Retired red rocket recall

By Eric Morse —

Driver Ken Hopkins salutes a passing CLRV from the helm of PCC 4500. Compared to the newer cars the driver’s accommodation of the PCC is seriously snug. Note the distinctive ‘eyebrow’ inset of the PCC windshield, seen clearly in this photo below.

There was something special on the Harbourfront line of the TTC this past summer—an original “Red Rocket” (No. 4500) from the middle of the last century, running regular service between Union Station and the Exhibition every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

The old Rockets, properly known as the PCC (Presidents’ Car Commission) cars, first came into service in Toronto in 1938, but most of the original order was diverted to Vancouver and Edmonton during World War II.

Toronto received the bulk of its fleet of 700 Rockets immediately postwar and into the early ‘50s. They were the mainstay of TTC streetcar service through the mid 1980s and the last ones disappeared from revenue service by 1996.

They were by no means the first of Toronto’s streetcars, but they were easily the most beloved by their generation of riders, and the first to be nicknamed the Red Rocket for their Art Deco-inspired streamlined shape (the earlier car types, called Peter Witts, and their still-older predecessors were classic—although admittedly beautiful—wooden boxes without much provision for amenities like heating or passenger safety).

The PCC was designed by a consortium of US streetcar companies in the early 1930s and in terms of design, passenger comfort and safety and mechanical engineering was a revolution in urban mass transit. The streamlined body existed in several variations of detail, but one of the distinguishing features of the Toronto Red Rocket is the inset, sloping front windshield under the sign box that gives the car its distinctive “eyebrow.”

The bulk of the TTC fleet was sold to Mexico City and Alexandria, Egypt after the new CLRV (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) and ALRV (Articulated Light Rail Vehicle or “caterpillar car”) came into full service in the 1980s, the first having appeared in 1978. Giambrone says that the idea of restoring the two remaining ones (Nos. 4500 and 4549, which both came into the system in 1951) “arose around 1999 or so, probably inspired by (Toronto historian) Mike Filey.” They have been used for many years as chartered excursion cars.

In the end, only No. 4500 took to the rails at Harbourfront this summer; 4549 proved to need considerable work including a new door and restoration of rusted bodywork. It ran every Sunday from Victoria Day until Labour Day. According to TTC Chair Adam Giambrone the public loved the idea, and after a winter’s overhaul both cars will come into Sunday service next year.

Giambrone says the main problem with keeping them running is not maintenance—the design is simple compared to modern vehicles and parts are still readily available—but operator training. There are fewer and fewer drivers with experience on the PCC still in service, and they require completely different operator skills from the newer models.

For one thing, says driver Ken Hopkins from behind the helm—“there’s no wheel!”—of 4500, the drive train is direct from foot pedal to the four 25-horsepower electric motors in the fore and after wheel trucks of the vehicle. That means that the operator can have far more precise control over the car than with a computerized CLRV or ALRV. But it also means that the smoothness of the ride depends directly on the operator’s personal skills.

“The old cars are much lighter than the new ones,” says Hopkins, “and they were built for long fast coasting, not the stop-and-start driving you find in Toronto these days.”

Hopkins has the skills. He joined TTC in 1988 and spent eight years driving PCCs until the last ones went out of service in 1996. Under his foot the stops and starts are smooth as silk. There are other skilled veterans in the fleet, and about six new operators from each TTC division—12 in all—have had training this year.

Giambrone notes that the new low-floor fleet that is now being ordered will be smoother-running. He is also looking to the future of nostalgia, when the current fleet retires and the CLRVs join the PCCs as heritage vehicles.

“It’s not so strange after all,” he says. “The CLRV/ALRV first arrived in 1978 will start going out of service around 2016 to 2018, and the last ones will probably be gone by 2028. The PCC lasted from just postwar to 1996, so the periods of service will be about the same—50 years or so—and by the time the last ones are gone they’ll be seen as heritage cars by a generation that only knows the PCC from museums and photographs—and now from Harbourfront.”

Red Rocket service is due to resume on the Harbourfront line on Victoria Day in 2010.