Friday, March 22, 2019

TTC 1943 Route Map


My father obtained this wartime map of Toronto Transportation [sic] Commission routes in 1943 - the printing date of October 1943 can be seen on the last map image. 

I suspect my father was visiting Toronto with his dairy farmer grandfather from Lachute, Quebec. The latter was probably showing cattle at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. Quoting from a cousin's memory of a similar trips to The Royal in the 1950s, the livestock may have travelled by 'boxcar', accompanied by farm personnel as riders. 

In addition to showing the usual attractions, the map is of historical interest because it shows the locations of organizations supporting military personnel in training and/or travelling through Toronto.

As you have likely noticed with other wartime publications shown on this blog, the printing and folding of this map was not done to perfection. With wartime demands and limits on the usual materials and workers ... you can imagine that quickly printing a great number of these maps for all those coming to Toronto was an exercise in quantity rather than quality.




The location key below is also reproduced with the city-wide maps farther below.
It shows organizations supporting service personnel and their families.






The city-wide map is posted in two halves to give you the most legible presentation,
while compensating for the idiosyncrasies of the Google blogging platform.
Bloor Street and its neighbouring streets are duplicated on both images.

You will notice that streetcar turning loops are shown for each line.
As usual, please scroll to the right to see the entire image.





Considering the route map's era,
a couple of examples of the latest technology are shown below.

from: Wheels of Progress; 1953; Toronto Transportation Commission.

' ... since the complete rehabilitation of the system in 1923. ... Outstanding among the achievements of these years was the introduction, in the Fall of 1938, of 140 new streamlined street cars that completely revolutionized all former ideas of street car design and performance.'


from: Wheels of Progress; 1953; Toronto Transportation Commission.