smallspy
Senior Member
I checked my facts there first, but am I right to read that the grand unions weren’t there in the 1963 diagram?
The Grand Unions on Spadina were only built there as part of the rebuilding of the trackage for the "Spadina LRT" in the late 1990s. None of the historical trackage - much of it was in poor shape, anyways - was kept.
Bathurst and King was probably upgraded in the late 1970s. Before then, the cars were based out of Wychwood, and so there wasn't a need for an east-to-south curve at King. But once Wychwood closed Bathurst cars were then based out of Roncesvalles, and the only direction that the cars could take to enter service was north onto Bathurst from King - and then turn around at Wolesley Loop just north of Queen. (Unless they wanted to go via a circuitous route via north on Roncesvalles and east on Dundas.) Adding that one missing curve - which caused it to become a Grand Union - also allowed cars to enter service in a more straightforward manner.
Dan