{"id":5544,"date":"2009-07-16T18:44:26","date_gmt":"2009-07-16T22:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=5544"},"modified":"2013-01-21T15:22:47","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T20:22:47","slug":"throwback-thursday-the-belt-line-railway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/07\/16\/throwback-thursday-the-belt-line-railway\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback Thursday: The Belt Line Railway"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Every Thursday, Spacing will bring you a snapshot of Toronto’s past, looking into what took place that day in the city’s history. Throwback Thursday will address how the city has evolved, with an emphasis on issues that remain relevant for development in Toronto today.<\/em><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

On this day in 1889, the newly established Belt Line Railway held its inaugural meeting.\u00a0 The doomed railway would only run from 1892-1894, falling victim to both the 1893 depression and the faster, more direct Toronto Street Railway.<\/p>\n

With two loops, the Belt Line Railway was to provide public transit service to Toronto’s suburban communities.\u00a0 The east loop started at Union station, ran east until turning north along the Don River, passing the Don Valley Brickworks, up through Moore Park Ravine and along the northern edge of Mount Pleasant Cemetery.\u00a0 Crossing over Yonge Street and what is now the Davisville Subway yards, the loop continued northwest until Spadina, where it intersected with Eglinton Ave. W and turned west, eventually meeting up with the Grand Trunk railway tracks just west of Caledonia Road.\u00a0 From their the route circled south back to Union Station.
\n<\/p>\n

The west loop was slightly shorter, also beginning at Union station but running west along Lake Ontario until Swansea, where it turned north at the Humber River following a route similar to the South Kingsway. The tracks turned east at Lambton, paralleling St. Clair West just north of the street until eventually meeting with the Grand Trunk lines at Caledonia which led it back to Union Station.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

By July 1892, stream trains were running around each loop six times a day, charging five cents per station to a maximum of 25 cents.\u00a0 When it opened, the line became popular for middle class Torontonians, who took Sunday-afternoon trips along the Belt Line for a taste of the dramatic countryside.\u00a0 Real estate brokers were also frequent riders, using the line to show off the striking landscape surrounding the city to land speculators looking for development projects.<\/p>\n

Now home to some of Toronto’s most prosperous neighbourhoods, it’s possible that the individuals who would go on to divide up and develop parts of Rosedale, Moore Park, Forest Hill, Bloor West and Swansea got their inspiration from a Sunday afternoon trip along the Belt Line Railway.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The photo above is the Moore Park stop, the Belt Line’s showpiece station. John Thomas Moore personally oversaw the station’s design and construction and is largely responsible for its grandeur.\u00a0 Being both a key stakeholder in the Belt Line Railway and major developer of Moore Park, Moore was looking to attract not only riders, but residents.<\/p>\n

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Despite its brief existence, the Belt Line Railway, unlike many other long-gone streetcar lines in Toronto, is remarkably well imprinted on the city’s modern urban landscape. Its off-road routes have largely escaped any major redevelopment and remain visible on Google Maps even in sections where the tracks were removed almost a century ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The loops are also memorialized through the concerted efforts of Torontonians who continue to make use of the lines.\u00a0 Although the Kay Gardner Beltline Park<\/a> is the most well-known instance, the Don Valley section of the eastern loop is now a gravel bike trail<\/a>.\u00a0 Parks also dot the east-west line running north of St. Clair West along the western loop, including Gaffney Park and the St Clair Gardens.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Although both lines were formerly filled with stations – based on the fee system, the more stops the train made, the more money the trip costed – now only one station still stands<\/span> none now remain.\u00a0 Although not part of the Belt Line Railway, the Don Valley<\/span> Station<\/a>, built in 1896 on the sight of the Belt Line’s closed Queen Street East stop, still exists as a reminder of the era.\u00a0 First relocated to Todmorden Mills<\/a>, the Don Station now resides on the John Street Roundhouse<\/a> site as part of the Toronto Railway Heritage Centre<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more information on the Belt Line Railway, see:
\n• Toronto Railway Historical Society<\/a>
\n• Lost Rivers Website
\n<\/a>• Don Watcher Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos from <\/em>the Toronto Railway Historical Society<\/a><\/em> and the Toronto Archives<\/a> in order of appearance: (Fonds 1244,\u00a0 File 1244, Item 1109), (Fonds 1244, File 1244, Item 1109c), (Fonds 1231, File 1231, Item 1419), (Fonds 1231, File 1231, Item 1684). <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every Thursday, Spacing will bring you a snapshot of Toronto’s past, looking into what took place that day in the city’s history. Throwback Thursday will address how the city has evolved, with an emphasis on issues that remain relevant for development in Toronto today. – – – – – – – – – – –Continue reading “Throwback Thursday: The Belt Line Railway”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21759,24,8],"tags":[1349,2031,12537,1011,12747,12745,851,1109,2520,12746,1182,3333,316,6325,5562,98,19,12538,12744,647],"class_list":["post-5544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","category-history","category-transit","tag-cent","tag-don-river","tag-don-station","tag-don-valley","tag-don-valley-station","tag-don-watcher","tag-forest-hill","tag-google","tag-humber-river","tag-john-thomas-moore","tag-lake-ontario","tag-mount-pleasant-cemetery","tag-queen","tag-real-estate-brokers","tag-swansea","tag-throwback-thursdays","tag-toronto","tag-toronto-railway-heritage-centre","tag-toronto-railway-historical-society","tag-union-station"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThrowback Thursday: The Belt Line Railway - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2009\/07\/16\/throwback-thursday-the-belt-line-railway\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Throwback Thursday: The Belt Line Railway - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Every Thursday, Spacing will bring you a snapshot of Toronto’s past, looking into what took place that day in the city’s history. 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