Hillcrest Complex

Hillcrest Complex is the Toronto Transit Commission's largest facility and is responsible for most of the maintenance work on the system's surface vehicles, including heavy overhauls, repairs and repainting. It is located adjacent to the intersection of Bathurst Street and Davenport Road. The site is also home to the TTC's Transit Control Centre, but the operational headquarters of the organization remain at the McBrien Building at 1900 Yonge Street.

Hillcrest Complex occupies an area of about  with a frontage of  along Bathurst Street and  along Davenport Road.

History

In 1922, the TTC purchased the Hillcrest Race Track to use its land for the new shop complex to replace smaller facilities inherited from the Toronto Railway Company and Toronto Civic Railways. The TTC opened Hillcrest Complex on March 13, 1924 with the move of the carbuilding function from the TRC's Front Street location. On June 9, the School of Instruction moved into Hillcrest.

During World War II, the Hillcrest Complex participated in the war effort by producing parts for military equipment.

On July 30, 1953, Toronto's first two subway cars arrived at the Hillcrest Complex. However, all subsequent deliveries of G-series subway cars were made directly to the Davisville Yard.

In the 1980s, the TTC purchased land on the west side of the complex to construct the W.E.P. Duncan Building and H.C. Patten Building.

Railway access

Canadian Pacific Railway's mid-town rail line lies on the south side of the Hillcrest Complex, and the complex once had a network of standard gauge tracks and sidings for receiving railway cars. On the south and west sides of the complex, standard gauge tracks were intermixed with broader TTC gauge tracks creating four-rail dual gauge where the standard and TTC gauge tracks overlapped. (See map.) 

From 1940 to the 1970s, the TTC maintained standard-gauge switcher Y-18 to shunt railway cars around the complex. The TTC converted Y-18 from former dump car W-15 which the TTC had built in 1922; Y-18 was essentially a motorized flat car on two bogies with a cab at one end. Since there was no electrical overhead wires over the standard and dual-gauge tracks, Y-18 had no overhead electrical pickup device; it took power from an electrical extension cord.

Some time after the retirement of Y-18, standard gauge track disappeared from the Hillcrest Complex. However, in 2014, a railway siding was constructed on the south side of the complex to receive deliveries of new Flexity Outlook streetcars, as the 30-metre length of the new cars made transport by road from the factory impractical. At the east end of the siding, there is a ramp with TTC gauge tracks where another streetcar can pull a newly delivered Flexity streetcar from the flat car and shunt to the Harvey Shops for inspection. On January 24, 2020, the delivery of the last of 204 Flexity Outlook streetcars took place here, with streetcar 4603 arriving by rail from Bombardier's Thunder Bay plant.

Buildings

D.W. Harvey Shops

Named for D. W. Harvey and opened in 1923, the Harvey Shops handle the heavy maintenance of buses as well as high-floor streetcars such as the CLRV and ALRV. The shops occupy a space of  and is divided into sections for trades such as upholstery, blacksmith and carpentry. There is also a paint shop.

The building contains a transfer table to access over 50 service bays with about 25 bays on each side of the moving table. The transfer table and most of the bays are only  long. So, when ALRV streetcars with a length of  were introduced, an addition was built on the easternmost tracks with direct access from outdoors to allow the ALRV cars to drive through the old building crossing the transfer table into a longer wing on the northeast side of the building where they are maintained.

The new Flexity streetcars cannot be maintained at the Harvey Shops because of their length of  and because the shops are oriented to service the equipment under the high floors of older streetcars rather than the roof-top equipment of the low-floor streetcars. Thus, the Leslie Barns will be handling heavy maintenance for the Flexity cars.

The Harvey Shops does truck and motor overhauls for streetcar and subway equipment, and it will supplement the Leslie Barns in doing such overhauls for Flexity Outlook streetcars. 

The Harvey Shops can rebuild buses and older streetcars by stripping the vehicles to their frames, assessing corrosion and repairing or replacing parts as needed. Parts such as, for example, a motor may be rebuilt from more than one used motor. Some parts are manufactured within the building's various shops.  

Outside the Harvey Shops, the TTC stores vehicles uneconomical or impractical to repair to eventually strip them for parts to be used in other vehicles.

W.E.P. Duncan Building
Built in 1985, and named for W. E. P. Duncan, the Duncan shop is the TTC's heavy bus maintenance facility, including rebuilds and major power plant work, to meet the needs of the bus operating divisions.  The building also houses the Materials and Procurement Department.

The Duncan Building replaced an obsolete bus maintenance garage in Parkdale, Toronto.

H.C. Patten Building 
The revenue operations building is located at the northwest corner of the site at 835 Davenport Road. The building is named for H. C. Patten, General Manager of the Toronto Transportation Commission from 1939 until 1952.

Opened in the 1980s, the building was designed with security in mind to handle fare media such cash, tickets, tokens, passes and transfers. Because of security, the building has few windows.

J.G. Inglis Building 
The administrative and employment offices are in this building, which is located at the main entrance to the complex. It was named for John G. Inglis in 1991 to honour the man who pioneered the PCC streetcar.

David L. Gunn Building
The Transit Control Centre is named for David L. Gunn, Chief General Manager of the TTC from 1995 to 1999.

The TTC's Transit Control Centre is located in the three storey Gunn Building at the northeastern corner of the Hillcrest Complex. The facility has  of space containing mechanical, electrical, and computer equipment, offices and a training  area. In addition to subway/SRT train control, the facility monitors traction power, security, fire safety, communications, ventilation and mechanical systems. It monitors all TTC operations including surface routes.

Davenport Garage
Davenport Garage is a two storey building located at the north edge of the Hillcrest Complex with road access directly from Davenport Road to its second floor. When opened in 1925, it was the main garage for all gasoline-powered TTC vehicles. Later it also served Gray Coach vehicles. On the lower level, there was a repair shop with 10 repair pits and an area for storing parts and materials for bus maintenance. On the upper level, the garage had 4 inspection pits and a wash rack. The garage closed in 1993.

Streetcar Way Building
, the TTC is constructing a new Streetcar Way Building to support rail bending functions which involve bending pieces of rail for curves in streetcar track. The building will have  of floor space. Outside the building, there would be  of space for the pre-assembly of special track work (switches, crossings and connecting curves) and the storage of equipment and materials. Streetcar Way employees currently located at the Roncesvalles and Russell carhouses would be transferred to the new building. The consolidation of way functions at Hillcrest will result in a savings of $1.8 million per year.

Other buildings
Others buildings include Support Services Building and Subway Operations Building.

Future
, the TTC was contemplating several functional changes to the Hillcrest Complex. Changes considered included:
 The TTC is looking into setting up a carhouse at the Hillcrest Complex to serve the 512 St. Clair streetcar route. This would eliminate about  of non-revenue travel to get to the route from the existing carhouses.
 The TTC may repurpose the Davenport Garage for its Training and Vehicle Engineering staff, or to set up a transit museum.
 If the TTC acquires electric buses, then the TTC may maintain them at the Hillcrest Complex drawing on the expertise of existing electrical staff.
 With the conversion of fare media from tickets and tokens to the electronic Presto fare card, the Patton Building's usefulness is in decline. Thus, the TTC is studying alternate uses for the building. However, the TTC still needs to allow cash fares.

, the TTC was considering repurposing the Hillcrest Complex for streetcar maintenance and storage only, thus, displacing its current bus maintenance activities. According to the TTC, such a conversion would provide a five-fold increase in capacity to overhaul streetcars. The estimated cost to repurpose the complex would be $900 million.

References

External links

The Hillcrest Complex - Article by James Bow on the history of the Hillcrest Complex.
Hillcrest Complex Site Plan

Category:Toronto Transit Commission