Caption: TTC G1 subway car RT-37, one of the last of Toronto's "Red Rocket" Gloucester subway cars still on the property in 2007 (built as TTC 5069 for Toronto's first subway line in 1953-54, retired by the early 90's), sits stored at the back of Greenwood Yard awaiting disposal. At the time, four of the "G's" remained, having been converted after retirement for maintenance of way use as power units for the railgrinder trains that profiled the rails around the subway system during off-peak hours. The sets were made of two G's for propulsion, bookending two small yellow railgrinder units towed in between. A yard collision in 2004 resulted in one set being retired, while the other set remained active until 2008. These were probably the rarest pieces of TTC equipment to photograph at the time, as due to their obscure duties during off-peak hours, they weren't very well known or photographed (it was sheer luck they were parked along the fence and not buried in the yard).
The story behind the hunt for these cars is somewhat long-winded, so viewers may want to go back to admiring the photo of RT-37 still in existence in 2007. It all started in December 2006, when someone on a discussion board posted a CP24 news article of some Oshawa GO line rider complaining about unsightly graffiti on subway cars parked next to the tracks hurting their eyes every day. Someone pointed out the blurry photo included, taken out of a rainy GO bilevel window, appeared to be some of the old TTC Gloucester work cars, stored on a back track in the subway yard along the railway corridor.
More intrepid, adventurous photographers were interested, and a plan was hatched by two to go investigate and get photos of the last of the G-series subway cars, conveniently inconveniently parked there. After a meetup at Union Station, hijinks and shenanigans followed with a visit to Bathurst Street bridge for GO, VIA & CN, some streetcar photos at the hip West Queen West & Bathurst, and an escorted visit inside TTC's Russell Yard for some CLRV and vintage PCC streetcar photos. After that, a short walk up Greenwood Ave brought us to the doorstep of TTC's Greenwood subway yard.
Unlike streetcar yards, one can't just knock on the door of a subway yard and get the red carpet treatment for an escorted tour inside, so scouting outside was the plan. Walking north up the east side of TTC's Greenwood Yard, on the off-chance the G's were visible from the main street, offered no luck. At the north end was Oakvale Avenue, which afforded a good look south into the yard, with lots of T1 and H6 subway cars (but still no G's among them). Then, a detour through the nearby neighbourhood side streets on the west side only yielded high sound barrier walls, with not so much as a peep possible into the yard. Coming out on Jones Avenue, there weren't many options left other than shooting them from the nearby CN rail corridor (if they were still there). Access at Greenwood and Jones Avenues was limited and too conspicuous, but a savvy navigator back then knew lots of the side streets had many "convenient trackside access options" available for the locals walking their dogs and ne'er-do-well crowd engaging in unscrupulous behavior and the like (this was before the Metrolinx days of tall fences everywhere, which was no doubt big business for some lucky fence contractors).
Sure enough, a dead-end street nearby offered a short dog walk option to the back of Greenwood Yard, with two TTC G-cars parked along the fence immediately visible for all to see: TTC G1 RT-37 (ex-5069) and G2 RT-34 (ex-5102). At the time, there were two steel (former red, now painted maintenance grey) G1's left on the property, and two aluminum (unpainted, but weathered grey) G2's, all sporting yellow maintenance striping. RT-34 had been involved in a sideswipe incident with a T1 in 2004, and was retired & parked with a visibly damaged cab. RT-37, presumably its mate in the set, was parked out of service with it, both on a disused dual-gauge track at the back of the yard that was formerly the CN siding leading into the property.
Despite the fence, photos were had, including the heavily rebuilt RT-11 "Duncan's Dragon" tunnel clearance car stored on the same track. Nearby was the other railgrinder set (still in use at the time) with G1 RT-36 (ex-5068) and G2 RT-35 (ex-5103) parked by the heating building at the south-west end, but people working nearby and poor photo angles discouraged getting too close. Satiated with photos, a short walk back to Jones Avenue and a ride on the Jones bus lead us back to the Bloor-Danforth subway, and after a bit of H4 subway riding it was decided to call it a day, with the mission complete and all main objectives achieved.
The four G-series RT work cars all went for scrap over the next two years, and that was that for the Gloucester fleet in Toronto (two other G1's, 5098 & 5099, were donated for preservation to the HCRY after retirement in 1991).
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