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Caption: Built new for the Toronto Transit Commission in the mid-70's by Hawker Siddeley Canada in Thunder Bay, brand new TTC "H5" subway car 5741 sits on a NIFX 1000-series flatcar at Canadian Pacific's Parkdale Yard, awaiting interchange to CN and final delivery in east end Toronto to the TTC's Greenwood Yard via spur track. Note the red farm equipment on flatcars behind, from the nearby Massey Ferguson factories in the industrial Liberty Village part of town (since gentrified greatly with condos and lofts).
The 138-car group of H5's was just the latest iteration of the basic RT-75 75' long aluminum bodied subway car design introduced by MLW in the early 60's as the M1, and followed by HSC's H1, H2, H3 & H4. Changes included smooth end top cap pieces by the top lights (instead of profiled like on the H1-H4), "Chopper Control" (for stepless acceleration and regenerative braking) and were the first cars to feature air conditioning on the system. The H5's were also initially delivered with "blackface" black ends, but were eventually all repainted silver. Known by passengers for their yellow doors, whining noise when accelerating or braking (from the chopper control), and musty air conditioning condenser smell, the H5's were phased out by the new Bombardier Toronto Rocket trains starting in the early 2010's, and the final train of H5's made its last run on the Yonge-University-Spadina line in June of 2013. Most were supposed to be refurbished for use on a Lagos light rail project in Nigeria, and many were shipped to New York for refurbishing, but the plan fell through (new rolling stock was later purchased) and the H5's were cut up for scrap. Apparently some Canadian enthusiasts were able to contact the scrapper in the US, and obtained a U-haul load stash of H5 goodies, but that's another story...
For the rail enthusiast, the eclectic mix of rolling stock used to ship subway equipment varied over the years, from standard CP flatcars used to deliver the original 57' long "Red Rocket" Gloucester cars in the 50's, specially built CP 6-axle flatcars made from cut down heavyweight passenger cars, to these NIFX 1000-series 4-axle flatcars equipped with pedestal supports (originally lettered "North American Car Corporation", some painted out to leave "Can Car", presumably leased to HSC/Can-Car in Thunder Bay), to yellow 89' TTX flats used to ship the H6's. The last subway deliveries by rail were the T1's to Greenwood in the 90's, and all subway cars in and out of the system are presently moved by truck and special low-loader flatbed trailer.
Robert D. McMann photo, Kodachrome from the Dan Dell'Unto collection.
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If you have any more of these floating around post them. I do know the track to Greenwood is ripped up, so that means every subway car delivery is by truck. However the streetcars as we all know are still shipped by rail. That’s another story.
I’m not surprised about the “U-Haul” stash from the scrapper. I never noticed the “musty air conditioning smell”.
Mentioning some of these cars went to NYC and then the overseas plan fell thru, makes me wonder if a few of these cars were not dumped intact into the ocean. Apparently the shells of cars make good homes for fish. They can more readily hide from their enemies.
Mr. Mooney I agree with you on that. That’s been done. They do make great habitats for fish, after you strip out all the hazardous stuff. NYC did that with old subway cars and dumped them into the Atlantic.
Now I believe if you dumped them into Lake Ontario, you might have the three eyed fish from The Simpsons. Lol. No offense but when I was younger I heard the at Lake Ontario was very polluted.
Sorry for the typo. Replying off my phone. Goes to show thumbs don’t work well as fingers.
It might sound like si-fi, but when I was about 8 or 9 years old, a friend and I were skimming the water on the harbour side (before the Skyway was built) and we pulled in a fish, about 8″ long, that looked as though the whole midsection was cut out and the head and end were glued back together. Sickeningly deformed. We also caught a number of small fish with rather frightening welts, boils, whatever you call them.
Mr. Mooney: Definitely not good. You wonder what’s now in Lake Ontario.