Rail Photos – 1984

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• If you live near railroad tracks there will be trains. People tend to move near industry,railroads, and other thins then complain about the noise. A few years ago they built houses near a factory on Pallato rd. in Tecumseh, then the home buyers complained about the factory noise.

• I thought these were the ones I missed at the slide show lol

  Interesting that the Jefferson spur will be seeing more action! For some reason, I was hoping CN would stop using the Chatham sub so Essex Terminal could hook up to the sub again and serve Hiram Walker. I guess that's alot of wishing just so I can get some shots of ETR at the riverfront lol.

• The only line CN wants to help ETR connect to is the unemployment one.

  These shots were not featured at the slide show - that was all analog presentation, hence only slides. These are scanned prints. The next slide show should be all digital to showcase scanned prints.

• Nice photos, thanks for the memories! I remember as a kid going up and down Riverside Drive and seeing the riverfront train tracks and ferry launches.

  This new route CN freights are taking is interesting if a bit convoluted. I guess CN has their reasons. And yeah, to hear the Mayor of Tecumseh complaining about this new rail traffic is laughable. In its heyday the Chatham Sub saw a TON of freight rumble through the town.

• Interesting stuff. I used to live in Calgary so I am more familiar with Western Railroad history, primarily CPR. Question for you guys. What is the old steamer hiding in the shadows in the first couple of photos? I can tell it is CN but that is all. There must be a wealth of rail history in your part of the country.

• Ols Skool... good eye to catch sight of the steam locomotive. This unit was built to Grand Trunk specifications as a P-6 Pacific class locomotive and numbered as 213. It was built in 1911 at the Montreal Locomotive Works Point St Charles facility. In 1923 it was renumbered as 5588 under Canadian National ownership and classed as a K-3. Most of its service time was spent on the London-Stratford-Owen Sound route and based in Palmerston. In 1955 it was transferred to the London roundhouse and made its last run Palmerston to London in 1959. In 1963 the Windsor Chapter of the Historic Vehicle Society of Ontario acquired the locomotive and dedicated it in its present location as "The Spirit of Windsor". 5588 is the only survivor
  of not just the thirty-nine Pacifics built at Point St. Charles but of all the P-6 (K-3)Pacifics built for the Grand trunk Railway. Windsor has a rich railroad history but unfortunately little evidence remains.

• I wish there was a lot more history present of our railroad history.

  I love pictures like this and wish there was a site based off the history of Windsor's railway. Throughout Windsor there is areas where tracks once were but are no longer there. Wish I could see where these tracks led.

• JBM, thanks man. So that makes it a Canajun Alco? Wouldn't mind taking a peek should I get to your fair city

• Kyle - for any geographical region, check out SPV's Railroad Atlas series. The ones titled "Ontario" and "Great Lakes West" cover the Detroit/Windsor/Southwestern Ontario region and contain detailed maps of every single railroad route, past and present, that ever criss-crossed the land - including the streetcar lines! They offer detail views of populated areas (Windsor included) and the county, plus information (previous owners and operators / history, abandoned, current status, etc). Plus there are ones for any region, as I mentioned.

  http://www.spv.co.uk/acatalog/Canada.html#aATON

  And not to promote Action Hobbies on the site here... but in the interest of promoting local history interest and reference, the shop does carry those at the shop (I mention this because I believe Action Hobbies is the only place you can get them in the area), along with several other books that all have local Windsor/Detroit/Essex County/southwestern Ontario pictorial histories of local rail operations. Morning Sun's series are the absolute best, IMO - they have one on the history of the Michigan Central (a division of New York Central, and the name of the railroad that the iconic Michigan Central Station pictured above gets it's name from) that has vintage colour slide photography dating back into the 40's and 50's. Those are also stocked at the shop - and an FYI, the shop's prices beat those of the listed prices online by $5-$10 or more.

  My apologies, Andrew, for the quasi-commercial here! Just trying to help promote reference resources! :D

• And yes, in the link above, that is, believe it or not, Windsor/Essex gracing the cover of the Ontario book. You don't see that very often! :D