Where Will Fido Sleep?

Those who ride the Danforth subway might be forgiven for thinking that we did not fit into the “One Stop” universe as so few of “our” stations had video screens.  Not enough eyeballs, obviously, to make it worth their while.

Just last week, however, things started to change with the disappearance of the electronics from the old “Metron” displays and the installation of new “One Stops”.

Gone is the full working set of Metrons at Donlands Station which faithfully displayed ads for a travellers’ kennel near Pearson Airport for all those years.  Now dogs on the Danforth will have to put up with what passes for news and the occasional, if erratic, notice about service blockages.

At least the time will be correct.

16 thoughts on “Where Will Fido Sleep?

  1. …I don’t understand how this is a bad thing.

    Steve: It’s not a bad thing. I am simply marking the passing of the old clocks that should have been replaced a few years ago, but were not due to the rollout of One Stop screens on only part of the system. The idea that these are somehow part of an overall public info mechanism for the TTC to communicate with its passengers during emergencies falls a bit short when there are so many stations that don’t have them installed.

    There is a 2005 report on the TTC’s website that states quite clearly that the number of new screen installations was a question of capital cost to the advertising company, and clearly this means that the screens were intended to go where the most eyeballs were.

    The amazing thing is how many of the old displays kept working years after they were officially decommissioned and had no updates to their content.


  2. The Metrons at Greenwood Stn are missing the inner guts now as well. When were those screens originally introduced?


  3. Does anyone know if one of these signs will be preserved for historical purposes after removal? Do any of the original outer panels still exist? (You know the ‘blister’ type prior to the later flat replacements with the misnomer “Subway Online”?) Does anyone really care? (I don’t really… just curious.)


  4. What I can’t understand is at Keele. There has been a partially installed One Stop for several months. On the West bound platform there is a normal setup, but it’s never powered on. On the East bound platform there is box but with only one screen installed, and you can look in the side without the installed monitor and see that there isn’t a computer installed.

    Why would they spend the money to do a partial install and not complete it? They’ve burnt money and not getting any revenue back.


  5. Speaking of having to be five metres from screens, it’s more amazing to me that all of the platform destination signs have survived. Even though most of them are not functional they still have the illuminating bulbs replaced more or less routinely. They certainly don’t help the public much in their present condition. And why did only some of the signs on the YUS get fixed to show the St. Clair West short turns? Does anyone know how many different destinations those LED inserts were capable of displaying? How many Identra-coils for the trains have survived? Has there been any indication given whether the “Next Train Arrival” information coming eventually to the One Stop screens will include the trains’ destinations?


  6. I think the NEXT TRAIN signs from College around to Museum received the LED inserts and I think could only show St. Clair West and Downsview. The older flip-dot style sign at St. George could show whatever the Identra coil was set to show, as occasionally a train would come into St. George Stn. northbound with a ST. CLAIR WEST sign, but the destination sign showed EGLINTON or OUT OF SERVICE. The LED ones I think just stayed blank if the coil wasn’t set to one of the two settings that it could read. I never saw them display anything else other than the two settings. The Identra coils disappeared from use in mid-December 2004 and I believe were all disposed of after that.


  7. Hi Steve-

    Happy to give you an update on our roll out whenever I can help. Shoot me an email, and I”ll be glad to chat. Keele and High Park are going online this week.

    (and yes, we have some of the old metron covers. 🙂 )


  8. To answer Kristian’s question about those signs …

    The original 1966 flip leaf signs could show …


    Then …


    Then …


    Then …


    The flip dots and LEDs could be programmed to display anything.

    The flip leafs would always show a “-” before the gong and as soon as a train left the platform. This continued for a while even during segregation.

    Subway rollsigns initially showed EGLINTON but were soon changed to EGLINTON VIA DOWNTOWN during the integrated service.


  9. I’ve frequently seen the next train displays say the word “Test” on them, even when trains without coils are going. I’d guess that it might be a diagnostic function built into the LED insert, to help determine whether the location of a system fault is in the display section or the coil reader and signal path connecting it to the display boxes, but it’s just a guess.

    As for the Metrons that are still in operating condition, isn’t it interesting how 1970s TTL electronics work remarkably well once you get away from streetcars and the TTC’s equipment gurus?


  10. @ M. Briganti:

    So you’re saying that the flip-leafs were actually updated with all the relevant destinations up to and including the four current terminals? This would suggest that they were all still functional. They must be deactivated though because I’ve never seen them operate for as long as I’ve been paying attention to them. The flip-dot ones at St. George seemed to have quit a long time ago (the bell still rang though).

    As for the coil units themselves, I thought they had a limited number of settings that couldn’t cover all the possible destinations. Isn’t it true that the numerical assignments had multiple destination meanings depending on direction and location?

    I’d be surprised if the TTC had actually disposed of all the coils given how long they seem to like to store ‘obsolete’ equipment for. I guess it could be true, but we are still sitting on all those CLRV couplers. I also remember seeing spare G-car trucks in the Lansdowne bus garage (of all places!) shortly before its demolition. When I was volunteering with Habitat For Humanity in rented space in the oldest part of the Coxwell carhouse I discovered a dark, nearly-forgotten attic storage space with some interesting signage artifacts. You really never know what they still might have tucked away and ‘lost’ throughout their properties.


  11. Kristian, I don’t remember how many positions the coil could be set to, but I seem to remember 10 — maybe Steve remembers. Initially all the signs were set the same way on the dial, but that may have changed later on.

    I do remember that the BD extensions were on the signs on opening day, and that Woodbine and Keele both had slightly different flip-dot signs labelled PLATFORM 1 and PLATFORM 2 at the mezzanine level from the get-go. If that wasn’t enough, an announcer would also call out the destinations at the terminals over and over.

    Slots were reassigned later on. And, the Metrons were from the 80s, not 70s — they replaced the flip-leaf clocks from the 70s (which were always wrong), and those replaced the analog clocks from the 60s. This concludes tonight’s history lesson.


  12. Nitpick: I think it was OUT OF SERVICE on the original flaps, and I believe they were a red background, like their namesake subway destination signs.

    The flipdot signs on the northbound platform at St. George worked almost right up until they stopped using the coils.

    I don’t know if all the flip signs were updated for all the destinations: ie. the ones on Bloor-Danforth would not have been updated for Downsview, and the ones on the YUS probably didn’t have Kipling and Kennedy, but unless we get a couple of them to examine we won’t know for certain.


  13. Another dead technology that is still there, is the next platform signs at stations that are no longer terminals, like Wilson. You would think that the TTC would take the sign down and move it to the new terminal, or keep a couple of sets and leaf frog them, but no they seem to abandon them at former terminal stations. I don’t know if it’s something they remove when they refurbish the station or not. I also don’t know why they don’t unload on one side, put the train into the tail track, then pull back out into the other platform when it’s free, Would allow them to turn trains around much faster. Considering that the Yonge line is likely to get expansion on both ends, perhaps the TTC should consider doing this when designing the new terminals.

    Steve: The Yonge extensions both assume that there will be a short turn somewhere south of the new terminals. Locations proposed have been Finch on the Yonge line and Downsview on the Spadina line.


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