My wife’s grandmother told me that the 501 used to climb past Neville Park and turn instead at Blantyre. As one who spent much of high school climbing or cycling up that hill, that would have been a nice feature to have kept.
I do not think this is 100% true, see
https://transittoronto.ca/streetcar/4101.shtml
KINGSTON ROAD AND QUEEN IN CONFLICT
In 1896, the TRC sought to extend streetcar service along Queen to the southern part of the Munro estate, which had been remade into the new Munro Park, which the TRC leased. They also wanted to cross the Neville Park ravine to reach Victoria Park. Already, the TRC owned the Kingston Road suburban service, which operated down Blantyre Avenue to neighbouring Victoria Park. This shouldn’t have caused difficulties, but it did, as the Kingston Road suburban service also held the franchise for Queen Street east of Maclean Avenue. The Village of East Toronto, which had a number of grievances with the Toronto Railway Company (mostly due to fares), decided to make trouble. On July 20, 1897, when the TRC started moving supplies onto Queen Street east of Maclean Avenue, the village organized a ‘posse’ which tossed the rails and ties into a nearby ravine. Cooler heads prevailed, however, and one year later improved service was operating during the summer to a loop in Munro Park.
The TRC wasn’t satisfied with Munro Park, however, and in 1906, General Manager R. Fleming entered into an arrangement with Dominion Parks Company to obtain property between Maclean and Leuty Avenues. Here was set up the Scarboro Beach Park, an ‘electric’ park served exclusively by streetcar. This became a very popular attraction, and it was one of the few properties the TRC retained after the Toronto Transportation Commission took over in 1921. The park lasted until 1925, and has since been filled in with housing. Likewise, Munro Park and Victoria Park were shut down in 1906-07, and subdivided for housing.
As Toronto entered the 1910s, service on Queen Street was split in two. Downtown cars operated to Woodbine, and the single track along Queen Street to Munro Park was handled by stub service. The City eventually stepped in and built a set of double tracks to a wye at Neville Park, allowing through service and night service to begin on December 24, 1914, with every second car turning back at Scarboro Beach.
The wye at Neville Park, incidentally, is the reason there remained an isolated section of streetcar track running down Neville Park Boulevard until the beginning of the 21st century. After the construction of the loop, the tailtrack from the wye remained, to regulate service. The connection with the Queen trackage was taken away in May 1989, but the track remained visible for years afterward.
