TTC steeplecab No. 1 and weed killer car No. WK 921 CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES: TTC FONDS, SERIES 71, ITEM 5953 (WEED KILLER NO. 921, INTERURBAN SERVICE, ROLLING STOCK DEPARTMENT); JUNE 28, 1928
Built in an era before environmental and worker safety laws were prevalent, TTC No. WK 921 was a simple, but apparently effective car. Pressurized air from the locomotive was pumped into the tanks containing weed killing chemicals, which forced the deadly liquid mixture to spray out of nozzles mounted on the rear of the car and aimed down towards the roadbed. The weed sprayer appears to be new in these pictures (above and below and page 46), and the assemblage of what appear to be workers and dignitaries (or TTC brass) on hand for these official photographs lends credence to that theory.
Class A designation by Baldwin-West- inghouse (though, as Strapac points out, this was applied after the fact). Bearing construction number 16996, the locomo-
tive weighed in at 26 tons and was capa- ble of 260 horsepower. The locomotive was originally deliv- ered with two trolley poles. This was not
unusual for interurban equipment, which often had two poles installed for bi-directional running. In this case, however, the poles are shown oriented in the same direction. It would appear that, based on my queries, the most plausible reason for the second pole was to permit the motors to have a greater current draw than would be possible with a single pole. Moreover, the poles could be swiveled to reverse their direc- tions. Somewhere between the original delivery date and the time the photo with the weed sprayer was taken (which is the version of the locomotive depicted in the drawings), steeplecab No. 1 had lost the second trolley pole and the remaining pole had been moved to the middle of the cab. The original headlights had been replaced and the loco had sprouted handrails and steps. The motorman’s controller was also moved from the center of the cab to the pole retriever end. According to the Old Time Trains website, this likely happened while serving as Toronto & York No. 1 some- time in 1911. By the time the locomo- tive was acquired by the Toronto Trans- portation Commission the wheels would have been regauged to TTC gauge in a manner similar to No. WK 921. Proof that the original design was sound is borne out by the fact that the locomotive was acquired by Quebec- based Noranda Mines in 1938. The lo- comotive was renumbered as Noranda Mines No. 15 and underwent a further set of updates and changes, including new trucks, new couplers, a panto- graph to replace the trolley pole, a bell on the roof, new headlights (again),
CITY OF TORONTO ARCHIVES; TTC FONDS, SERIES 71, ITEM 5957 (WEED KILLER NO. 921, INTERURBAN SERVICE, ROLLING STOCK DEPARTMENT): HILLCREST SHOPS, TORONTO, ON; JUNE 28, 1928
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