Again from the Library of Congress/Detroit Publishing Co. collection, today is a view of Devonshire Road looking north from about 1912. The Bank of Commerce on the left hand side was designed by Albert Kahn, and built in 1906.
As always it’s the details. A nice view of the Walkerville street light, and two gentlemen on the front steps of the bank.
A partial view of the front of the old train station. The Walker Power Building to the rear was built in 1911, and designed by Stahl, Kinsey, and Chapman. Note the “cars stop here” sign at the junction. Maybe Bernie can explain the use of the sign?
Lastly a view of the Crown Inn building and the home today of Talooa Cafe, occupied then by The Dominion Bank.
Just a guess, but since there’s a switch there the “Cars stop here” sign probably tells the streetcars to stop to make sure the switch is aligned properly. Streetcars aren’t easy to reverse so you had to get it right.
i don’t see the sign your referring to great photos especially the old pere marquette station it looks so barren in that part of the city now it’s hard to see but they had sections of rail in the parking area i’m guessing after the one section of the train station was taken that say C&O employees i’ll try and photograph them the next time i’m in that area
From “http://spacingtoronto.ca/2011/07/01/a-history-of-torontos-transit-stops/”
“The first streetcar stops were marked, usually at street corners, between 1891 and 1921. These were the early days of the electric Toronto Railway Company, the principal transit company (three other companies operated streetcars on the fringes of Toronto’s city limits until the creation of the public TTC in 1921) .
Previously, horse-powered cars could be boarded anywhere, so stop signs were not required, but faster electric vehicles necessitated defined stops. In Toronto, the first car stops were long bands of white paint on adjacent metal or wooden poles with the text “CARS STOP HERE””
I somehow find it comforting that someone has written a history of transit stops.
Gary
the sign at the top middle of the 3rd picture, hanging from the streetcar wires
oh! there it is! thanks Freeman i better get new glasses i was looking for something closer to the ground i lived in Toronto 5 years ago what used to facinate me was the way the street car drivers switched tracks they inserted a metal rod with a hook on the end of it into a hole beside the track right where the switch was located it must have been a grand time to live in windsor back then with all the fine things the city had back then buildings, trolley’s,etc
As always what a great photo! Love the detail that today’s photos seem to lack. Also, it is comforting that some of the buildings still exist today.
Fantastic photo Andrew! I have this one as well, but not able to get such a detailed zoom.
Gary, as far as the TTC streetcars switching with poles. Those are only used on little used switches, otherwise the driver has buttons on the floor which he pushes with his foot and that switches the track.
thats interesting to know Aaron like i said i saw the driver get off a couple times and use the metal road i mentioned i’m curious about something is there any photo i know it would have been a little early for aerial photos it would be interesting to see the route the streetcar tracks took i wonder if the track just before the train station that goes to the left looped say down assumption to maybe Lincoln road then went up over the peabody bridge another thing that amazes me is how clean the street looks
Aaron in the third photo if you look at the hedge on the bottom left of the photo that steel railing near the hedge still exists to this day in the area where the front of the station is in the photo after this part of the station was taken down the railroad used that part of the property was used for employee parking the signs still exist if you look real hard it says C&O employees on the railing
Aaron, a minor correction about activating switches from inside the streetcar. It is a button on the dash.
Wonder where that northward track was going after that turnout switch? It has got to be just a tail track (short stretch of track for a car to stop and park) as surely they wouldn’t tackle crossing (called a “diamond”) the PM (C&O) and Great Western (CN) tracks — but if they did, maybe it connected with the (streetcar or Hiram Walker rail spur?) track on Sandwich St. East (Riverside Dr.).
That shot of what is now Talooa’s cafe is where I worked (1951) as a (very) young telegraph operator; it was the Walkerville branch of Canadian National Telegraph Co. The main office was at 364 Ouellette Ave. which served the rest of Windsor.
Amazing that property is still in use. It was very old when I worked there!
Ken, I was trying so hard to remember what you told me about the streetcars in our e-mails Lol! Thanks for the correction! And yes, thats just a tail track.
Gary – check the post from the other day when we were all talking about the tracks in this area to find out where that track goes.
The post that Bernie provided info in.
Thanks Gary, I always wondered what that why railing is there and figured it was used for something from a time long passed.
i’ll do that Aaron
Ken i remember after the csx station burned the CSX used that office for a few months for possible train orders bills of lading by that time their trains only went as far as the interchange with the ESSEX TERMINAL
if you take a look to the east of the old bank office on assumption just past the curve in the road there are still tracks in the pavement there i’m pretty sure those tracks once belonged to the PM who switched that spur i think that was the original spur for WALKERS tank farm
Can anyone remember the last time a Pere Maquette train operated in the Windsor to St. Thomas line?
I can remember back to the early fifties when C&O where still runing steam, they switched Leamington twice a day, if you where lucky some crews would let you ride in the locomoyive.
Later when the blues GPs can whe also got ride them while switching. In those days if you where careful and kept out of the way good things happened.
As I said befor ethe Belt line car would turn left onto Assumption, the track that goes straight on Devonshire was to service the PM station. Later the Erie Street car used this track to service the station and was the end of the Erie car line. The Erie car line run from here up Devonshire, turned left on Wyandotte, right on Monmouth which was double track to Ottawa, right on Ottawa, right on Parent, left on Erie, right on Ouellett, left on Sandwich and left on Ferry where the terminal was (today St. Clair College).
The Cars Stop Here sign is where the car has to stop and the Condutor would get out and switch the track. All street cars in the Border Cities then where operated by two men crew.
Richard i remember as a kid i didn’t live far from the C&O line i don’t know when the last PM train ran on this line a steam engine would have been a grand thing to see but i do remember the blue GP-7’s that plyed this line once in awhile the crew would stop for lunch at the Tecumseh Rd crossing and get coffee and hotdogs at the snack bar at the Dominion store a few times we were allowed to ride in the cab as far south as walkerville Jct thats something i’ll never forget quite a thrill for a 13 year old boy about 15 years ago i was given an old box of signal maintainer reports from the 40’s and 50’s by the fella that worked out of the section house at Pelton there were probably at least a couple hundred from over the years at the top of each page it said Cheseapeke&Ohio railroad PERE MARQUTTE DISTRICT i wish i still had those they got lost somewhere along the way rich the C&O took over the line in 1947
Richard i belong to the Pere Marquette historical society any othe r info you have on Canadian Division operations way back then would be appreciated i know that the pere Marquette ran i passenger train between chatham and windsor every day i think their designation was 17&18 i just recently joined so i don’t have alot of info other than what i’ve found on my own i’m curious if you remember the mixed that ran up and down the line
THe only imformation about the line was from the early fifties on. At that time they served one tobbaco warehouse on Ivan St. two coal dealers, Truaxt Lumber,later Bennie Lumber or vise versa same location, four produce dealers Erie,James King, Howard James,andone on the south side of tracks near the station, their was also a gravel pit on the way to Ruthven.Their was also a diamond with NYC just west of Elliot St.
I do not remember ever seeing any passenger trains, only mixed freight with the mix of the time.
Pretty interesting folks. I’m with Bytown Railway Society (out of some place called Ottawa), but have just joined the Toronto and York division of the Canadian Railway Historical Association, so I’m “brushing up” on the rest of Southern Ontario, e.g., Windsor/Walkerville. I read somewhere (wish I could recall exactly) that C&O ran a mixed passenger & freight on a 3-times-per-week ‘tween Walkerville & St. Thomas, but maybe only as far as Chatham. Of interest, though, was on a return journey to Walkerville it ran into an open switch and struck some cars at — I think — Canadian Bridge Company’s siding. Gay mentions trains 17 and 18 and he’s a member of the P.M. historical society, so maybe his group will have more info.
Oh. Excuse the typo, it’s “Gary”…
Great picture. Great building. I bank there and love going in.
i came into posession of a book recently that deals with the railroads that helped bring windsor into existance there’s a short chapter about the Pere Marquette railroad apparently passenger service on that line dropped off so drasticlly that in 1932 passenger service was reduced to a coach on the end of regular freight trains hence the mixed but by 1942 this practice was discontinued all togeather ending passenger service all togeather