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Darkstar's Doors Open 2009 (Saturday)

JasonParis

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Here's our Doors Open adventures from last weekend...

We began around 09:30 on Saturday morning by getting into the massive line-up at the Don Jail.
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By 10:00 the line went around the building and all the way to Broadview.
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Needless to say, we never got in the Don Jail. After waiting 90 minutes, a volunteer informed us that we'd have to wait at least another four hours! We left and decided to book a "Don By NIght" tour sometime this summer. They are $25 and info can be found here.
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The clubhouse for the former St. Matthew's Lawn Bowling Club. The club has closed in anticipation of the Riverdale Hospital redevelopment, and the clubhouse is being moved to a spot in the park fronting on Broadview (I think).
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We did get what may be our final picture of Riverdale Hospital's "half round" which will soon be razed as part of Bridgepoint Hospital's redevelopment for the site.
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Then it was further east with our bikes to the TTC Greenwood maintenance facility.
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You enter the facility in a similar way to entering a subway station.
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A poster inside the TTC's Greenwood Maintenance Shop.
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The TTC's Greenwood Maintenance Shop...
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Some surplus steel wheels for the Scarborough RT.
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A raised subway car undergoing maintenance work.
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The "Deadman's Switch" that operators uses to control subway trains.
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The "black box" of the subway world.
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An air compressor for H1 subway cars.
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A streetcar air compressor (used to help the vehicle brake).
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Old subway doors.
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TTC's Greenwood Maintenance Shop (cont.)
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Surplus seats!
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The paint shop.
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The sanding shop. Apparently this car was involved in a derailment in Davisville Yard.
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A diesel-powered snow clearing vehicle.
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A flatbed subway workcar.
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Greenwood Shop is one of two heavy repair and overhaul facilities in the Rail Cars and Shops Department. The other facility is Harvey Shop located in the Hillcrest Complex (part of Doors Open two years ago).
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A T1 truck upon which the T1 cars ride upon.
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The Greenwood Maintenance Shop's time card board.
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A close-up of an H4 truck.
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We then headed to a building that I used to live quite close to, but have actually never been inside. It has had many uses over the year (including being the stables for Toronto's original horse-powered streetcars), but since the 1970s has been home to the Lorraine Kisma Theatre for Young People (LKTYP).
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Looking down through the lobby of the LKTYP.
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The props room under the theatre.
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The props are meticulously labelled.
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The carpentry shop is also located under the theatre.
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Then it was over to the west-end for the old McGregor Socks Factory which was recently restored and renovated using LEED Gold techniques by the Stantec Engineering & Architectural Firm.
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Both the original factory (early 1900s I think) and the addition (1930s) were part of the redevelopment.
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The 1930's wing of McGregor Sock's (now Stantec).
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Inside Stantec.
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Stantec (cont.)
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The facility is decked out in all the latest green innovations from no VOCs on site, bicycle storage, showering facilities, blinds controlled by daylight sensors, LED task lighting, ergonomic workstations, etc.
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The dividers are made from salvaged wood from Toronto's long-buried Queen's Wharf that a local condominium project accidentally dug up.
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Queen's Wharf dividers (cont.)
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Stantec (cont.)
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Part of attaining LEED Gold certification requires getting the maximum natural light into the building as possible. Therefore, the window offices aren't for the bosses, but for open concept board rooms. Also, all the board rooms, in keeping with the building's history, are named (and patterned) after a sock design.
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Stantec (cont.)
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The Stantec employee's cafe.
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Continued in Sunday.
 
Last edited:
Doors Open Toronto 2009...

DK416: Good pics of venues during Doors Open 2009!
Judging by the lines at the Don Jail it's highly successful!
Those Greenwood Shops TTC pics are rather interesting and it was a perfect time for "open house" there.
I would have enjoyed the Doors Open 2009 Toronto festival and I would definitely attend in the future if I could...LI MIKE
 
Darkstar---I'm coming to this thread kind of late, but thank's for sharing. I especially like the subway maintenance pictures.
 

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