Caption: Despite their age, the 1950's-built Gloucester "Red Rocket" subway cars still looked great years later. An 8-car train of TTC "G" cars, lead by G1 5082, sits parked inside the new Wilson Subway Yard next to the maintenance shop buildings. Note the Identra Coil mounted on the upper right of the lead car (used to activate "next train" destination boxes on station platforms) as well as the left-side mounted operators controls - all later car models including the M1's, H1's and so on would come with operators controls mounted on the right side. Another interesting note is the Gloucester cars were only 57' long, allowing a maximum train length of 8 cars at a station platform (as opposed to later 75' long cars that would max out at 6 cars). The last of the G's were retired in the early 90's, with cars 5098-5099 preserved at the Halton County Radial Railway museum.
This scene was photographed during a tour of the shops as part of a weekend fantrip during July 1st-2nd 1978. A new pair of Hawker Siddeley H5 cars are visible parked in the distance, part of an order purchased for the new Spadina line extension that opened earlier that year.
Photographer unknown, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.
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