07/01/2024
Happy Canada Day!
For this Canada Day we'll be spotlighting a part of Canadian History!
The Montreal Tramways Youville Shops!
1911 was a year of frantic activity as for as urban transportation in Montreal, Canada, was concerned. The Montreal Tramways Company had just been formed and an ambitious expansion program was being considered. It was in this generally progressive atmosphere that the construction of the Montreal Tramways' Youville Shops began. Parts of this complex are still
standing today.
The main building itself, built of brick on concrete foundations, was essentially composed of two units, separated by a streetcar transfer table, all under a single roof, an unusual practice in those days. The car-transfer table itself was 70 feet 8 inches long and operated in a runway 346 feet long, on three standard-gauge tracks laid with 80-pound rails on a cinder floor. The southern half of the building was devoted to the Overhauling Department and its associated trades: hoist, wheel-and-axle, blacksmith, machine and armature shops. The other half was mainly devoted to car-body work and included a mill space and erecting and paint shops.
Of the 17 tracks leading south off the transfer table, 12 were
equipped with car-hoists, an innovation in those days. These were basically a pair of I-beams, each 30 feet long, running parallel to
the track, which could be raised or lowered through a system of
drives hafts and worm-and-bevel gears, each pair of such hoists being activated by motors with one double-throw controller.
To complete the equipment in each of these bays, all tracks
provided with a hoist also had an inner pit, 87 feet 10 inches long,
with a 4-foot-gauge track running full length, on which trolleys could travel back and forth. The motors and undergear of the cars being serviced could be lowered onto these trolleys by means of a swiveling jib-crane, each serving two adjacent pits. This combination of hoist, pit, trolley and jib-crane, provided for every possible assembly and dismantling operation one could think of.
The machine shop was spread over a 71 x l00-foot area, with the
usual lathes, drills and cutters driven by overhead shafting. Two
compressors, provided air. As for the armature shop, operations were based on assembly-line processing, by means of a belt-line overhead trolley. As in the case of the wheels and axles, armatures
were brought from a track connection with the transfer table, pick-
ed up as required, repaired and removed, all in a constant forward
movement. Treating of the armature was carried out in the adjacent
impregnating room, which had two tanks for that purpose.
On the other side of the transfer table, the body-work section was divided from the rest of the shop by a corrugated iron partition
on account of the flammable nature of the materials used. A similar
wall separated the paint shop from the erecting and mill shops. In
the latter, equipment driveshafts and exhaust blowers were located
in a shallow basement, thereby optimizing efficiency. Four tracks
with pits 66 feet long were also located in this section.
The paint shop was the largest department, where the major portion of car overhauling, repainting and brightening was undertaken. The paint finishing shop in the northeast area was responsible for painting, glazing and varnishing removable parts, such as sashes and doors. The paint mixing area was located appropriately outside the main building, to which it was linked by a covered passageway.
The general stores department was actually a two-story wing,
located at the west end of the transfer table, the upper floor including the offices of the Rolling Stock Superintendent and the
General Storekeeper, while the main floor was arranged with tiers
of bins and drawers for smaller components and also a huge vault,35 by 18 feet, for blueprint and pattern storage.
Originally, a track leading to the power house crossed this area, by which store-cars could be brought directly into the building for loading and unloading of parts. This access was discontinued in 1928, when a new track for these operations was added, in the
recess immediately east of the said wing, to avoid congestion within the building and the attendant possibility of injury to the employees.
It should be remembered that Youville Shops were intended mainly as car assembly and repair facilities. Nevertheless, some cars were built completely here. To mention a few, there were observation cars Numbers 3 and 4, wartime cars Numbers 1175 through 1178, as well as a variety of special purpose cars, work cars, electric locomotives and snow-fighting vehicles.
With the opening of Legendre Street in 1958, Youville Yard was split in two and both halves alongside that street were fenced, while
streetcars designated for destruction had to be carried by crane and float into the northern portion of the yard, as trackage had
been severed between the two portions.
The main building at Youville Shops was now being used to per-
form trolleybus maintenance operations and to provide shelter for the vehicles in the MTC historical collection which were reserved
for preservation and future display in a museum. The shop transfer
table represented the last remnant for possible streetcar operation
in the City of Montreal.
The last chapter in the history of Youville Shops as a whole was written in 1963, when discussions regarding Montreal's projected METRO subway were in the offing. It was concluded that most of
the buildings at Youville would logically have to be torn down, to
make way for the new METRO Shops and Garage. Consequently, the MTC historic streetcar collection was moved out between June 11 and 17 of that year and demolition of Youville Shops, save for the southwest wing, was completed some weeks later, hastened by a fire which broke out during the demolition.
Thus the streetcar epoch ended and the METRO era began at You-
ville Shops, a proud continuation of some fifty years of usefulness. The appearance of Mr. Bickerdike's farm on Chemin Vervais had changed remarkably in half-a-century and, with the completion of METRO in Montreal, would continue to change. How Youville Shops became Plateau Youville and what has happened in more recent years is another interesting story.
All Photos and Information was found in Canadian Rail Issue No. 279 from April 1975.
