TTC Bus from 1937

September 2009

Dear Coupler,

I received my August Coupler and my eyes went directly to the photograph on the Back Page. I’m very familiar with the former bus loop at Bloor and Jane as I lived in the west end during the late 40s and was a delivery boy for the Tamblyn Drug Store pictured in the photo. Yes, drug stores as they were called in those days, had delivery boys.

I am also very familiar with the bus type pictured in the photo as they operated on the Runnymede route, which operated from Bloor and Runnymede via Runnymede Road, Annette Street and Mavety Street to Keele and Dundas back then. This was before the introduction of the Annette trolley coach and the Dupont bus.

I think you will find that the bus pictured in the photo is Twin Coach 591, which was a group of 30 Twin Coach 23-Rs (23-passenger capacity) introduced in 1936 and 1937. The diesel-electrics referred to in the photo caption were Gray Coach buses 648 and 649 that were received in 1937.

If you compare the photograph of one of these buses in the August 1937 Coupler with the photo in last month’s Coupler you will find the diesel-electrics were slightly larger and, as indicated, had a seating capacity of 33 passengers.

I remember riding the diesel-electrics on the Eaton's Inter-Store Service, which operated between the main store at Yonge and Queen and the College Street store. These buses also operated on the Hill extra fare coach route (two TTC tickets) during rush hours Monday to Friday.

B. E.
Thornhill