rfmcdonald | [PHOTO] Davisville Station

The Davisville TTC station, located on the Yonge leg of the Yonge-University-Spadina subway line, is a station, 52 years old, that is notable for being open to the air and for hosting the Davisville Yards.

The Davisville Yard was solely responsible for the storage of Toronto’s subway trains from 1954 through to 1966 when the Greenwood Yards opened. The yard had ample room to handle the fleet, and some maintenance facilities (although some work still had to be handled at Hillcrest Shops). Davisville remained a hub of subway activity even after the larger Wilson yards were opened in 1978. Davisville’s influence on the Yonge-University-Spadina subway waned, but hardly vanished.

The third platform on the opposite side of the southbound service tracks was often used by passengers lucky enough to arrive just as a rush-hour extra was pressed into service. Davisville station is, of course, the only subway station on the system with an extra platform like that. In the days when trains ran two cars shorter on most evenings and Sundays, the third track would be used to separate the last two cars of service trains. Trains would take the third track after having their last two cars isolated at Finch station so that their lights were off and their doors wouldn’t open. Upon arrival at Davisville, a TTC worker would enter the rear cab of the third-last car, while another worker would cross over to the second last car and enter its cab. A third person would unhook the two cars at platform level while a fourth would go under the train and unhook the hoses. The Uncouple buttons would be pressed in the two cabs, and the rear two cars reversed a few inches. The leading cars would then leave Davisville, in service, returning to the southbound track, while the disconnected cars drew up slowly behind, waiting to take the yard track. Mark Brader recollects that, often, the driver of the service train would forget that he was driving a short train for the rest of his trip, and would continue to make stops at the station markers for full-length trains.

The light can flow nicely into Davisville from the south.