Davisville Yard
Davisville Yard | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Overview | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Locale | Chaplin Estates, Toronto | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Service | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
System | Toronto subway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Operator(s) | Toronto Transit Commission | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
History | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Opened | 1954 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technical | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Track gauge | 4 ft 10+7⁄8 in (1,495 mm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Electrification | Third rail, 600 V DC | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Davisville Subway Yard is a
Location
The yard is located adjoining the Davisville station, between Eglinton and St. Clair stations. The yard is next to the TTC headquarters in the William McBrien Building at 1900 Yonge Street.
History
Davisville Yard acted as the main maintenance and storage yard for Toronto's
The Davisville Carhouse could not handle heavy repair work for subway bogies. Thus, until the shops at Greenwood Yard were opened in 1965, bogies needed to be shipped by truck to the Hillcrest Complex on a specially built trailer. According to rail historians John F. Bromley and Jack May, this was the reason that the subway was built to the streetcar gauge of 1495mm, which is the gauge used for shop tracks at Hillcrest.[5]
There used to be an upper yard having 2 parallel stub tracks plus a shorter stub siding all running parallel to the former Belt Line Railway line (today the Kay Gardner Beltline Park). Another track, located on an incline, connected the upper and lower yards; today, a short stub siding on the west side of the yard is all that is left of that connecting track. Various pieces of work equipment were stored in the upper yard.[6]
Davisville was Toronto's sole subway yard until 1966, when
In November 2018, the TTC completed the extension the carhouse over tracks 3 and 4 on the east side of the building. Track 3 is the wash track and track 4 is utilized for interior cleaning and floor washing of the vehicles. Before the extension, tracks 3 and 4 were long enough for only four-car trains within the carhouse building, and the overhead doors on the north and south end had to remain open to service six-car TR trains. The open doors also exposed equipment to freezing in winter. With the extension, the TTC can use tracks 3 and 4 for the overnight storage of six-car TR trains.[1][8]
Current operations
Davisville Yard is home to a small portion of the TTC's revenue rolling stock of
Future
In 2022, the city of Toronto was studying a proposal to deck over the Davisville Yard in order to build a 1-hectare (2.5-acre) park over the yard. The yard, the adjacent subway station, a substation and signal facility would remain in operation during construction. The city owns the Davisville Yard.[9]
References
- ^ a b c "Davisville Carhouse – Carhouse Expansion" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. November 30, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 27, 2017. Retrieved December 7, 2016.
- ^ "A Cavalcade of Progress, 1921-1954". Toronto Transit Commission. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
- ^ Baldwin Collection (1953). "Yonge St. looking n. from G.T.R. Belt Line bridge s. of Merton St". Toronto Public Library. Retrieved September 21, 2016.
- ^
John F. Bromley and Jack May (1973). 50 Years of Progressive Transit. Electric Railroaders' Association. pp. 83. ISBN 9781550024487. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
Chapter 8 - Postwar Change
- ^
John F. Bromley and Jack May (1973). 50 Years of Progressive Transit. Electric Railroaders' Association. pp. 85, 107. ISBN 9781550024487. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
Chapter 9 - Subway City; Chapter 11 - The Crosstown Subway
- ^ Harvey Naylor (July 8, 1961). "The Davisville Subway Yards". Transit Toronto. Retrieved December 8, 2016.
Here, we see an aerial view of the west side of Davisville Yards, looking north, with a number of work cars in view, including a tunnel gauge car and RT-4, the ex-Peter Witt garbage train. Photo by Harvey Naylor, courtesy the John Knight collection.
- ^ a b Bow, James; Lubinski, Robert (December 19, 2015). "The Davisville Subway Yards". Retrieved November 20, 2016.
- ^ "Financial Update for the Year Ended December 31, 2018 and Major Projects Update" (PDF). Toronto Transit Commission. April 11, 2019. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 14, 2019. Retrieved April 17, 2019.
- ^ Spurr, Ben (May 27, 2022). "Rail Deck Park has stalled, but a similar plan is now being proposed for TTC's Davisville yard". Toronto Star.
External links
- The Davisville Subway Yards article published by Transit Toronto