Rusted TTC streetcar spotted in Haliburton forest

What in the H-E-double hockey sticks is a streetcar from Toronto doing hidden in a forest some three and a half hours north of the city?

It's a question that many local Twitter users are asking today as an image of that very thing spreads like wildfire.

Toronto City Councillor Josh Matlow shared a photo just before 8 a.m. on Monday morning of what appeared to be a shelled out, old-timey streetcar — the kind we usually only see in photos — chilling among some trees.

Deep in the forests of the Haliburton Highlands...a Toronto streetcar. pic.twitter.com/ip94ABPk6c

— Josh Matlow (@JoshMatlow) August 19, 2019

"Deep in the forests of the Haliburton Highlands... a Toronto streetcar," wrote Matlow, prompting many of his followers to ask why (and where? and who did it? and how?)

Several local Twitter users immediately recognized the location as Haliburton Scout Reserve, a 5000-acre "semi-wilderness camp" owned by the Greater Toronto Region of Scouts Canada.

TTC Spokesperson Stuart Green identified the vehicle as "the body of TTC streetcar 2500, a Peter Witt car built in 1921 and retired in 1954. It was presumably sold by the scrapper as a body only."

Went to camp there! Knew I recognized that spot.

— James Wood (@MooseNewsJames) August 19, 2019

"Whomever bought it, hauled it up there. May have been intended as a cottage or cabin, or it may have just been put there as a spectacle," continued Green, noting that the TTC also believes the area to be Haliburton Scout Reserve property.

Scouts Canada has yet to reply to a request for comment, but others who've seen the forest streetcar with their own eyes are stating that it lives on the side of a road leading up to the Haliburton camp.

Yup. Came across it last year on a girls Jeep weekend pic.twitter.com/uGPNKv0tP5

— Wendy Sisson (@w_sisson) August 19, 2019

Wherever it is, Torontonians are having a blast making jokes at the rusty old streetcar's expense.

"And people are still standing at the corner of Yonge & College waiting for it," replied one person to Matlow's original tweet.

"It's one of the new Bombardier models that was rain and rust tested only 4 months ago," joked another. "Lookin' good!"

by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO