An interurban, operated by the Canadian National Railway, descending into the Don Valley, near Gerrard.

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A much more direct route was established when the Canadian Northern Ontario Railway opened between Toronto and Parry Sound in 1906. In the 1920s, Canadian National established a motor car service between Toronto and Beaverton. Storage Battery Car No. 15801 is seen descending the Don Valley in 1922. To the right of it, the Gerrard Street bridge is being rebuilt.

Motor cars were more economical to operate than conventional steam trains. CN stabled a large variety of them using different technologies throughout their vast system over the years to service lightly traveled or off-peak passenger service. Motor cars based in Toronto ran to Oakville, South Parry, Weston and Hamilton. CN also operated a service between Lindsay, Beaverton and Midland until the late 1950s. There were about 15 storage-battery cars, all of which were retired by the 1940s. The limited range of the batteries proved to be a problem, one that still plagues battery technology today. Other types of self-propelled motor cars operated into the 1950s, when their role was taken over by the much more successful Rail Diesel Cars built by the Budd Company. Even GO Transit tried using self-propelled coaches in its first few years of operation until they were deemed unsuitable for the heavy passenger traffic along the Lakeshore. It's likely that similar cars will be used for the Union Station-Pearson Airport Express when it's finally established.

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This image is available from the City of Toronto Archives, listed under the archival citation Fonds 1230, item 1022. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information. العربيَّة | Deutsch | English | suomi | français | magyar | македонски | Nederlands | português | +/−