Toronto 4612 is an example of a PCC streetcar. PCCs 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, by the end of North American PCC production in 1952, approximately 5,000 cars were built for use in North American cities.

Our car was delivered to Toronto in 1951 as an A-8 Class PCC numbered 4543. In 1990 it was heavily rebuilt and emerged as Toronto 4612 of the new A-15 Class of PCCs. Toronto 4612 remained in service until 1995. In an extremely generous gesture, the Toronto Transit Commission offered the car to the ERRS and 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, PCCs likely would have been introduced to our city too.

Read more about Toronto's PCCs at Transit Toronto.