Grab an older map of Essex County, and in the area of Walker and Provincial, you will see a dot on the map named “Pelton”. There never was actually a community around the spot on the map, but there was a rail line junction with a control tower, more of a rail junction, there is still a bit of history behind it.
When Bernie was going through his slides, looking for riverfront photos for us, he found a bunch from Pelton that he pulled and had John scan as well.
A Google Earth view of the location of the Pelton Spur.
Photo © Bernie Drouillard
A crop shot of the Pelton tower. This photo was taken January 22, 1989, and at this point you can see the tower is boarded up and no longer in use. The Pelton tower along the Canada Southern Rail Line bit the dust November 29, 1991.
Photo © Bernie Drouillard
Photo Taken June 22, 1980
Photo © Bernie Drouillard
Photo Taken August 21, 1988
Photo © Bernie Drouillard
Photo Taken January 22, 1989
Photo © Bernie Drouillard
Photo Taken May 21, 1989
Photo © Bernie Drouillard
Photo Taken February 25, 1991
Here is a great photo of the Pelton tower. A big thank you to Geoff Elliott for the permission to repost his photos here.
A case of being in the right place, at the right time, Geoff was down at the Pelton spur in November, 1991, the day the tower came down.
Looks to me like the building eater, made very quick work of this old relic.
A few years ago, I paid a visit to Pelton to see if there was anything there. I noticed the Pelton name on the CN machinery boxes in the area.
I’m sure the area used to be much busier than it is today. Today, outlines can be seen where the rails used to run.
I believe that this is near where the tower stood.
A slab of rail laying around on site, reveals that it was forged by Algoma in the 1940’s (the last number is cut off)
A look up at one of the old telephone poles, also speaks volumes about how busy the corridor used to be. Look at all the insulators, each one would have carried a separate, power, phone or telegraph line..
An abandoned hut along the tracks, south of the 401 overpass.
I’m not sure what the site looks like now, since these photos were taken, they did some work on the gas lines in the area after these photos were taken, plus the 401 widening have been staging in there.
I willing to bet the remaining traces of the area, are probably now wiped out.
Good pics. In the 2nd & 7th photo’s is that the screen at the old drive-in theatre in the background ?
Rich B – Famous Four
Years ago I spotted on a relic schedule of the W. E. & L.S. RR the name Pelton as one of the stops. Did their right of way pass close to this rail junction? The abandonned PM rail line south of here makes for a nice trail. It is too bad that they did not find a way to extend it further north into the city to join up with other trails and it is too bad that it ends in Ruthven and does not continue into Leamington and beyond.
I have seen maps that have referred to that 401 interchange as the “Pelton Cloverleaf”. I always wondered where the name came from. Thanks.
Maybe Pelton was a landowner in the area where the tracks run. I go by that area all the time, so it’s neat to learn something about it. I use 7th Concession as a way to avoid traffic on walker and wondered if that track crossing it is used or not. Too bad about the tower being torn down, but it was probably a vandalism magnet if not being used. That area might be a good location for a passenger terminal to get people downtown (ah, forget it).
Trains? For People? That’s crazy talk! 😉
The tracks are still used. That’s the same line that runs beside the airport, and crosses Foster Ave. (the newish entrance to the industrial park off Central).
It heads south from the main line that runs east-west behind Memorial Park (crossing Walker/Howard/Tecumseh Rd.). Heading under the expressway, crossing Foster, Airport Rd. & County Rd. 42, 7th concession, and County Rd. 46 into the Pelton area.
I work at the airport, and it’s only used a couple of times a day.
The Greenway trail that extends from the county stops at North Talbot Rd. Why didn’t it continue to the Pelton area and beyond?? Is it still possible in future?
I’m sure it has to do with the fact that the lines north of there are still active. Probably liability related..
Yes the WE&LS RR map shows a Pelton stop, and I’m not totally convinced there was not some kind of farming enclave, hamlet, or settlement of some sort, however small, in that vicinity, that comprised “Pelton” – not just the tower – if one goes back far enough.
JB – Like you I use the 7th as well… In fact I was just down there on my lunch run, and I saw a motorcycle cop out there for the first time ever. He had someone pulled over as I went by. On my way back, he was hiding again in one of the driveways… Be careful when you head out that way 😉
There used to be a big artificial lake nearby created by the hole dug to build the 401 embankments adjacent. If I recall they were filling it in in the 1990s. Is it still there, or all gone?
It was on my psychogeographic map of Windsor as a kid because we were told stories (or just story?) of people occasionally drowning in it when they went swimming, getting entangled in the weeds that lurked below. The idea of such a place existing kept me awake at night, wondering what kind of person would swim in such an awful place.
Are there old photos of this? Bernie seems to have the productivity of a photoblogger, decades before such a person existed.
Sean, I remeber that lake, I fished in it probably going back over a decade ago…
Looking at google maps, it appears that it is almost all gone now. It was located at the west end of Del Duca Dr. in Oldcastle.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=del+duca+dr+oldcastle+on&sll=42.243332,-82.957388&sspn=0.004273,0.00824&ie=UTF8&ll=42.241735,-82.952378&spn=0.008546,0.016479&t=h&z=16
Looks like there’s just a few small pockets of water there today. It was a very good sized pond, and when I would go there with a freind, there were almost always others there fishing too…
I remember that lake really well. It was excavated for the 401 construction and the overpasses at the Pelton Cloverleaf. My dad used to take me fishing there in the early 70s when I was 6 or 7. There was a spit that extended out into the middle and along it were fire pits and a lot of empty beer bottles where teenagers used to go to drink. I think it was a pretty out of the way place and nobody bothered them.
Hmm poking around Google Earth reveals the Pelton Cloverleaf has lost some clover, and there are abandoned stretches of road.
Thanks for posting the pictures. I have seen the photos from Mr Elliot before, as he is a friend of mine, but its nice to see some of these other pictures, and items that i have never seen before. Keep posting up other Transportation related items and buildings like this, I enjoy seeing these.
very cool pics! thanks andrew, john and bernie!
yup, looks like an abandoned on-ramp for the 401. if you go over to the intersection of anchor drive and twin oaks, you’ll notice an abandoned stretch of lauzon road as well.
i’m really loving these railway series!
also….in the same area as lauzon, it looks like an abandoned spur line headed for the sub-station that’s there.
hey guys……how did fish get in that lake? did any of you ever catch anything….or witness someone else catch something?
I don’t see the spur line there. Though the area north of the tracks used to be the Twin Oaks golf course. After it closed, and before being bulldozed to oblivion, we played along the creek. There was a sort of damn that the golf course had built to create a small reservoir.
Note, if you’re ever nearby on your bike or foot, there is a strange go-nowhere rec path — but at the northwest corner of the industrial park there is a spur-path that goes underneath EC Row by Little River with back-door access to Forest Glad. Unless it has been fenced up, but I can still make out the path via google earth.
My father tells the story of running away from home in 1935 with two of his friends. They jump into a open boxcar and figure they are heading for the big time. They rattle around for quite some time, the train stops, they figure they must be half way to Buffalo. They get out of the boxcar, see the sign on this very tower that says Pelton. Wander around till they find someone. Most confounded when they find out they managed to get themselves just a long walk home to the 900 block of Lawrence Rd.
lol, I love stories like that. I’m sure your dad never forgot the name “Pelton” lol
I see the spur line. It’s on the top left corner of the substation. turning to the left into the main tracks. My guess is from the looks of it is they built it for delievery of the substation equpiment. You have to zoom in one or two levels from full zoom to really notice it though.
Ah yes, I see it. That’s subtle!
I wonder if anybody has done a walk along the length of Little River and documented it. Same with Turkey Creek.
Well now I’ve been following rail lines in Windsor via google. There are a remarkable amount of industry served by spur lines still.
So many of these lines in Toronto have been abandoned, as much of the industry here evaporated in the early 90s with Free Trade (one reason why Toronto is not suffering the way Windsor is — the bottom dropped 16 years ago here).
I’m really enjoying the rail pictures. Railways in this city were such an imporant and integral part of the growth and industrialization of our city.
Which brings me to another point (which may be a debate for another board). I’ve had this discussion with John a few times. City council on one hand claims they want to reduce the amount of trucks on city streets, but in the same breath they are trying to push a plan to shut down all local rail lines (with the exception of the CP line) and amalgamate all traffic onto this line. Does city council think the freight magically just jumps onto the trains?!? Of course id doesn’t. It gets onto the trains via industrial sidings and spurs that run off of the rail lines that City Council wants to shut down. This would in turn force all our remaining industries to ship by truck. But wait a minute, I thought we were trying to reduce truck traffic on city streets?
The ironic thing, is the one line that the City wants to keep (and upgrade) is the CP Line which primarily carrys international traffic (mainly trains from Toronto to Chicago). It’s basically the Huron Church of Windsor area rail lines.
Sorry for getting on a rant there, guys.
Don’t be fooled by Google maps. Google shows rail lines that no longer exist. According to Google, rails (formerly PM) continue from the riverfront along Walker Road all the way to Paquette Corners. There are other anomalies as well. Some of these maps must be quite old and out of date; who knows how old the satellite views are as well.
I was following satellite only, not the map. Satellite i figure is a little — newer. You can usualy tell by some kind of recent development (though there are so many images, you can only speculate).
shawn, i follow the rail lines on google all over the place. i love finding a spot along any given line that switches off and then turns all abandoned. sometimes they run into a crop of trees where at one time there was a rail siding, or a town. or, if you want to see some neat stuff, follow the tracks around in detroit. there are sooooo many abandoned lines in that city!
takes you thru some pretty wacky areas. takes you to all kinds of abandoned, burnt out factories, vacated neighbourhoods etc..etc. i like when the rails have been pulled up but they used to run between building, so the scar will never go away because the buildings are shaped like the path of the line.
i followed tracks from detroit to new york city before! yeah….i was on a 12hr shift.
also, google earth IS horribly wrong. according to it, the Aquarama is still moored in buffalo, the ste.claire is still moored near belle isle…and so on, and so on.
Just a quick thought on the abandoned/unused powerline pole…since telegraph was mentioned, I assume this was one of the major uses of them, considering it was the railways that were in the telegraph business? Just thinking off the top of my head it would make sense for them to use their own right-of-ways for the telegraph lines.
I think some part get updated at different times for the sattelite imaging. The lancaster that used to be in Jackson Park and now at the airport is shown inside the building the CH2A built to store it around the end of the summer early fall last year if I remember correctly. So some of the images cant be THAT out of date.
Wow, you play with trains and think your the only one. This site is just great, picture intensive just my style.
Thanks and keep up the great work here.
Ron Pare
http://www.modelersguild.com
i was at pelton tower the day the wreaking ball hit i must say i was very sad to see them knock the old tower down i happened to know the guy driving the shovel and he got me the pelton sign from off the wall of the tower,that used to be a great train watching spot you could sit there on a summer after noon and see the trains of the C&O coming from Detroit that took the wye to head south to st thomas as well as the local between Chatham and walkerville,as well as the NYC and Conrail as far as the gravel pit nearby we would swim there all summer from what i’m told when they dug it during the construction of the 401 they hit a natural spring if you look carefully on the CASO website there is a model producer who has actually manufactured a model of the Pelton tower
i knew the signal maintainer who worked for the PM/C&O who worked out of the small tool house in the wye at Pelton his name was Mel Penrose he gave me a old worn cardborad box full of signal maintainer reports from the 40s&50s lots of history there
while were talking about interlocking towers does anyone remember the one that was at the jucntion of the ETR/C&O in walkerville this tower was located north of seminole street,if you walked north down the track from dominion forges offices now Hearns office it was to the right of the track at the diamond it was boarded up painted gray i suspect that it was owned by the PM/C&O access to this tower would be from walker road just before you cross the ETR tracks there’s a dirt road that leads out behind Hearns warehouse it was in this area
Gary – thanks for the info about an interlocking tower for the ETR/C&O. i’m surprised to learn that the ETR had a tower on the line…but as you said, it was probably owned by PM/C&O. All of ETR’s interlocks were actually outdoors, which i guess is odd according to what i’ve read. I know that their interlocks with CASO (MCRR/NYCR) at Amherstburg and at Collage ave were outdoors, i suspected the same for this diamond with the C&O…….hmm.
Does anyone know who controlled ETR’s access when the line interchanged with CN in Walkerville or if and where there was a tower? i guess i never thought about it that much. i can’t see CN wanting an entire freight train backing into it’s mainline unannounced! does anyone know if ETR just had a couple tracks worth of siding at George ave along the CN line, or was there a tower controlling the movments?
i was looking on an old aerial photo of the ETR/C&O diamond and now that i know it was there, the tower is pretty obvious now. comparing that to a google shot of “today”, it would seem that this tower sat very near, if not on the exact spot that a radio tower of some type sits today.
thanks again for that info!
Aron i think where the ETR met the CN way back when i don’t think they really needed clearence from a tower operator if i remember there were just a couple interchange tracks which din’t fowl CN’s mailine i worked for CN for 5 years and we were given our swtch lists from a shanty that stood west of george Ave on the south side of the tracks hope that helped
that’s what i was thinking. alot of those interchange tracks are still there buried in weeds.
thanks Gary!
A’burg dave that spur going to the left joining with the cp main was actually a wye track that allowed the PM/C&O engine to travel west on the CP to there crawford avenue yard to pick up a car that was on there line but yes your correctjust to the south of the wye there!is an old spur that goes into the rear of the substation it’s all but overgrowen with weeds today i recall when i was a teenager i lived in the area Meighen rd one winter day we were walking in that exact are and that spur you mentioned had a Canadian Pacific work train parked on it there were a couple guys in the kitchen car all dressed in white cooks outfits cooking for the track crew well one of them invited us into the car to warm up and he made the 2 of us a cup of hot coco it was the a pretty cool thing for a couple of 13 year olds
i was out near where Pelton tower once stood this morning the only evidence of railroading in that area is the former C&O line that ran parelele with Walker rd the original CASO line and what appears to be a relay box propped up on a few 4X4’s you can no longer walk under the 401 going south from where Pelton was stood they backfilled that area in with all the new 401 construction i’m thinking the companies south of the 401might have bought up the property so they propbably destroyed part of the walkway heading towards oldcatle to the uniformed they will never know about all the railroad history in that small area what a shame
To the site owner
I came across this site looking up my family’s name on Google very interesting
Jason R. Pelton
P.S I am also a railfan especially CN
*BUMP* old post, i know BUT i just wanted to mention something about Pelton. way up at the top John had said “Yes the WE&LS RR map shows a Pelton stop, and I’m not totally convinced there was not some kind of farming enclave, hamlet, or settlement of some sort, however small, in that vicinity, that comprised “Pelton” – not just the tower – if one goes back far enough”
looking at this post here about Lukerville: http://internationalmetropolis.com/?p=401
there is a map that shows a spot for Pelton, and a little further north where baseline meets 42, there is North Pelton. So…I guess I just wanted to say maybe John is right…..that it wasn’t just named for the tower lol could warrant to further investigation????
oh also….it shows that CN railline behind Jefferson at an Essex terminal branch. I assume it’s a typo but….maybe someone out there knows different????
anyways…that’s it.
The old map showing the line behind Jefferson, does not show Jefferson or the Y with CN mainline, now Via. Does anyone know if it was once E T , or always C N?
As far as I know it was always CN and existed long before Ford built on their Tecumseh Road properties. I believe CN built this line to get access to the Chrysler operations and possibly interchange with CP. The Y has existed since at least the 50s and appears on maps of that era.
Then again, it is possible that ETR ran alongside CN mainline and once operated this line… a mystery worthy of investigation. As cited previously, the map indicates it was ETR…
Found this by a google search
“Pelton was the junction between the Canada Southern (CASO) and the Lake Erie and Detroit Railway (LE&DR). The LE&DR was the railway built by Hirem Walker, which started in Walkerville, and paralleled Walker Road all the way out to Harrow, curved sharply, and went out to Kingsville, Leamington, Wheatley, Blenheim, and eventually ended in St. Thomas. Over the years it was owned by several railways that all were absorbed by various mergers/buyouts (Pere Marquette, C&O, CSX). This railway was torn up around 1994, but 2 small segments of it still exist. (From approximately EC Row to Pelton), as well as a small segment in Blenheim that serves as an industrial spur.”
From what I have been able to determine thus far ETR did not extend East of Pillette. At http://www.etr.ca/hisdet.html (a very good reference for the history of ETR) there is mention of CN Chrysler spur which is the line running east of Jefferson Ave.
Shawn that artifical lake near 401 in the 70’s and 80’s was called Horseshoe Pond by the people I knew, we used to ride out there as kids and fish and have a bonfire. I had completely forgotten until I saw your post.
We used to walk along the railroad tracks off North Talbot Road just south of Walker Road, near the drive-in, and there was what we thought was an old quarry: this was in the fifties. We called it “The Great Spring Canyon,” and repeated stories that kids had drowned there to keep our little brothers from swimming. The sides were very steep like an old quarry, and the water seemed to be deep. It was one of our favourite destinations! In recent years, when I get back to Windsor, I have always tried to see it from the 401, but with all the construction, I have not been able to see it lately.
This brought back some great memories! Maybe we got the name “Spring” from some true fact!
Hi JH from atlanta you can’t see the old lake anymore because they filled it in a few years back that are sure has changed since we we kids going their to swim the two long peninsulas that jutted out into the watwr the one farther south was known as pecker’s point lol