Canadian Vickers MR-63

The MR-63 was a type of subway car in the Montreal Metro, and they were built by Canadian Vickers in the neighborhood of Viauville in Montreal.

The inspiration for these cars came from Jean Drapeau, who was mayor of Montreal when he saw the MP-59 cars in the Paris metro. The job of designing them was given to Jacques Guillon, who insisted on having the cars built in Quebec rather than in France as it had been originally proposed.

They have been regularly in service on lines 1, 2, and 4, but ironically spent their last day on line 5. They spent most of their existence after 1976 on line 1 and were stored at the Honoré-Beaugrand Garage. Before 1976, they were on all lines, but after that, line 1 kept them and the other lines got the MR-73. Some MR-63 returned on line 1 in 2008 and stayed there until their retirement in 2018.

Trains consisted of 9 car sets, despite having sometimes been reduced to 6 car sets as the STM used to put fewer cars on weekends and also there were times that line 4 only had 6 cars. They also had 6 cars set on their last day as line 5 never used full trains. Theoretically, trains could always be split into groups of 3 as they were made 3 by 3 with each car at the extremities being equipped as a locomotive while the middle car wasn't. Each car had 8 sets of doors, 4 on both sides.369 total rail cars were acquired by STM. They had a capacity of 160 passengers per car and up to 40 seats. They were built in lightweight steel alloy. They had rubber tires and used 750 volt DC guide bars. The exterior was light blue with a white line under the windows and the interior was initially black and grey, followed by white and grey once they were restored. They originally had wood floors, however, they didn't age well and were later replaced.

The easiest way to differentiate them from the MR-73 was by their round headlights. They could be driven manually or with automatic train controls (the latter unavailable on line 4). However, doors are always opened and closed manually. In their later years, the next station was also announced automatically by Michèle Deslauriers, but the system arrived much later than on the MR-73. Before that, operators announced the stations.

The MR-63 spent 52 years in service, however, they were all refurbished between 1991 and 1993 by AMF Technotransport. They started being retired gradually in 2016 until June 21, 2018.