TTC CLRV 4179 On Bathurst Street by KatesFriend

Photography • Transportation • posted on Feb 08, 2020

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Description

Over five (5) years ago I announced the end of an era for Toronto Transit. On Sunday, the 31st of August 2014 the venerable CLRV model streetcar that had plied the streets of Toronto since the late 1970's passed the torch with the introduction of the new Flexity Outlook LFLRV model. From that day forward, the LFLRV would be Toronto's "Red Rocket". Of coarse, the old but plucky CLRVs (and their longer cousins, the ALRVs) did not disappear the next day. No, they continued to service the good people of Toronto while the Flexity fleet slowly grew. And it grew somewhat slower than some people had promised making the CLRV goodbye a "long goodbye".1 Nevertheless Bombardier delivered the last member of the initial order of LFLRVs only two weeks late. The original plan was for all two hundred (200) new cars to be delivered by the end of 2019. So, in spite of the hair pulling, success. In the end the last days for the CLRV had come. I took this shot during the last weekend of 2019 on the second last day of CLRV service. The remaining handful of in service cars were working only on the Bathurst Line (Route 511). And even there, their successors were providing additional support. Car 4179 is traveling northbound through the obviously pre-bylaw community of Alexandra Park - many a residential fronts converted into a business. As her rollsign indicates, she is headed to Bathurst Station on the Bloor-Danforth subway line - route 511's regular northern terminus.2 When she arrives there, and drops off her passengers, the station loop will swing her back southbound to Exhibition Place - the regular southern terminus of the Bathurst Line. The final day of service for Car 4179 and her surviving sisters was Sunday, the 29th of December 2019. There's a little bit of gloom in the air. The subtle signs of the tram's decades of wear now show. The classic TTC cherry red seems a little faded in places. Those perky green lights on the front, no longer working. I chose this particular shot as this car's rollsign was not torn or otherwise damaged like a few of her sisters. Most of the old CLRV and ALRVs have already been scavenged for parts and scrapped. However, the TTC will be preserving two (2) vehicles for special occasions and tours just as with their PCC predecessors. Another two (2) were donated to the Halton County Radial Railway Museum. So the CLRV may now be gone but never forgotten. Cheers! NOTES: TTC: Toronto Transit Commission CLRV: Canadian Light Rail Vehicle ALRV: Articulated Light Rail Vehicle LFLRV: Low Floor Light Rail Vehicle (aka. 'Flexity') Red Rocket: Popular name for Toronto streetcars Bombardier: Canadian for, "hurry up and wait". PCC: Presidents' Conference Car FOOTNOTES: 1The TTC hired a blacksmith to manufacture replacement parts they could no longer acquire for maintaining the CLRV fleet. 2This is also the end of the rollsign era. I believe that the CLRV/ALRV streetcars were the last transit vehicles in Canada to use static back lit destination signs. The last update of TTC "linens" occurring in the early 2000's with the introduction of the Harbourfront Line - Route 509.