Caption: In the wee hours of the night, John Bromley was on the prowl around the deserted platforms of the TTC's Davisville Subway Station and caught a train of brand new Hawker Siddeley H1 subway cars testing on the Yonge line, with H1's 5346, 5347, 5350 and 5351 making up this 4-car consist. The train is sitting at the southbound platform of Davisville Station, with Davisville Shops visible in the background (an old Gloucester subway car can be seen inside). John probably had his tripod set up for the photo, as the slide mount notes this shot as a 1 second exposure at F4, with a 35mm lens (on Kodachrome, of course).
At the time, the 164 new H1 subway cars from Thunder Bay were still being delivered to Greenwood Yard (a report from John in the UCRS newsletter states 46 of the 5336-5499 order was on the property at the time). Crews were undergoing training and testing on them, and 14 cars so far had been assigned to Davisville Yard including 5346-47 and 5350-51. The first H1 train had entered revenue service on July 26th, and the plan was to have a number of H1 trains based out of Davisville in revenue service on the Yonge line until the new Bloor-Danforth line they were purchased for opened in February of next year (there would be a glut of subway cars in the fleet until then, allowing some G's and M1's to be sent to Greenwood for repairs and other work).
The H1 fleet was followed up by successive H-series orders over the years, and remained in service for three decades until retirement and replacement by new Bombardier T1 subway cars in the mid-late 90's.
John F. Bromley photo, Dan Dell'Unto collection slide.
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