Excavator digging up wooden streetcar ties on Kingston Road
Construction workers on Kingston Road have started digging up fascinating pieces of Birch Cliff’s past – the old streetcar tracks that were laid in 1928.
Large excavators have been rumbling down the centre of the road since Tuesday, painstakingly digging up steel rails, wooden ties and cobblestones.
“They go piece by piece and layer by layer,” said Craig Brown, Lead Hand of Sanscon Construction. “First they strip off the asphalt. Then they pull out the ties. Then they pull out the cobblestones that are there. And then they pull out the concrete.”
Difficult job
The process attracted a small crowd on Tuesday night, who watched as the wooden ties fell to pieces as they were dug up and then transferred to a front-end loader for removal.
Streel streetcar rails awaiting disposal
Brown said it’s a difficult job because back in the day the construction was very solid and all the pieces need to be disposed of separately.
“We have to separate the wood ties that are there and we’ve got the concrete that’s mixed in between it and we have to separate the steel too so it just makes it more difficult.”
Brown said he can tell the steel tracks are old because the tie bars which hold the two rails on gauge so the cars don’t fall off the rail are made of flat steel. Most times, said Brown, it’s a round iron bar.
Streetcars debuted in 1928
Streetcars made their debut in Birch Cliff in 1928 when the TTC extended service from Victoria Park to the Birchmount Loop.
But they weren’t like the streetcars we know today, according Elisabeth and Bruce Plain, who lived in Birch Cliff in the 1940‘s and shared their recollections in the book “Memories of Scarborough: A Bicentennial Celebration.”
“The streetcars had a motorman and a conductor. The motorman operated the vehicle. The conductor had a place in the middle of the streetcar where he collected the fare. There was a little coal stove by the conductor, and on cold mornings when the stove had not yet heated the whole car, people huddled around the conductor and his stove. In rush hour the streetcar dragged a trailer for additional seating.”
Streetcars were phased out in 1954 and instead of digging up the tracks, a decision was made to simply pave over them, presumably to save money.
Radial car travelling east on Kingston Road, looking north from Birchmount Road
Radial cars before streetcars
Before there were streetcars, Birch Cliff residents travelled downtown via radial cars that started running through the neighbourhood on Kingston Road in 1901.
It was the radial car that was largely responsible for transforming Birch Cliff from a rural area to a suburb in the early 1900’s.
Craig Brown is a bit of a history buff, looked up old photographs of Kingston Road before he started working on the reconstruction, and says he’s mindful of the past.
“You see old pictures of this area and having the streetcars running. You look at it now and it’s completely changed. How wide the road is now and everything. That’s what I think is interesting.”
Scroll down for more construction photos.
Excavator passing wooden streetcar ties to front end loader
Steel streetcar rails
Flat steel tie bars that show the age of the streetcar tracks
Craig Brown, Lead Hand at Sanscon
