, the TRC was to build all its streetcars locally. Thus, almost all TRC cars were built in-house at their car shops at Front and Frederick Streets. However, the TRC felt it lacked the capacity to build enough streetcars to convert the horsecar system it inherited to electrical operation by the city-imposed deadline. Thus,

2976-540: The rider to a free transfer between routes. A key requirement of the franchise agreement was that the TRC had to electrify the first line within one year of the beginning of the franchise and the last line within three years. The TRC met this requirement. The first run of an electric car was on August 10, 1892. Car 270 ran from the Frederick Street stables at Front Street , up Church Street , along Bloor Street and Sherbourne Street to Rosedale . The first passenger

3038-460: The spring, and re-connected in the fall, thus changing from an open car to a closed car. A dangerous feature of open cars was the running board where passengers could stand while the car was in motion. Because of safety concerns, the Railway and Municipal Board banned open cars from the streets on November 22, 1915. At the end of its franchise in 1921, the TRC had 830 streetcars on its active roster that

3100-498: The streetcar company was charged with storing and then disposing. Since a typical horse pulled a streetcar for about a dozen miles (19 km) a day and worked for four or five hours, many systems needed ten or more horses in stable for each horsecar. Horsecars were largely replaced by electric-powered streetcars following the invention by Frank J. Sprague of an overhead trolley system on streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires . His spring-loaded trolley pole used

3162-419: The summer of 1893, there were double-ended open cars, which required two men to move the barrier to the other side of the car at the end of the line. Some open cars had one-man crews, requiring a helper to be stationed at the end of the line. Having single-ended cars with loops or wyes saved staff time. Also, both open and closed motor cars could pull one or two trailers; thus, single-ended operation eliminated

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3224-409: The time needed to rearrange the consist at the end of the line. Open cars were popular in warm weather. When it rained, there were side curtains that one could unroll from the roof to keep one dry. However, the motorman would stand exposed to wind and rain on the front platform. To handle both warm and colder months, the TSR used the "convertible car" in which the nearside of the car could be removed in

3286-427: The time was seen as safer than steam power in that early locomotives frequently suffered from boiler explosions . Rails were seen as all-weather because streets of the time might be poorly paved, or not paved at all, allowing wagon wheels to sink in mud during rain or snow. In 1861, Toronto Street Railway horsecars replaced horse-drawn omnibuses as a public transit mode in Toronto . Electric streetcars later replaced

3348-491: The troubled experiences of the Metropolitan Street Railway in North Toronto , which had previously done a horse to electric conversion. Thus, between 1891 and 1894, the TRC replaced all the horsecar track, using heavier rail that could properly support the faster, heavier electric streetcars. The TRC used 69-pound rail on some lightly used lines, and 71-pound rail elsewhere, including all downtown track. For parallel tracks on

3410-474: Was a half-sober gentleman who insisted he had the right to board the streetcar at the Metropolitan United Church and pay his fare. The first electric car ran in scheduled service on Church Street starting August 15, 1892, and the last horse car ran on McCaul Street on August 31, 1894. From 1893 to 1904, the TRC had suburban radial operations, often using vehicles resembling streetcars. In 1893,

3472-549: Was adapted to dipole service. The buses consisted of a standard bus platform with electric motors with two trolley poles connected to electrical lines above. Routes served by trolley buses included: In 1926, the City of Toronto purchased the ferry services operated by the Toronto Ferry Company . The fleet was transferred to the TTC, which engaged in a modernization program, retiring the smaller older vessels, and purchasing modern, diesel-powered ferries which still provide

3534-463: Was an early form of public rail transport , which developed out of industrial haulage routes that had long been in existence, and from the omnibus routes that first ran on public streets in the 1820s , using the newly improved iron or steel rail or ' tramway '. They were local versions of the stagecoach lines and picked up and dropped off passengers on a regular route, without the need to be pre-hired. Horsecars on tramlines were an improvement over

3596-456: Was discontinued on 20 November of that year. The Calcutta Tramway Company was formed and registered in London on 22 December 1880. Metre-gauge horse-drawn tram tracks were laid from Sealdah to Armenian Ghat via Bowbazar Street, Dalhousie Square and Strand Road. The route was inaugurated by Viceroy Ripon on 1 November 1880. In 1882, steam locomotives were deployed experimentally to haul tram cars. By

3658-751: Was set up in 1873. After a contract was signed between the Bombay Tramway Company, the municipality and the Stearns and Kitteredge company, the Bombay Presidency enacted the Bombay Tramways Act, 1874 licensing the company to run a horsecar tram service in the city. On 9 May 1874 the first horse-drawn carriage made its début in the city, plying the Colaba – Pydhone via Crawford Market , and Bori Bunder to Pydhonie via Kalbadevi routes. The initial fare

3720-466: Was suburban bus operator founded in 1927 by the Toronto Transit Commission . Gray Coach used inter-urban coaches to link Toronto to outlying areas throughout Southern Ontario. In addition, Gray Coach operated tour bus operations in association with Gray Line tours. The main terminal was at the Toronto Bus Terminal on Elizabeth Street, downtown. Here is a list of historic and current buses used by

3782-486: Was the public transit operator in Toronto , Ontario, Canada, beginning in 1921. It operated buses, streetcars and the island ferries. The system was renamed the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in 1954. Toronto's first public transportation company was the Williams Omnibus Bus Line and owned by undertaker Burt Williams. The franchise carried passengers in horse-drawn stagecoaches along Yonge Street between

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3844-418: Was three annas (15 paise pre-decimalisation), and no tickets were issued. As the service became increasingly popular, the fare was reduced to two annas (10 pre-decimalisation paise). Later that year, tickets were issued to curb increasing ticket-less travel. Stearns and Kitteredge reportedly had a stable of 1,360 horses over the lifetime of the service. The first tram services in the world were started by

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