The station above was on Devonshire Road in Walkerville. The station was designed by Detroit Architects Mason & Rice, in 1890. The station was demolished in 1957.
Here’s the site of the station today.
Today Via services are run out of the new Walkerville station, with talk of replacing this station with a new one.
The CN station was located on the waterfront at the foot of Goyeau in Windsor. It was built in 1884 and closed in 1961. It was demolished shortly after.
The photo above and below appeared in the Michael Gladstone White book “A Moment in time”, however as usual there is no credit given for the source of the images. The one below however ran in the Windsor Star December 30, 1952.
The Star at the time was calling for the end of this station, and the story alongside the photos read as follows:
The traveler who comes by train has already passed through London, and he undoubtedly remembers the station he saw there. The stations he sees reflect the life – or lack of it – of the communities he passes. This picture shows the Windsor waiting room. It has wooden floors, its door frames are old and scarred. In another day the glow from the old coal stove may have been a delight to the traveler, but in these times it looks incongruous. The same arrival may make the mistake of walking up the plank stair, and into one of Windsor’s toughest sections. If he finds his way to Ouellette, he finds no expansive view of the river, but in its place a barricade of old buildings. Windsor needs badly a new C.N.R. station, but it needs just a much a program to rejuvenate this vital area.
This station was located along the riverfront, built into the embankment for the bridge on Riverside Drive that crosses the rail cut.
The station was built in 1890 and designed by Edward Colonna, who was for a while the architect for the Canadian Pacific railroad, designing stations from coast to coast.
The station was located at the green arrow. Traces of the station can still be seen in the embankment, an old door and window, are visible in the brick wall.
This photo above is the first one I’ve ever seen of the original Michigan Central Station. This photo also appeared in the Michael Gladstone White book “A Moment in time”, without a source. He claimed in the book it was taken in 1907. He notes this station was located on the riverfront between Elm and Cameron. It must have been replaced shortly after as the new station opened in 1911.
The 1911 station has been covered here recently in full detail. It was torched by an arsonist in 1996.
More info on this station can be found on this post.
Please add what you know below…
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Thanks Doug!
Richard - I wonder if that line next to Jefferson would have existed before Essex Engine was built.....
Aaron, not sure exactly when that line along Jefferson was built but it was there in the early 50s... long before Essex Engine was built.
Richard....
....it was turned at the CN/Wabash roundhouse. Trust me. Remember, back then there was a full roundhouse for locomotive servicing.
Bruce.
That's it! That is definitely the railroad boarding house. I remember the grain silo as well.I was beginning to think it was just my imagination.
Thank you very much for bringing back a great childhood memory.
VIA Rail has just recently purchased some properties in Windsor. Perhaps this has to do with a new station to replace the Walkerville one?
Aaron that line that runs along Jefferson has been there a looonnnggg time back when chrysler built cars before the advent of the minnie van both CN and CP used to ship cars via rail the CP used to pull long cuts of tri level cars to the yard east of cental avenue once or twice a week a CN switch engine used to run along the line adjacent to jefferson couple onto these loaded trilevel cars and bring them back to the CN yard at the river for shipment across Canada and the US there was also a line that ran beside Grand marias road that was owned by CN that went into the back of the car plant that BIG long pipe that you see when you drive down grand marias road towards central is the route the rail line took
Maybe the engine you memtion used the turntable but later in the sixties or very early seventies CN did use the Y to turn one. I think it was a type nicknamed Bulletnose Betty because of the shape of the front of the steam chamber. This engine had recently restored or was about to be retired.
Confusingly, the land that VIA has recently bought seems to be adjacent to the current station.
i remeber as a kid in the late 60's there used to be a Dominion store at walker and tecumseh rd.The C&O railroad crossed tecumseh here ,i remember the dominion store had a snack bar where you could get hotdogs,sandwichs,pop and coffe once in awhile the switching crew off the train would stop and take there break here a couple times the engineer would let us ride in the cab of the old GP-7 diesel south as far as Walkerville junction the area south of grand marias road where the CP has there Vaxas x-ray set up is known as Walkerville junction the original wye track and a couple old rust covered sidings are all that remain of original PM,C&O trackage although all the track as far south as Pelton is original C&O track
there is a wye across the tracks from the Walkerville Via station it used to be used on a regular basis back when Via cut the engine off the front of the train,and recoupled tothe oppositeend of the passenger train,over the last half dozen years CN/Via for what ever reason just turns the train with the wye east of jefferson blvd i think it has something to do with keeping the baggage car behind the engine to act as a noise buffer for the passenger coaches