Toronto #4612
Toronto PCC Car #4612 in service at Fort Edmonton Park (August 6, 2008)
© Hans Ryffel, ERRS
No. 4612 is an example of a PCC streetcar. They were originally designed under the direction of the Electric Railway Presidents' Conference Committee, in an attempt by twenty-five U.S. and Canadian transit companies to develop a standardized streetcar whose many improvements would help to reverse the decline in transit use that had begun in the 1920s. The committee's efforts began in late 1929, and the first cars were put into service in New York in October 1936. The design was extremely successful and until 1952 approximately 5,000 cars were built for use in North American cities.
Our car was delivered to Toronto in 1951 and remained in service, although heavily rebuilt, until 1995. In an extremely generous gesture, the Toronto Transit Commission offered the car to the ERRS, where it entered service in 1997 after being adapted to standard gauge (Toronto uses a slightly wider non standard gauge). Had Edmonton not abandoned the streetcars, PCC's would most probably have been introduced to our city too.
Similar PCC car #4526 in Toronto (August 1969)
© Willie Rosenberg