A5 Remembering the horsepower days By DEBBIE LUCHUK Horses were more valuable than humans in the days before the elec- tric streetcar in Toronto. And according to Mike Filey, "If a horse died, the company would have to spend $25 to replace it. If the operator died, they were just replaced." Horses were taken off their shift after three hours; drivers stood 12 hours a day and worked for 17 cents an hour. Filey spoke on the history of streetcars in Toronto at a recent United Empire Loyalists' meeting in Whitby. A prolific writer, he has written extensively on the history of Toionto in several books, including "I Remember Sunnyside," annd "The Toronto Almanac," as well as the book on streetcars "Not a One Horse Town." He is now employed by CHFI as a broadcaster, and sits on the Toronto Historical Board, the Mayor's Civic Museum Task Force and the Art Heritage Foundation. Among other illustrious achievements, he has been awarded the City of Toronto Award of Merit on the150th anniversaryof Toronto. "The streetcar is a inherent part of Toronto; like the CN Tower, like the bridge in San Francisco," Filey asserted. They have been a part of Toronto life for 125 years, hor- sedrawn and electric. It is one of the few links the city has left with its past: "If we find a building from the 1960's we call it historic, that's how it's been." Streetcars were first offered in. Toronto (as horsedrawn cabs) by hotel owners to usher patrons to their establishments upon arrival at the train station. There was really no public transport system until 1848 when the Yorkville line was established from St. Lawrence Hall to Yorkville up Yonge Street. (Yorkville was the first suburb of Toronto). In 1861, an Amerigan group arrived with the idea of a horse drawn street railway, cars on rails drawn by horses. This company soon became known as the Toronto Street Railway Company, and their first rail line was on Yonge Street. The fare was a nickel, and there were no transfers. To save money, people often jumped on back of a passing streetcar for a free ride. The tracks were made wide enough to accommodate English buggies (enabling carriages to drive in the tracks) to save the roadbeds from wear and tear. Electricity was being developed for a number of uses during the late 1880's and Thomas Edison was ap- proached to research the use of elec- tricity for public streetcars. He said it couldn't be done, yet there were some electric streetcars being built in Germany at the time that were not terribly safe. Eventually, J.J. Parkdale set up an electric train for an industrial exposition in the city (the forerunner of the CNE). The electric streetcar was in- troduced to Toronto by the Toronto Railway Company in 1893. As the company, composed of Henry Pellatt and William MacKenzie, took over the public transportation monopoly from the Toronto Street Railway Company, they had a man- date to electrify the transportation system of the city as soon as possible. The horse cars were sent off for. use as, among other things, chalets to house TB patients at the Toronto Free Hospital and for use in Haileybury for public transpor- tation there. A problem soon arose when the company refused to extend the railway tracks past the City of Toronto limits to a burgeoning suburbia, making it difficult for streetcar users outside of these limits to make the connection with the Toronto lines. The problem was solved with the construction of a separate high speed train link from Lake Simcoe south to Toronto, and this ran until 1943. Another such link was extended to Guelph. Eventually, the links were taken over by the Toronto Transit Com- mission when public transportation was taken over by the city. In 1913, the new Union Station was built, but nowhere near the existing tracks. It took until 1927 to get the tracks move close enough to the station to use it. In 1919, the fare for the streetcar was two cents. As the TTC assumed respon- sibility for public transportation, they modernized the tracks and replaced some of the older cars with some designed by Peter Witt. (The first TTC streetcar still exists in the old roadhouse near the CN Tower). Connections were made with Toronto Harbor, for access to steamships travelling to Hanlan's Point on Toronto Island for baseball games, and other summer ac- tivities. The tradition begun in the 1880's of free transportation for children to the Sunnyside Pool con- tinued into the 1950's. The TTC streetcar, still renowned for its efficiency, was put on the tracks in 1938. "Nothing can catch it today, not even in Europe. They're faster than today's street- cars," according to Filey. There were 6,000 of these cars in service all over North America in their heyday. Filey's first memory connected with streetcars was of a terrible tragedy by fire involving a truck in collision with a streetcar. Four people burned to death, one of them SEE PAGE 8 USED CARS AT "SENSIBLE PRICES" 1985 OLDS CIERA This Is another 1-owner trade with only 82.200 km.,2 tone blue. Previous owner's name avallable on request. Stk. #139A. $7,495 WHITBY DODGE CHR YSLËER 209 Dundas St., W., WhiIby Whitby Ajax 666-3000 686-1642 Brand New 1987 Maim SE •air, auto, power steering, brakes, windows, antenna locks, mirrrs, V6, am/fm cass., *auto, p.s., p.b., stripe, tinted glass, graphic equilazer, Stk.#87796 tilt defroSt, ar/fm stereo, Stk.#87347 I . Brand New 1987 NsaMlti enra n h AM/IFM RtPen Rtk.#RR132 1987 NissanMicra 4-dr. *auto, low kms., balance of factory warrantv. Stk.#87799R 987 Nissan King Cab Pick.Up XE F p.s., p.b., jump seats, carpeting, instrumenta. 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