A visual history of Toronto streetcars

A visual history of Toronto streetcars struck me as the perfect choice for my Friday archive dive after getting a chance to ride around on a Toronto Rocket subway yesterday. While these subways may be the pinnacle of modern TTC technology, streetcars are the foundation upon which the system was built, starting all the way back in the 1870s with horse-drawn cars.

Those weren't operated by the TTC, which was founded in 1920 as the Toronto Transportation Commission ("transportation" would change to "transit" in 1954). Prior to the advent of our current transit commission, Toronto was serviced by a variety of other companies, including (but not limited to) the Toronto Street Railways (1861-91), the Toronto Railway Company (1891-1921), and the Toronto Suburban Railway Company (1894-1911).

With the introduction of the Peter Witt cars in 1921, our streetcar history becomes somewhat easier to follow. In 1938 Toronto's original red rockets, the Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) streetcars are introduced, to stay officially on the rails until 1995. In and around the middle of that period, the Witts are decommissioned (1963) and, with the rise of subway transportation in the city, a plan to abandon Toronto's streetcar program is hatched, only to be cancelled in 1972. Post PCC streetcars, the Canadian Light Rail Vehicle (CLRV) is introduced in 1977 and the Articulated Light Rail Vehicle (ALRV) in 1987.

Despite the putatively straightforward timeline, there's a wealth of nuanced and fascinating information about the city's streetcars to be found from a number of sources. Here are a few of the more noteworthy ones.

• Transit Toronto's Brief History of Transit in Toronto
• The Things that Move television documentary series
• Mike Filey's The TTC Story: The First 75 Years

PHOTOS

1880s

Horse-drawn streetcar

Two-horse car at old North Toronto Station

1890s

Seaton village single-horse car

Installation of streetcar tracks at King and Yonge streets

Toronto Railway Company (TCR) car No. 316

1900s

TCR car amidst Boer War celebrations on Yonge Street

1910s

TCR car at Yonge and Queen

Laying track near Queen and Bay

TRC car (via Chuckmans' postcard collection)

Toronto Civic Railway car at the Halton County Radial Railway (via the Wikimedia Commons)

1920s

Peter Witt car near Queen and Woodbine

Peter Witt car at Queen and Bay

Peter Witt and Queen and James streets

1930s

Peter Witt car at Yonge and Bloor

1940s

Peter Witt cars at Union Station

Interior of a Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) car in 1942

1960s

A snowy Peter Witt car

Peter Witt Interior (1963, post modification to remove conductor)

Opposite angle to above

PCC car

PCC car 4310

A PCC at the Humber Loop in 1967

PCC cars on Bloor prior to the construction of the subway (postcard)

1970s

Ditto

1980s

CLRV (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) on Queen (via the New York City Subway Resource)

1990s

504 Streetcar (via the Wikimedia Commons)

2000s

PCC at the Halton County Radial Railway (via bigdaddyhame)

CLRV 4059 (via the Wikimedia Commons)

ARLV (Articulated Light Rail Vehicle)

CRLV 4152 and PCC 4500 (via the Wikimedia Commons)

Other posts in the series:

• When the subway system was shiny and new
• What TTC buses used to look like
• Toronto in photos from the 1850s to the 1990s

Photos from the Toronto Archives unless otherwise marked.