We convened at the Henri-Bourassa Nord entrance at 1:30 AM, where we were met by our very own GiRo, metro employee and former host of this site.
 | We were let in the locked doors and barriers into the mezzanine, then had to vault the barriers to get to the platforms.
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 | We met our tour guides - STM employees graciously donating their time - outside a powered-down MR-73 train stopped at its last stop of the night, ready to be the first train of the morning. There was a brief commotion as a large unconscious individual was spotted in one of the cars; he would be removed by police later.
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 | Never, never do this. Unless you're taking a tour too.
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 | We were divided into two groups, and the first group set off along a narrow side passage alongside the Henri-Bourassa rear-station tracks.
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 | This let us get some wonderful shots of tunnel equipment, like this switcher assembly. The technical people were in heaven.
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 | We had to walk carefully past several trains that were parked in the rear station. It's really amazing to walk beside these behemoths - you don't realize how large they are until you see them like this. Notice where his head comes to - and he's tall.
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 | The first stop was the Somerville fire-training centre, which contains the old, burned-out shell of a train - actually destroyed in the Laurier-Rosemont fire in 1974, the last major fire in the metro. It's used to train Montreal firefighters to intervene in case of a fire in the metro. They toss flares onto it, which fire crews then extinguish. Unfortunately, the tunnel is quite dark (as opposed to the well-lit rear station) so I didn't get any good photos, except for this old map in the centre's office. Notice the orange line only as far as Du Collège, and the black-circled (unbuilt but planned) stations on the blue line, projected as far as Anjou.
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 | Having left the fire-training centre, we continued on towards the St-Charles garage. It's quite a distance.
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 | Here's the Ahuntsic venting station (digitally enhanced to make up for the darkness). Those are some enormous fans - standard equipment in metro tunnels.
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 | We had to cross the tunnel at a few points. This is me standing in the middle of a metro tunnel. The holy of holies!!
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 | Our first glimpse of the huge St-Charles garage.
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 | Notice the massive and complex ladder-tracks that serve the whole terminal.
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 | Some idea of how large the garage is. It can store two full trains deep and eight wide, for a total of sixteen full nine-car trains in the garage at a time.
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 | I did not need to be told that.
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 | Excellent opportunities for close-up shots of the train bogeys. Notice the large wooden brake shoe.
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 | Looking back from the garage into the tunnel - a good view of the ladder tracks.
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 | The control panel of an MR-73.
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 | Lunik has the controls explained to him.
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 | Naturally, your faithful metrophile had to get my picture taken at the console too.
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 | We bade goodbye to these colossuses in their natural habitat and began to head back to the station.
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 | Our gracious tour guide, Mr. Richard Sanscartier.
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 | While the second group took its visit, we waited and explored the station's control centre. This is a control panel which keeps track of train movements in the rear station. You can see a good schematic of the ladder tracks and switchers in tunnel. |
