Caption: TTC sister PCC streetcars 4685 & 4684 operate in MU on the busy Danforth route, heading eastbound in morning traffic on Bloor Street East while crossing the overpass over Mount Pleasant Road just past Jarvis Street. MU'ed streetcars were necessary to handle high passenger loadings on busy routes during peak hours, and at the time work was afoot on a new crosstown Bloor-Danforth subway line that would replace most of the Bloor and Danforth streetcars along this stretch three years later in 1966.
Both A12-class PCC's were built by St. Louis Car Co. in 1946 for Louisville as part of an order that wasn't fully delivered. They were resold to Cleveland early on, who later sold them third-hand to Toronto in 1952 with a bunch of their own cars that were built-new. The TTC retired all of its A12 class streetcars by 1982, but trailing car 4684 survives unrestored at the HCRY streetcar museum.
The old Victoria style houses along this stretch of Bloor have been demolished, but the Manufacturers Life Insurance Company office complex in the background at 200 Bloor St. E., built in portions between 1925 and 1953, still operates as Manulife's corporate head office building.
Robert D. McMann photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.
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Sweet scene. Wonderful image.