Once again, the TTC participated in the Easter Parade through The Beach from Neville Loop westward. This year, I only photographed the departure from Russell Carhouse rather than walking the entire parade route.
Peter Witt 2766 led the fleet followed by PCC 4500, CLRV 4125, ALRV 4217 and Flexity 4412.
The Witt was driven by operator Frank Hood who after 31 years is retiring today.
The Easter Parade fleet at Russell Carhouse: 2766, 4500, 4126, 4217 and 4412
The operators for the Easter Parade line up with their cars
Frank Hood about to make his last run with 2766
The Easter fleet from the rear
The Easter fleet in profile.
Peter Witt 2766 eastbound on Queen at Woodfield
Peter Witt 2766 followed by PCC 4500 eastbound on Queen at Woodfield
PCC 4500 eastbound on Queen at Woodfield
Flexity 4412 eastbound on Queen at Woodfield
Steve Munro 
Interesting the evolution of mirrors on the cars. One has to wonder, how the hell did Peter Witt operators see when making turns? There must have been a lot of collisions/fatalities.
Unless people were smarter in those days and did not just carelessly walk into a moving streetcar.
Steve: The newer cars have many more mirrors because the operator’s location, combined with the shape of the front of the cars, makes it much harder to see into blind spots beside the cars. Even the PCCs had few mirrors originally.
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Wonder if the organisers of this event were charged the full asinine charter rate for the use of each individual tram.
Steve: It was a TTC operation, and so “on the house”. Nobody else could afford a parade like that given their rates.
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Service trucks were used as “brakes” for the Peter Witt, just in case.
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An Easter Transit treat, without the chocolate. A great big thank you Steve, from a former Torontonian who lives in Ottawa and misses the streetcars!
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Yet another long parade of streetcars along Queen… People must have just thought it was another day on the 501, although I suppose given that these reached Neville they must have realized something was amiss
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What a thrill to see all these special TTC streetcars. New and old models and builders. Congratulations to the TCC for saving at least one of the older streetcars. Special Easter treat.
wally Young, Victoria, BC.
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Someone took a Youtube video of the procession.
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Cute; and a nice day for a parade.
I wonder what the relative tonnages are for these vehicles, and power needs. Just because we don’t see the ‘exhaust’, doesn’t mean there is a free lunch (in energy terms). Maybe there’s a range of extra costs associated with larger?
Steve: It’s not that simple. First off, there is the relative power consumption from raw weight, but then also there are savings from regeneration during braking on the newer vehicles, and the improved performance of AC motors on the low floors. The you have to translate this to a per passenger km value.
But maybe we will just run buses, or a fleet of bicycles, or a high speed tube, or horse drawn wagons. Each mode has its benefits and disbenefits. And while we’re on the subject, a subway has a huge energy cost just to build the thing, never mind to operate it.
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Regarding “relative tonnage” & “power needs”, comparing per mode, regarding a bus one must consider that rolling resistance of rubber tires on a hardtop surface is exponentially higher than steel wheel on steel rail; in consideration of tunnelled/subway rail there is the issue of air displacement within a limited area and the resistance to momentum that creates (hence the “wind” one feels on the platform when a subway train approaches).
As always, right mode for right application should be the rule of thumb based objectively on all relative factors. (objectively…. now there’s a novel word in hyper-politicised transit planning)
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I found the lack of swan boats in the parade to be appalling.
Steve: Especially considering how close to the lake the entire parade was.
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Yes, the energy costs of building things is sometimes large. With concrete usage, there’s an extra boost of CO2 that occurs in cement-making, and as EAs don’t count anything at all of the materials/energy/CO2 flows, maybe this helps explain why we’re kinda doomed.
ThinkProgress.org
The Guardian
We’re sooo green in Toronto, we don’t use any of this concrete stuff, at least not in official counts, so there. Problem solved!
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@hamish wilson
I am amused that you think a quartet of streetcars, running for about an hour a year, is going to have anything but the most marginal of effects on emissions.
Steve: Not to mention that on Sunday it will be base load and all hydro plus nuclear generation.
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