Toronto ALRV preserved

As shown above in a photo from the Halton County Radial Railway Facebook page (no log-in required), the museum has acquired an ALRV - or Articulated Light Rail Vehicle - from Toronto. The car, TTC 4204, arrived yesterday at the museum and has supposedly already been powered up and operated at the museum. Of course, it's the latest addition to the PNAERC list.

This ALRV was built in 1988, which makes it the second-newest piece of equipment on the list, and is a two-car articulated car of a general design common to light rail vehicles. It is the first car on the list built by UTDC and the first - though surely not the last - Toronto surface car from the post-PCC era to be put on the list. The ALRVs were a development of the CLRV (Canadian Light Rail Vehicle) design dating to the late 1970s but their retirement has predated just slightly that of their elder, single-unit brethren. Rumor has it that an ALRV may also be preserved by TTC itself and it seems certain that Halton will acquire at least one CLRV once they're all out of service. I should mention that I was able to find some truck and motor information about these cars but I'm still in need of control, brake, and air compressor information.

One conundrum is how exactly I should classify this car. On the one hand, it seems clear to me that the CLRV - despite its name - is a streetcar. The ALRV articulated design is more typical of light rail vehicles, which heretofore I've classified as "rapid transit cars" rather than streetcars, but it's basically a two-car CLRV and it spent its service life amidst the traffic on Toronto's streets. I'd say it's closest to a Cleveland 5000, of which regrettably none were preserved. As such I've classified 4204 as a streetcar - the only articulated streetcar on the PNAERC list.