The TTC has announced an Open House at Harvey Shops on Bathurst Street:
The Toronto Transit Commission is holding an open house at its historic Harvey Shop facility on Sat., Nov. 23 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. All proceeds from the open house will go to the United Way.
Located at the TTC’s Hillcrest Complex, 1138 Bathurst St., Harvey Shop is the major maintenance facility for the streetcar fleet and component manufacturer for subway cars and buses.
Visitors to the Harvey Shop open house can climb aboard the vintage PCC and Peter Witt streetcars, as well as the new low-floor accessible streetcar, the new 60-foot accessible articulated bus and the TTC Command bus. Volunteers will be on hand to provide a guided tour.
Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for children.
Steve Munro 
Will you be there to give a guided tour? I doubt that the TTC has experts on hand that match your knowledge of Toronto transit, particularly the streetcar fleets, past, present and future.
Steve: I doubt that I will be there.
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Too bad. I’m definitely interested and my son is absolutely going to love it … he’s already been on the Peter Witt and a PCC at Halton County … and the new streetcar will be amazing to see.
Cheers, Moaz
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I attended the event today and learned a few things:
– The LFLRVs have a proper trolley retriever installed now hidden inside the back panel. The cord passes through the gap between that and the bumper.
– When the LFLRVs go into service next year starting on Spadina they will likely still be using poles at first. It is however a total myth that the pole pickup would cause any sort of reduced performance or partial HVAC shutdown. I believe the amperage figures quoted were roughly 100A for HVAC max (heating is the most draw) and the traction current is 1100A max.
– What they did have to say for the pantograph is that it will significantly reduce the amount of maintenance on replacing carbon contact shoes. I was told, and quite surprised to hear, that the existing trolley carbon contacts typically last only three days. (I’m hoping the gentleman meant to say three weeks or months but he definitely said “days”.) After retirement of the CLRVs and ALRVs, future overhead maintenance will not continue to support trolley poles except perhaps for very limited routings for the historic cars. This was stated to be entirely a cost saving exercise. Frogs and glider hardware will eventually be removed where not deemed necessary.
Steve: Yes. It is days.
– Presto is intended to be rolled out one route at a time with the introduction of full LFLRV coverage on a given route. Presto validators on board will be issuing transfer receipts to EVERY USER initially until the system-wide roll-out is completed. Customer understanding is going to be a disaster for a long time. I’m struggling to understand how they are going to keep the printing paper full in each machine all day.
– The person in charge of axle repair said that the CLRV axles can only be gauged within a 1/8″ range. It was his informed opinion that the standard-gauge demonstrations were performed with specially-machined replacement axles and possibly on a completely separate set of trucks that were purpose-built. In other words, even if anyone actually cared to run a preserved CLRV on standard gauge track, it will never, ever happen again.
– A tale was told of GO Bi-level cars at the Thunder Bay plant being accidentally pushed into the TTC-guage siding and running aground on the wider guage. It seemed clear that many at the TTC think very lowly of Bombardier and there was one specific snide remark that Bombardier “can’t put an LRV on the road anywhere in the world that will last more than 25 minutes.” Bombardier has not officially handed over any maintenance authority on the demonstration cars to the TTC yet.
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The Open House was great! The amount of machinery and the size of drill presses was impressive. They are capable of a lot of in house work which of course controls quality, delivery etc. Although they no longer are self-sufficient as they once were according to one older worker.
I am not impressed with the articulated bus. The interior isn’t that great. I ride them on MIway and they have an annoying gallop up/down motion to them.
I am even less impressed with the new LRT articulated cars. They have a narrow aisle with less room than present vehicles. No way anyone can pass by another person standing. Changing level of floor throughout the car not always visible. The Peter Witt will carry more passengers! The PCC looks great and it too has a roomy interior. The new cars are another step backwards. (The present cars were a step backwards from the PCC). I rode the PCC during the 100th anniversary of St.Clair route and I had forgotten how smooth they accelerate, ride along and stop. The new cars are about 2 years late and STILL are not ready. (They have to modify the first ramp for some reason and the interior lights are too bright for night vision outside to see where you are.) Brilliant! But, they sure look great!
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They did a great tour of Harvey Shops, I never quite realized how big it was inside. It was impressive to see the capability they have to actually manufacture most parts, something I don’t think Leslie Barns will be able to do (at least to the level of Harvey Shops).
On a side note, a bit of the Dupont streetcar is resurfacing west of Bathurst, as they’ve taken the top layer of asphalt off of Dupont St.
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YouTube contributor Brad O’Brien has a 6-minute HD-video of the Harvey Shops open house.
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The tour was excellent, and the TTC staff who took us around and spent time doing demonstrations and answering people’s questions were fantastic.
I posted a bunch of my photos to Flickr.
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What does the TTC own that requires blacksmithing capabilities to maintain?
Steve: Parts for various vehicles and some maintenance equipment. Easier to make it in house than outsourcing when you have the capability and the volume to justify the position.
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