Identifying specific geographic locations without the luxury of being able to access the original photo prints or negatives makes it tricky if not impossible to read and/or guess telltale street names, business addresses, tram and bus route numbers, etc. Ongoing, relentless urban renewal has either obliterated or otherwise rendered many of these locations unidentifiable, but I'll wade, anyway, to offer my two cents worth. Other old-timers and urban researchers are of course welcome to add their input, corrections, and personal memories.
Photo 5: The golden chariot, tourist-season streetcar is here heading south on Cote des Neiges Rd. just where Cedar Avenue intersects. Behind the fence in the background was the longtime (built about 1955) handy collector for vehicles heading southbound from Cedar toward northbound Cote des Neiges. This collector has recently been replaced by a pedestrian-only path as part of city-wide, pedestrian-friendly infrastructure improvements. Not so long ago, certain politicians prided themselves on aggressive street-widening projects as a "solution" to traffic congestion. How times have changed!
Photo 7: Early morning shot of streetcar route 91 heading north on 34th Ave. Lachine away from the river (seen in far left background) with either a route 191 or 196 Mack bus alongside. The street off to the right would be Fort Rolland with its parked, black (Chevy?) early 50s model. Notre Dame Ave. ends at the left out of the frame. Note the yellow with black digits 1959 Quebec license plates. Can't be sure, but the white sign on the pole may read "Nurses Entrance", which would refer to their designated access to the Lachine General Hospital located further east on Notre Dame (this facility since renamed "Centre Integre Universitaire de Sante...etc.").
Photo 10: Westbound streetcar route 17 in front of the Snowdon Barber Shop then at 5278 Queen Mary Rd., long since renovated into 5272 Scotiabank. Shot taken late 40s early 50s.
Photo 11: Streetcar route 17 southbound on Decarie Blvd. as it enters the very busy Snowdon Junction loop at Queen Mary Rd. Note the Snowdon Theatre in the rear of the shot. The venue closed in 1982.
Photo 13: Another westbound streetcar route 17 on Queen Mary approaching Decarie Route 17 trams did not normally run along Queen Mary Rd. unless presumably re-routing circumstances required them to do so.
Photo 15: A classic 1959 tail-finned Chevy alongside a northbound, Papineau Avenue route 45 streetcar directly in front of the NuWay Delicatessen then in business at 4493 Papineau just south of Mount Royal Ave. Note the Dominion supermarket in the far right of the frame, currently an Entreprise Location outlet. Dominion was Steinberg's main competitor until they both eventually closed and were bought out by other food market conglomerates.
Photo 19: Route 24 streetcars parked at the Millen Ave. terminus across from what is today the Henri Bourassa Metro.
Photo 25: PCC streetcar route 29 in the vicinity of McGill Street and Youville Square in Old Montreal. A few vintage PCCs are still in revenue in San Francisco and one in Toronto for tram fan excursions.
Photo 26: Streetcar route 14 heading west in front of 610 St. Jacques (then a Continental Life Insurance branch and currently a CIBC outlet) at the intersection of McGill Street. On the southeast corner was a former Bank of Toronto branch (later renamed the Toronto-Dominion Bank). Both of the buildings in the photo have long since been demolished and replaced. The photographer would have been standing where today the Victoria Square-OACI Metro station exit/entrance is located. Back in the day, tram route 14 ran all the way from Westmount's foot-of-Victoria Avenue's CPR train station (long since closed) to Place d'Armes in Old Montreal.
Too bad they got rid of the tram and for the past 50 years we had to smell and breath in the exhaust from the internal combustion. Fumes also increase chances of cancer according to the W.H.O.. "After three decades of epidemiologic research, diesel exhaust was classified as a carcinogen in humans by the International Agency RC" AND we make our children breath it in on their school buses.
Photo 3. M&SC Yard and Car Barn , St. Lambert facing Rue Waterman coin Fort.
Watermans Pen Factory, Left.
Line to right went to South end Harbour Bridge thru St. Lambert.
Photo 4.
MSC 601 Station along side MSC Car Barn w stairs down from Station CNR St.. Lambert where CNR Trains connected w Montreal via Victoria Bridge behind Camera after MSC Rails removed from Victoria Bridge.
Photo 7.
Car 1562 Place D'Armes Lachine 91. Car facing EAST on Broadway at 44th. Wye to Right on 44th. Once Single Track West from here West to 56th thru 1951 on Route 92.
Route 91 did NOT go to Place D'Armes after 1954 from 44th.
Route 91 removed East to Dominion Bridge from Broadway and Notre Dame in 1954.
Route 91 6th. Ave to Cote St. Paul Road until 1957 via Canadian Car and Foundry St. Pierre.
Trolley Wire West Leg of Wye onto Broadway visible above rear of Streetcar.
Water visible to left, Lac St. Louis.
Photo 9.
Snow.
Sherbrooke at Marcil looking East. Bank on corner, left.
Photo 12.
Route 93 Rembrance at Summit Loop. Car turned on Loop at Summit, as did Rte 11 from Ave du Parc via Tramways Tunnel.
Rte 93 changed Ends and Trolley at Cote de Neiges.
Photo 13.
MT 1648. Photos mid-1930s. Notice Enter Front sign.
Green two-man cars entered at Rear where Conductor was.
Thru 1957?? Cartierville 17 cars were stabled in St. Denis Car Barns and traveled West via Queen Mary to go to Snowdon at Decarie.
When Lachine Route 91 discontinued, Cartierville Cars moved to St. Henri via Girouard and Track East to St. Denis removed.
Photo 14.
MSC. 107 Combine Car. East end of track by St. Lambert Car Barns. CNR to Left.
Photo 17.
Car 2659. St. Henri Car Barn below CPR The Glen. Thru c. 1950 Doors Two Colours. Montreal Tramways Crest.
Photo 18.
M&SC Car heading for Mill St, Black's Bridge and Mc Gill St. Stn. Victoria Bridge behind pile of coal, to Left. CNR Bridge St. Stn afar where CNR Changed Steam/Electric Locomotives.
Glad you're back, M.P.I. Long time no see in here.
Thanks for clearing up photo 7. The original print would obviously have been more helpful in identifying this location as so much has changed in that area in the intervening years.
I would have got it right if the old fire house (since converted into residences and offices) on the corner of Broadway and St. Joseph had been included in the shot or at the very least if the fire hydrant on the corner of 44th Ave. had not been obscured by the tram, since water main and hydrant infrastructure is rarely changed over the decades and therefore often a precise identifier of specific locations.
The brown-bricked building on 44th--presumably along with others out-of-frame--has since been replaced by a green space. Lovell's Directory will list the history of such former dwellings.
Isn't that a yellow, circular tram and/or bus stop sign on 44th Ave. next to the black, early 50s car? I was puzzled regarding the beginning of the curving track just behind the tram's front truck which, as you say, led to a wye on 44th, but tracks on 44th itself are not obvious in the photo despite the trolley wires overhead and their shadows on the pavement.
If the 91 didn't terminate at Place d'Armes beyond 1954, why would its terminus-identifying placard still remain in the window in 1959?
Photo 9 on a blustery early-1950s winter shows the Bank of Montreal branch at 5601 Sherbrooke West (later closed and currently a vet) and a 1953 Oldsmobile being pushed out of the drifts. The commercial establishment in the left of the frame was Heller's Cigar Store at 5617. Note the partially cut off cigarette ad sign overhead which said "Player's Please" and the Toledo weigh-scale next to the telephone booth. How well I remember those light blue scales found in various locations throughout the city. Not sure what coin was required back in the day to activate them. Reliance Electric purchased Toledo in 1968 after which these type of public scales vanished from the landscape as did those familiar, self-taking photo booths.
Kristian...please bring on more of these vintage pics.
Unfortunately, I do not possess a complete collection of Montreal transit maps. Despite those currently available within the existing, online archives there are still many missing issues which have yet to be added. Hopefully this will soon be corrected.
Assuming the Mack bus in photo 7 is indeed either route 190 or 196, in what year did those bus routes commence? Email enquiries to the STM regarding such minutiae generally go unanswered. I may be obliged to visit their archives in person at some point.
Also not sure if busses ever ran simultaneously with trams and sharing the identical route number during the trams' gradual phasing-out period. Personally, I don't remember ever waiting for any tram and having a replacement bus pull up instead to the stop--assuming that was even considered practical by the MTC back in the day. Of course, any relevant memories and/or vintage photos confirming that possibility would be most welcome.
Hexagonal yellow sign? Looks more like the familiar, circa 1950s-60s version seen in the photo attachment below prior to subsequent bus stop design updates.
Here passengers are squinting into the early (likely spring or autumn) morning sun ready to board a southbound GM TDH-type bus on the then Cartierville-to-Garland Terminus route 17 seen at its stop (here shared with short route 116) on Decarie Blvd. between Morin Ave. and de l'Eglise. Note the white-digits on black 1962 license plate. The grey building in the far left of the frame on the northeast corner with Morin Avenue is the former City and District Savings Bank at 865 Decarie (currently Banque Laurentienne). Incidentally, hidden behind the bus was the Lucerne Theatre at 855 which closed in 1976 and the structure rebuilt. See:
Regarding photo 8: A Google Search revealed its identity and location (in eBay, of all places) on a postcard with its rear caption: "Montreal Transportation Commission 2-man car 2225 is westbound on a training run over the p.r.w. of the Millen carline (now Henri Bourassa Blvd.) west of the City Limits terminus. This modern steel car was built in 1929 as one of 140 in the "2100" class built by CC&F. All were scrapped 1957-58, except No. 2222 which survives at the Canadian Ry. Museum, St. Constant, Quebec. April 9, 1957 photo by Fred Angus.
Sadly, I never got to ride a Millen 24 tram, a route which was similar to the 17 Cartierville line in that they both ran on extensive private rights-of-way. Today practically nothing survives to indicate that the Millen line even existed except on the extra-wide section of the street between Sauve and Fleury where its former trackage remains beneath the pavement and on the verge of breaking through, plus the pedestrian path leading up to Ahuntsic Park; a green space created long after the line closed.
Evidently, Millen's last-day line 24 excursions were filmed by fans and exist in Exporail's archives, but yet to be released online. Recheck YouTube. Fortunately, the entire Millen line is clearly visible on the 1947-1949 aerial map.
As an aside and FYI for completist fanatics only: regarding the early-'50s photo below (about which you and others may be familiar) of route 7 tram 2196, scroll down to note my correction to the location erroneously asserted in its caption. This photo was published in Canadian Rail Magazine issue number 532. Exporail.org's archive department has been duly notified.
Unfortunately, I do not possess a complete collection of Montreal transit maps. Despite those currently available within the existing, online archives there are still many missing issues which have yet to be added. Hopefully this will soon be corrected.
Assuming the Mack bus in photo 7 is indeed either route 190 or 196, in what year did those bus routes commence? Email enquiries to the STM regarding such minutiae generally go unanswered. I may be obliged to visit their archives in person at some point.
Also not sure if busses ever ran simultaneously with trams and sharing the identical route number during the trams' gradual phasing-out period. Personally, I don't remember ever waiting for any tram and having a replacement bus pull up instead to the stop--assuming that was even considered practical by the MTC back in the day. Of course, any relevant memories and/or vintage photos confirming that possibility would be most welcome.
Hexagonal yellow sign? Looks more like the familiar, circa 1950s-60s version seen in the photo attachment below prior to subsequent bus stop design updates.
Here, passengers are squinting into the early (likely spring or autumn) morning sun ready to board a southbound GM TDH-type bus on the then Cartierville-to-Garland Terminus route 17 seen at its stop (here shared with short route 116) on Decarie Blvd. between Morin Ave. and de l'Eglise. Note the white-digits on black 1962 licence plate. The grey building in far left of the frame at the northeast corner of Morin is the former City and District Savings Bank at 865 Decarie (currently Banque Laurentienne). Incidentally, hidden behind the bus was the Lucerne Theatre at 855 Decarie which closed in 1976 and the landscape later re-imagined. See:
Regarding photo 8: A Google Search revealed its identity and location (in eBay, of all places) as a postcard with its rear caption: "Montreal Transportation Commission 2-man car 2225 is westbound on a training run over the p.r.w. of the Millen carline (now Henri Bourassa Blvd.) west of the City Limits terminus. This modern steel car was built in 1929 as one of 140 in the "2100" class built by CC&F. All were scrapped 1957-58, except No. 2222 which survives at the Canaddian Ry. Museum, St. Constant, Quebec. April 9, 1957 photo by Fred Angus.
Sadly, I never got to ride a Millen 24 tram, a route which was similar to the 17 Cartierville line in that they both ran on extensive private rights-of-way. Today practically nothing survives to indicate that the Millen line even existed except on the extra-wide section of the street between Sauve and Fleury where its former trackage remains beneath the pavement and gradually breaking through, plus the pedestrian path leading up to Ahunstic Park, a green space created long after the line closed. Evidently, last-day tram excursions were filmed by fans and exist in Exporail's archives yet to be released online. Recheck YouTube. Fortunately, the entire Millen line is clearly visible on the 1947-1949 aerial map.
As an aside and FYI for completist fanatics only: regarding the early-'50s photo below (about which you and others may be familiar) of route 7 tram 2196, scroll down to note my correction to the location erroneously asserted in its caption. This photo was published in Canadian Rail Magazine issue number 532. Exporail.org's archive department has been duly notified.
Love to get comments! Please, please, please speak your mind ! Links welcome - please google "how to embed a link" it'll make your comment much more fun and clickable.
Identifying specific geographic locations without the luxury of being able to access the original photo prints or negatives makes it tricky if not impossible to read and/or guess telltale street names, business addresses, tram and bus route numbers, etc. Ongoing, relentless urban renewal has either obliterated or otherwise rendered many of these locations unidentifiable, but I'll wade, anyway, to offer my two cents worth. Other old-timers and urban researchers are of course welcome to add their input, corrections, and personal memories.
ReplyDeletePhoto 5: The golden chariot, tourist-season streetcar is here heading south on Cote des Neiges Rd. just where Cedar Avenue intersects. Behind the fence in the background was the longtime (built about 1955) handy collector for vehicles heading southbound from Cedar toward northbound Cote des Neiges. This collector has recently been replaced by a pedestrian-only path as part of city-wide, pedestrian-friendly infrastructure improvements. Not so long ago, certain politicians prided themselves on aggressive street-widening projects as a "solution" to traffic congestion. How times have changed!
Photo 7: Early morning shot of streetcar route 91 heading north on 34th Ave. Lachine away from the river (seen in far left background) with either a route 191 or 196 Mack bus alongside. The street off to the right would be Fort Rolland with its parked, black (Chevy?) early 50s model. Notre Dame Ave. ends at the left out of the frame. Note the yellow with black digits 1959 Quebec license plates. Can't be sure, but the white sign on the pole may read "Nurses Entrance", which would refer to their designated access to the Lachine General Hospital located further east on Notre Dame (this facility since renamed "Centre Integre Universitaire de Sante...etc.").
Photo 10: Westbound streetcar route 17 in front of the Snowdon Barber Shop then at 5278 Queen Mary Rd., long since renovated into 5272 Scotiabank. Shot taken late 40s early 50s.
Photo 11: Streetcar route 17 southbound on Decarie Blvd. as it enters the very busy Snowdon Junction loop at Queen Mary Rd. Note the Snowdon Theatre in the rear of the shot. The venue closed in 1982.
Photo 13: Another westbound streetcar route 17 on Queen Mary approaching Decarie Route 17 trams did not normally run along Queen Mary Rd. unless presumably re-routing circumstances required them to do so.
Photo 15: A classic 1959 tail-finned Chevy alongside a northbound, Papineau Avenue route 45 streetcar directly in front of the NuWay Delicatessen then in business at 4493 Papineau just south of Mount Royal Ave. Note the Dominion supermarket in the far right of the frame, currently an Entreprise Location outlet. Dominion was Steinberg's main competitor until they both eventually closed and were bought out by other food market conglomerates.
Photo 19: Route 24 streetcars parked at the Millen Ave. terminus across from what is today the Henri Bourassa Metro.
Photo 25: PCC streetcar route 29 in the vicinity of McGill Street and Youville Square in Old Montreal. A few vintage PCCs are still in revenue in San Francisco and one in Toronto for tram fan excursions.
Photo 26: Streetcar route 14 heading west in front of 610 St. Jacques (then a Continental Life Insurance branch and currently a CIBC outlet) at the intersection of McGill Street. On the southeast corner was a former Bank of Toronto branch (later renamed the Toronto-Dominion Bank). Both of the buildings in the photo have long since been demolished and replaced. The photographer would have been standing where today the Victoria Square-OACI Metro station exit/entrance is located. Back in the day, tram route 14 ran all the way from Westmount's foot-of-Victoria Avenue's CPR train station (long since closed) to Place d'Armes in Old Montreal.
Too bad they got rid of the tram and for the past 50 years we had to smell and breath in the exhaust from the internal combustion. Fumes also increase chances of cancer according to the W.H.O.. "After three decades of epidemiologic research, diesel exhaust was classified as a carcinogen in humans by the International Agency RC" AND we make our children breath it in on their school buses.
ReplyDeleteVery good pics.
ReplyDeleteCoolopolis
ReplyDeletePhoto 3. M&SC Yard and Car Barn , St. Lambert facing Rue Waterman coin Fort.
Watermans Pen Factory, Left.
Line to right went to South end Harbour Bridge thru St. Lambert.
Photo 4.
MSC 601 Station along side MSC Car Barn w stairs down from Station CNR
St.. Lambert where CNR Trains connected w Montreal via Victoria Bridge behind Camera after
MSC Rails removed from Victoria Bridge.
Photo 7.
Car 1562 Place D'Armes Lachine 91. Car facing EAST on Broadway at 44th. Wye to Right
on 44th. Once Single Track West from here West to 56th thru 1951 on Route 92.
Route 91 did NOT go to Place D'Armes after 1954 from 44th.
Route 91 removed East to Dominion Bridge from Broadway and
Notre Dame in 1954.
Route 91 6th. Ave to Cote St. Paul Road until 1957 via Canadian Car and Foundry St. Pierre.
Trolley Wire West Leg of Wye onto Broadway visible above rear of Streetcar.
Water visible to left, Lac St. Louis.
Photo 9.
Snow.
Sherbrooke at Marcil looking East. Bank on corner, left.
Photo 12.
Route 93 Rembrance at Summit Loop. Car turned on Loop at Summit, as did Rte 11
from Ave du Parc via Tramways Tunnel.
Rte 93 changed Ends and Trolley at Cote de Neiges.
Photo 13.
MT 1648. Photos mid-1930s. Notice Enter Front sign.
Green two-man cars entered at Rear where Conductor was.
Thru 1957?? Cartierville 17 cars were stabled in St. Denis Car Barns and traveled
West via Queen Mary to go to Snowdon at Decarie.
When Lachine Route 91 discontinued, Cartierville Cars moved to St. Henri via Girouard
and Track East to St. Denis removed.
Photo 14.
MSC. 107 Combine Car. East end of track by St. Lambert Car Barns. CNR to Left.
Photo 17.
Car 2659. St. Henri Car Barn below CPR The Glen. Thru c. 1950 Doors Two Colours.
Montreal Tramways Crest.
Photo 18.
M&SC Car heading for Mill St, Black's Bridge and Mc Gill St. Stn. Victoria Bridge
behind pile of coal, to Left. CNR Bridge St. Stn afar where CNR Changed Steam/Electric
Locomotives.
Photo 20.
Cars 2080 2067.
Terminus Emile Journault. Route 24. Remnant St. Denis Rte 24 1953-1959.
Crossover. Motormen changed ends , track and trolley.
Photo 24.
Car 1204 Cote St Yard near Terminus Craig.
Photo 28.
MSC 103
St. Lambert Car Barns. CNR St Lambert Stn, Right. Looking East.
Steps right connecting to CNR Trains ex/to Central Station.
Next. Chambly Transport.
Thank You.
Glad you're back, M.P.I. Long time no see in here.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clearing up photo 7. The original print would obviously have been more helpful in identifying this location as so much has changed in that area in the intervening years.
I would have got it right if the old fire house (since converted into residences and offices) on the corner of Broadway and St. Joseph had been included in the shot or at the very least if the fire hydrant on the corner of 44th Ave. had not been obscured by the tram, since water main and hydrant infrastructure is rarely changed over the decades and therefore often a precise identifier of specific locations.
The brown-bricked building on 44th--presumably along with others out-of-frame--has since been replaced by a green space. Lovell's Directory will list the history of such former dwellings.
Isn't that a yellow, circular tram and/or bus stop sign on 44th Ave. next to the black, early 50s car? I was puzzled regarding the beginning of the curving track just behind the tram's front truck which, as you say, led to a wye on 44th, but tracks on 44th itself are not obvious in the photo despite the trolley wires overhead and their shadows on the pavement.
If the 91 didn't terminate at Place d'Armes beyond 1954, why would its terminus-identifying placard still remain in the window in 1959?
Photo 9 on a blustery early-1950s winter shows the Bank of Montreal branch at 5601 Sherbrooke West (later closed and currently a vet) and a 1953 Oldsmobile being pushed out of the drifts. The commercial establishment in the left of the frame was Heller's Cigar Store at 5617. Note the partially cut off cigarette ad sign overhead which said "Player's Please" and the Toledo weigh-scale next to the telephone booth. How well I remember those light blue scales found in various locations throughout the city. Not sure what coin was required back in the day to activate them. Reliance Electric purchased Toledo in 1968 after which these type of public scales vanished from the landscape as did those familiar, self-taking photo booths.
Kristian...please bring on more of these vintage pics.
Rte 92 Lachine Extension Operated from 56th East to 44th from Oct 25, 1925
ReplyDeletethru April 29th 1951. Single Track.
Route 91 Lachine Operated from 44th East to Place d'Armes thru Nov 7 1954,
when Service cut back East from 44th to 6th. at Dominion Bridge.
Tree now in Tail of Wye in DB Yard.
Route 91 East from 6th to Cote St. Paul Rd. thru Aug. 10 1958.
As Wyes at BOTH Ends of Routes, Green two-man cars required so Conductor could see
when Car Backing.
Black on Yellow Licence Plates 1954 AND 1959.
http://www.worldlicenseplates.com/jpglps/CN_QUEB_GI3.jpg
Thank You.
Suggest sign is HEXAGONAL.
Noted: 1954 black on yellow license plates.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I do not possess a complete collection of Montreal transit maps. Despite those currently available within the existing, online archives there are still many missing issues which have yet to be added. Hopefully this will soon be corrected.
Assuming the Mack bus in photo 7 is indeed either route 190 or 196, in what year did those bus routes commence? Email enquiries to the STM regarding such minutiae generally go unanswered. I may be obliged to visit their archives in person at some point.
Also not sure if busses ever ran simultaneously with trams and sharing the identical route number during the trams' gradual phasing-out period. Personally, I don't remember ever waiting for any tram and having a replacement bus pull up instead to the stop--assuming that was even considered practical by the MTC back in the day. Of course, any relevant memories and/or vintage photos confirming that possibility would be most welcome.
Hexagonal yellow sign? Looks more like the familiar, circa 1950s-60s version seen in the photo attachment below prior to subsequent bus stop design updates.
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/ptrni9/montreal_bus_stop_1970/
Here passengers are squinting into the early (likely spring or autumn) morning sun ready to board a southbound GM TDH-type bus on the then Cartierville-to-Garland Terminus route 17 seen at its stop (here shared with short route 116) on Decarie Blvd. between Morin Ave. and de l'Eglise. Note the white-digits on black 1962 license plate. The grey building in the far left of the frame on the northeast corner with Morin Avenue is the former City and District Savings Bank at 865 Decarie (currently Banque Laurentienne). Incidentally, hidden behind the bus was the Lucerne Theatre at 855 which closed in 1976 and the structure rebuilt. See:
https://journalmetro.com/local/saint-laurent/1216500/demolitions-lucerne-theatre-855-decarie-velan-ward/
Regarding photo 8: A Google Search revealed its identity and location (in eBay, of all places) on a postcard with its rear caption: "Montreal Transportation Commission 2-man car 2225 is westbound on a training run over the p.r.w. of the Millen carline (now Henri Bourassa Blvd.) west of the City Limits terminus. This modern steel car was built in 1929 as one of 140 in the "2100" class built by CC&F. All were scrapped 1957-58, except No. 2222 which survives at the Canadian Ry. Museum, St. Constant, Quebec. April 9, 1957 photo by Fred Angus.
Sadly, I never got to ride a Millen 24 tram, a route which was similar to the 17 Cartierville line in that they both ran on extensive private rights-of-way. Today practically nothing survives to indicate that the Millen line even existed except on the extra-wide section of the street between Sauve and Fleury where its former trackage remains beneath the pavement and on the verge of breaking through, plus the pedestrian path leading up to Ahuntsic Park; a green space created long after the line closed.
Evidently, Millen's last-day line 24 excursions were filmed by fans and exist in Exporail's archives, but yet to be released online. Recheck YouTube. Fortunately, the entire Millen line is clearly visible on the 1947-1949 aerial map.
As an aside and FYI for completist fanatics only: regarding the early-'50s photo below (about which you and others may be familiar) of route 7 tram 2196, scroll down to note my correction to the location erroneously asserted in its caption. This photo was published in Canadian Rail Magazine issue number 532. Exporail.org's archive department has been duly notified.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/194193876@N08/51607486283/in/dateposted-public/
Noted: 1954 black on yellow licence plates.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I do not possess a complete collection of Montreal transit maps. Despite those currently available within the existing, online archives there are still many missing issues which have yet to be added. Hopefully this will soon be corrected.
Assuming the Mack bus in photo 7 is indeed either route 190 or 196, in what year did those bus routes commence? Email enquiries to the STM regarding such minutiae generally go unanswered. I may be obliged to visit their archives in person at some point.
Also not sure if busses ever ran simultaneously with trams and sharing the identical route number during the trams' gradual phasing-out period. Personally, I don't remember ever waiting for any tram and having a replacement bus pull up instead to the stop--assuming that was even considered practical by the MTC back in the day. Of course, any relevant memories and/or vintage photos confirming that possibility would be most welcome.
Hexagonal yellow sign? Looks more like the familiar, circa 1950s-60s version seen in the photo attachment below prior to subsequent bus stop design updates.
https://www.reddit.com/r/OldSchoolCool/comments/ptrni9/montreal_bus_stop_1970/
Here, passengers are squinting into the early (likely spring or autumn) morning sun ready to board a southbound GM TDH-type bus on the then Cartierville-to-Garland Terminus route 17 seen at its stop (here shared with short route 116) on Decarie Blvd. between Morin Ave. and de l'Eglise. Note the white-digits on black 1962 licence plate. The grey building in far left of the frame at the northeast corner of Morin is the former City and District Savings Bank at 865 Decarie (currently Banque Laurentienne). Incidentally, hidden behind the bus was the Lucerne Theatre at 855 Decarie which closed in 1976 and the landscape later re-imagined. See:
https://journalmetro.com/local/saint-laurent/1216500/demolitions-lucerne-theatre-855-decarie-velan-ward/
Regarding photo 8: A Google Search revealed its identity and location (in eBay, of all places) as a postcard with its rear caption: "Montreal Transportation Commission 2-man car 2225 is westbound on a training run over the p.r.w. of the Millen carline (now Henri Bourassa Blvd.) west of the City Limits terminus. This modern steel car was built in 1929 as one of 140 in the "2100" class built by CC&F. All were scrapped 1957-58, except No. 2222 which survives at the Canaddian Ry. Museum, St. Constant, Quebec. April 9, 1957 photo by Fred Angus.
Sadly, I never got to ride a Millen 24 tram, a route which was similar to the 17 Cartierville line in that they both ran on extensive private rights-of-way. Today practically nothing survives to indicate that the Millen line even existed except on the extra-wide section of the street between Sauve and Fleury where its former trackage remains beneath the pavement and gradually breaking through, plus the pedestrian path leading up to Ahunstic Park, a green space created long after the line closed. Evidently, last-day tram excursions were filmed by fans and exist in Exporail's archives yet to be released online. Recheck YouTube. Fortunately, the entire Millen line is clearly visible on the 1947-1949 aerial map.
As an aside and FYI for completist fanatics only: regarding the early-'50s photo below (about which you and others may be familiar) of route 7 tram 2196, scroll down to note my correction to the location erroneously asserted in its caption. This photo was published in Canadian Rail Magazine issue number 532. Exporail.org's archive department has been duly notified.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/194193876@N08/51607486283/in/dateposted-public/