page_title: Toronto streetcar system rolling stock
section_title: Ex-TRC streetcars
hierarchical_section_title: Toronto streetcar system rolling stock / Inherited streetcars / Ex-TRC streetcars
caption_attribution_description: English: Creator: Alfred J. PearsonDate: September 14, 1925Archival Citation: Fonds 16, Series 71, Item 4042Credit: City of Toronto Archiveswww.toronto.ca/archivesCopyright is in the public domain and permission for use is not required.
context_page_description: In 1921, the Toronto Transportation Commission was created to integrate and operate the Toronto streetcar system. It inherited the infrastructure of two separate streetcar operators: the Toronto Railway Company and Toronto Civic Railways. The TTC immediately embarked on a program to connect the TRC and TCR lines into one network. The TTC had to rebuild most of the track to provide a wider devilstrip so that the wider Peter Witt streetcars it was ordering could pass without sideswiping. Between 1938 and 1945, it placed five orders for air-electric PCC streetcars to replace the old, wooden streetcars of the TRC, and to address rising ridership. Between 1947 and 1951, the TTC placed three orders for all-electric PCC cars, with one order equipped with couplers for multiple-unit operation. Between 1950 and 1957, the TTC purchased PCCs from four American cities. By 1957, the TTC had more PCCs than any other city in North America. After the opening of the Bloor–Danforth subway in 1966, the TTC considered terminating all streetcar service in Toronto.
context_section_description: The Toronto Transportation Commission inherited 830 streetcars from the Toronto Railway Company. However, the TTC found that only 351 of them were worth retaining; thus, the TTC disposed of the remaining 479 by 1924. (Two of the disposed cars were relics – horsecar 64, built in 1879, and streetcar 306, built in 1892 – both ultimately sent to the National Museum of Science and Technology in Ottawa.)
  The 351 streetcars the TTC chose to retain were single-ended streetcars built between 1906 and 1917 in the TRC's own shops. They were all even-numbered and retained their original TRC car numbers. The TTC modified these streetcars and reclassified them into four classes by sets of features.
  The A- and A1-class cars were operated from the mid-1920s as six-motor trains with an A1-class (4-motor) car leading a coupled A-class (2-motor) car. These trains required a crew of three, two for the lead car and another for the trailing car. Six-motor trains lasted until 1933 when the A-class cars were retired due to a decline of ridership during the Great Depression. After the retirement of the A-class cars, the A1-class cars would pull a Class N or Q trailer until 1934.
  The Class C cars had a Tomlinson coupler to pull a Class N or Q trailer, which in later years would be semi-permanently attached. The Class C cars were retired in 1949. The trailers were then reassigned. Class C-1 was a variation of Class C omitting the coupler. These cars required a 2-man crew.
  The Class BB class was the largest group of ex-TRC cars. Twenty BB-class cars were transferred to other cities during World War II: 5 to Fort William, 10 to Ottawa and 5 to Quebec City. The Class BB cars were the last of the ex-TRC cars to be retired, the last forty being retired in 1951. Class BB car 1326 is preserved at the Halton County Radial Railway museum. These cars required a crew of one.
  Between 1923 and 1933, the TTC modified all of its ex-TRC cars, at least once, often twice and in one case (1328) three times, each time converting the car from one class to another. A common second conversion was from C or C1 (2-man operation) to BB class (1-man operation). All C1 cars and many C-class cars were converted to BB-class by 1933. The following tables reflect the classes of retained ex-TRC streetcars after the final modification. The table is in TRC class and year built sequence, and roughly in car number sequence.
caption: Class BB ex-TRC streetcar at College & Spadina in December 1925
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