The Russell Carhouse, located at Queen Street East and Connaught Avenue just east of Greenwood Avenue in Toronto, is the Toronto Transit Commission's second oldest carhouse. When the TTC contracted with Bombardier Transportation to replace its fleet of streetcars with modern, low-floor streetcars, some consideration was given to refurbishing the maintenance facilities at the Russell facility to accommodate the vehicles, rather than build a new half billion dollar facility. The site chosen for the Leslie Barns carhouse was only a few hundred yards away from the Russell facility. Local city councilorMary-Margaret McMahon argued for improving the Russell facility in 2011. In the end the new Leslie carhouse was built. But the Russell facility will remain open, and will store new vehicles that do not need maintenance work.
History
Russell Carhouse was built in 1913 by the Toronto Railway Company as a paint shop. When the King Carhouse burnt down in 1916, the Russell was rapidly turned into a carhouse. After the TTC took over and amalgamated all the existing streetcar systems within the city limits in 1920, they found that the foundations were faulty and the facility was sinking. They called for tenders for its demolition and the construction of a new carhouse which opened on December 13, 1924. In 1922 the TTC added fire equipment to its St. Clair Carhouse, Danforth Carhouse, Russell Carhouse and Lansdowne Carhouse. Between 1927 and 1936, radial cars for the Scarboro radial line were stored at Russell Carhouse. The TTC took over Scarboro radial operation in 1927 and connected the radial line to Bingham Loop for carhouse movements. The facility services half of the system's streetcars; exclusively for the 502 Downtowner and 503 Kingston Road routes, and sharing with Roncesvalles Carhouse for the 501 Queen, 504 King, 505 Dundas, 506 Carlton, 509 Harbourfront, 510 Spadina routes.
Public access
The Carhouse is normally closed to the public. But, in 2014, the TTC added the facility to Doors Open Toronto's list of buildings normally closed to the public which are opened to public tours for one weekend per year. For its public debut the TTC made available its small fleet of legacy heritage streetcars, and provided a prototype of its Flexitylow floor streetcars, which were introduced to revenue service four months later. In a review of the effectiveness of Doors Open as an educational tool, Allana Mayer, of the association of Art Libraries of North America, listed the Russell Carhouse as one of four "crowd favourites".
Namesake
An article in a 1978 issue of the TTC's internal magazine, The Coupler, asserts that the carhouse is named for T.A. Russell and friend of Robert John Fleming a former Mayor of Toronto and general manager of the Toronto Railway Company. However, a member of Ontario's Provincial Parliament, Joseph Russell, was also a friend to Fleming, and his brick manufacturing yard was near the carhouse, and supplied brick for the carhouse. Transit historian Ray Corley asserts the yard was more likely named after Joseph Russell, due to the proximity of his yard, and due to playing a role in the facility's construction
