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.

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