Toronto, Ontario //
The Toronto underworld
A round-up of adventures in drain, steam, and streetcar tunnels
Date October 2009
Posted March 2011
Posted March 2011
In my absence siologen, loops and Little Mike had been down into Toronto's sewerage system, hooking up with some locals at the same time. On arrival back in Toronto I found loops MIA (turned out he'd hired a bicycle, packed a bag and disappeared for a day or two) so it was just the three of us sitting in a park somewhere in the suburbs trying to convince a nearby resident that we doing something else other than trying to get a drain cover open.
In truth siologens makeshift drain opening tool (an aircraft part) had got stuck in the cast-iron lid. We declined the offer of a screwdriver hoping, for good reason as it turned out, that the man would get bored and go indoors. Now there was no option but to tour the neighbourhood delving into bins and skips until a suitable lift-key was found, using which we were finally able to wrench open the cover and drop down the shaft. Now we stood in the culverted Garrison Creek (more info here), and proceeded to follow its winding course until we could go no further.
Like any other major city Toronto's underbelly is laced with utility tunnels of one purpose or another. A walk past Union St station rewarded us, purely by chance, with an entry point into one of these such systems. Through the gaps in the cast-iron manhole cover yellow light reached up to grab our attention. After the briefest of discussions ("Should we lift it?" "Yes.") the heavy lid was dragged from its seat and down we climbed into blistering heat. Steam tunnels, par chance?
The tunnel network, brightly lit and full of pipes, stretched off underneath the station and was most likely part of the buildings heating system. Not wanting to push our luck too far (the signs on the walls were a little intimidating) and with a return to the subway system on the agenda we re-traced our steps and climbed back out of the shaft. Typically nobody on the streets noticed, or seemed to care.
On the same night we also found entrance to the streetcar (or tram) tunnels, several of which are used to divert the lines past busy intersections. The cars run off overhead power so for a change we didn't have to worry about tripping over third rails, although with the trams still in service we did have to take to keep out of their way. As it happened we didn't spend long there - the tunnels are devoid of abandoned stations, junctions and other interesting features and are not worth following very far.
Whilst in town siologen was keen to get down into the Enwave Deep Lake Water Cooling (DLWC) network tunnels which run underneath Toronto as part of a huge heat-exchange system. The manholes are deep. Very deep. Electric lights made the descent a little easier and then we dropped into a concrete-lined tunnel which stretched off in two directions, splitting here and there.
At one point a ladder provided access to an upper level which was largely the same in design. It was unanimously agreed that the system would've been more interesting to explore during its construction, since most of the pipework is now buried in the concrete. The tunnels we explored are used mainly as maintenance passages.
Apart from a slightly more in-depth look at Toronto's subway system (which will be covered in a subsequent post) the final underground curiosity of note to be investigated was the Gargantua drain, a big long concrete culvert stretching a fair way beneath the streets. As with many places I've visited over the last few years siologen had already been there before, but as usual didn't mind going back. Oh, and here's how the feature below should really be shot.
In truth siologens makeshift drain opening tool (an aircraft part) had got stuck in the cast-iron lid. We declined the offer of a screwdriver hoping, for good reason as it turned out, that the man would get bored and go indoors. Now there was no option but to tour the neighbourhood delving into bins and skips until a suitable lift-key was found, using which we were finally able to wrench open the cover and drop down the shaft. Now we stood in the culverted Garrison Creek (more info here), and proceeded to follow its winding course until we could go no further.
Like any other major city Toronto's underbelly is laced with utility tunnels of one purpose or another. A walk past Union St station rewarded us, purely by chance, with an entry point into one of these such systems. Through the gaps in the cast-iron manhole cover yellow light reached up to grab our attention. After the briefest of discussions ("Should we lift it?" "Yes.") the heavy lid was dragged from its seat and down we climbed into blistering heat. Steam tunnels, par chance?
The tunnel network, brightly lit and full of pipes, stretched off underneath the station and was most likely part of the buildings heating system. Not wanting to push our luck too far (the signs on the walls were a little intimidating) and with a return to the subway system on the agenda we re-traced our steps and climbed back out of the shaft. Typically nobody on the streets noticed, or seemed to care.
On the same night we also found entrance to the streetcar (or tram) tunnels, several of which are used to divert the lines past busy intersections. The cars run off overhead power so for a change we didn't have to worry about tripping over third rails, although with the trams still in service we did have to take to keep out of their way. As it happened we didn't spend long there - the tunnels are devoid of abandoned stations, junctions and other interesting features and are not worth following very far.
Whilst in town siologen was keen to get down into the Enwave Deep Lake Water Cooling (DLWC) network tunnels which run underneath Toronto as part of a huge heat-exchange system. The manholes are deep. Very deep. Electric lights made the descent a little easier and then we dropped into a concrete-lined tunnel which stretched off in two directions, splitting here and there.
At one point a ladder provided access to an upper level which was largely the same in design. It was unanimously agreed that the system would've been more interesting to explore during its construction, since most of the pipework is now buried in the concrete. The tunnels we explored are used mainly as maintenance passages.
Apart from a slightly more in-depth look at Toronto's subway system (which will be covered in a subsequent post) the final underground curiosity of note to be investigated was the Gargantua drain, a big long concrete culvert stretching a fair way beneath the streets. As with many places I've visited over the last few years siologen had already been there before, but as usual didn't mind going back. Oh, and here's how the feature below should really be shot.
