Toronto Transit Commission Davisville Division
Davisville Yard is one of 4 TTC Rapid Transit yards. It is located at Davisville Station, at the intersection of Yonge St. and Chaplin Cres. It was built in 1951, and officially opened in 1954, with the Yonge Subway. It housed the cars before the line actually opened.
Davisville is a division of Wilson Yard, with crews being based primarily out of the larger Wilson yard. Wilson can perform the major rebuilding and repairs, while Davisville can only perform some repairs and cleaning.
Although the Sheppard line trains are stored in the tailtracks at Sheppard-Yonge Station, trains are periodically run down to Davisville for maintenance and cleaning, which cannot be done in the tailtracks.
It should be noted that the TTC's headquarters in the McBrien Building is located nearby at Yonge & Davisville, built over the Davisville Station bus bays.
History
Davisville officially opened in 1953, before the original Yonge subway it hosted cars to opened. The first cars to arrive were 5000 and 5001, originally delivered to Hillcrest and displayed at the CNE by putting them on streetcar trucks and towing them down. A famous story involves the transfer of the subway cars from the CNE to Davisville: The lead car (5000) derailed on the temporary tracks down into the yard. It could be moved into the yard that night, but its partner car 5001 was forced to stay the day in Lawton Loop, which attracted many sightseers. 5001 was reunited with its partner 5000 in Davisville the following night. The next car deliveries were delivered directly to Davisville Yard via the CN's Belt Line railway, which passed directly over the yard. This connection with the Belt Line would be discontinued when the Spadina Expressway severed the rail line in the late 60's/early 70's.
Davisville was a modest yard; it held all the cars for the Yonge and University lines, as well as the ability to perform minor maintenance/repairs and cleaning. Cars that needed major rebuilding and repairs, however, were trucked from Davisville to Hillcrest. When the much-larger Greenwood Yard opened in 1966, it provided not only much-needed extra capacity to the cramped Davisville, it also boasted a full maintenance division, where major maintenance could be carried out on cars.
After the north Yonge extensions, Davisville was very close to capacity. The Spadina extension would push it over, so Wilson Yard was opened on the Spadina line in 1978. It was a much larger yard than even Greenwood, and it also contained a full maintenance division, so cars would not have to go to Greenwood for repairs.
Wilson was so large that Davisville was nearly rendered useless; when repairs to the retaining wall in the mid-1990s forced the closure of the entire yard, all but 4 trains were stored in Wilson, with the remaining 4 stored at Finch Station (3 in the tail tracks, 1 in the platform). Even after the repairs to the wall were completed, Davisville was not reactivated, and was used primarily for storage of old retired equipment and work cars.
In 2002, Davisville was finally reactivated as the Sheppard subway would need a place to store cars at, and while the cars for that line are stored in the tailtracks at Sheppard-Yonge, there would need to be a closer location than Wilson to perform maintenance and cleaning. Now, Davisville is back to near its old glory, busy storing regular service cars as well as H1 work trains. When the yard was reactivated, the carhouse building was expanded so the cars for the Sheppard line could be fully housed inside.
Lines
Fleet
| Fleet number range | Manufacturer | Model Name | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6141-6196 | Bombardier | Toronto Rocket | 20 |
A number of H4 work cars are usually found at Davisville as well.
References
Transit Toronto - Content: The Davisville Subway Yards
