I saw this amazing photo of pemco fish heads that completely lined Queen St in the 70's! Also the old Black signal at the Heartlake (now 410 MTO highway) (Credits to the person who took this picture!)
wooow! I never knew they had this set up run so consistently down the stretch! Before the 2010 widening, like 3 of these arms at most were left around Hansen Rd. But there was never any clue fish heads were here. The streetscape hasn't changed much, the McDonald's and other signs are still here! And maximum 30 o_O?
I wouldn't have guessed either. I figured it was B2255s first. I found out also that Polefab B2255s were used before Queen Sts OV-15s. I guess Queen st west original cobras were Pemco fish heads lol. Now it looks ugly with Teardrops lol
Cool! I see this picture predates Canada going to the metric system. That sign likely means 30 MPH and not 30 KPH. This sign would end up being 50 if it was in KPH.
Oooh nice pic. I see Queen back then still had a lot of MTO design features. The maximum 30 is from the old MPH days. I believe we switched to metric sometime in September 1977. Anyway I can tell it's a old MTO sign since it had the old MTO modified fonts. The 3 has a flat top and the 4s and 7s had clipped corners. I see the median sign for the opposing direction also still had the PAR 38 floodlight back then.
I didn't know that MTO used fishheads at one point though, they're very rare in the GTA now. I only know of around 5-6 left on Pape avenue in Toronto. Interestingly that section of Pape has a lot of old fixtures like OV-25 flatbottoms and Skyline Skylights. All running 150w HPS though.
neat conversation points you guys bring up eh. well this street (queen st) was an MTO road back then, held the designation as highway 7. I guess fishheads were MTO installed, pretty sure theyre on concrete poles though.
If you look closely the sign on the median pole to the left it looks like one pole is fresh concrete or a Polefab. Highway 50 in Palgrave has some Pemoc fish heads in use still too
nope that median pole is a polefab (or whatever equivalent name back then). I see a dent in the right side I still see in many today haha. oh there are some in pelgrave.
Another thing I'm curious about now is who made the signal on that median pole. It dosen't look like a CGE so I'm thinking it's either a Eagle Flatback or a Crouse Hinds. Both of which are now very rare in the GTA.
I think they stopped using concrete poles for the median signals way back in the early 60s. I believe I saw a really old picture with a square Stresscrete pole but I think most installs from the 60s onward used either Polefab or the octagonal poles.
As for the changes in name to Polefab poles. I believe the originals were called Lacal, then Joslyn-Lacal and then Polefab. Oddly I think Valmont now makes a very similar pole. The only difference is that the handhole cover is rounded instead of rectangular.
Here's what I think are all the variations of the tags on the Polefab style poles. Note the MTO 2453 on the most recently made pole. A quick Google search led me to this page.
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I didn't know that MTO used fishheads at one point though, they're very rare in the GTA now. I only know of around 5-6 left on Pape avenue in Toronto. Interestingly that section of Pape has a lot of old fixtures like OV-25 flatbottoms and Skyline Skylights. All running 150w HPS though.
I think they stopped using concrete poles for the median signals way back in the early 60s. I believe I saw a really old picture with a square Stresscrete pole but I think most installs from the 60s onward used either Polefab or the octagonal poles.
As for the changes in name to Polefab poles. I believe the originals were called Lacal, then Joslyn-Lacal and then Polefab. Oddly I think Valmont now makes a very similar pole. The only difference is that the handhole cover is rounded instead of rectangular.
Here's what I think are all the variations of the tags on the Polefab style poles. Note the MTO 2453 on the most recently made pole. A quick Google search led me to this page.