Dougall Super-Highway – 1931

View Comments

• It's strange to see hydro poles running down the median,the absence of cars in the photo except the two in the photo is stranger yet when you think about how this stretch of road is todayi don't think there ever was a third railroad bridge it looks like South Cameron is ahead on the right

• There were 3 bridges in a photo from 1972... I will send along.

• I believe that they were still in place into the 80s , you have to remember that at on time these tracks led into a fairly significant rail yard near Howard where the Round House shopping plaza is (Thus the name) and trains shunted in and out on many tracks.

• These were the tracks of the New York Central System. The Michigan Central Railroad was part of the NYCS and merged in to it in, I believe, about 1930.

  The original Canada Southern Railroad in Essex County ran in a virtual straight line from Tilbury through Essex to just north of Amherstburg when built. It went bankrupt and was bought by Cornelius Vanderbilt in the 1870's and thus became part of what became the NYCS.

  The MCR was also acquired by Vanderbilt in the late 1870's. He decided to let the MCR lease the Canada Southern, so as to have a mainline from Detroit to Buffalo along the north shore of Lake Erie. The MCR terminal was in Detroit, so the "Essex Cutoff" was built running from Essex to west Windsor to connect the original CASO mainline to the MCR in Detroit in the most efficient way.

  Rail equipment was ferried over the river for a few decades but this wasn't efficient so as soon as technology allowed, the MCR built the Detroit River Tunnel (opened 1911 or so).

  As part of that scheme, a new station was built on Peltier street just north of Tecumseh Road. This station had the Canadian Pacific as a tenant, and CPR passenger trains were allowed to use the Detroit River Tunnel by trackage rights. But the station and the tunnel were owned by the MCR/NYCS. And a massive east and west yard was built that stretched from about Tecumseh Road, all the way to Howard. It was largely out in the country still so perhaps didn't register with Windsorites as much as it should have.

  The MCR/NYCS presence in the City was, for decades, by far the largest railroad operation. You could get on a train at the MCR station and get to Chicago, New York, or Boston, without leaving your seat.

  It's the MCR who built these grade separations, because Dougall basically ran right between the eastbound and westbound yards.

• If you go to the Canada Southern site you can see many pictures of the New York Central system and it large yards that stretched from the River to Howard Ave. one map shows the three overpasses, one north of the other two.

• That's what I thought I know there was a track directly into the coaling tower and roundhouse once upon a time

• I travelled down Dougall countless times over my years in Windsor, and definitely remember that there were three rail overpasses when I left in the 70's.

• There were three viaducts up until about 1998 or 1999 I think it was. I don't think the other two viaducts saw any use since CN took over in the mid 80s and redesigned/rebuilt the yard lead, but they remained standing well into the late 90s.

• I got 5$ says they joined the the 2 bridges in the photo "hence the shadows" and eliminated the one to the north of the photographer recently, drove thru there 6 times today for work n all i could see was one wide underpass and a 1929 concrete imprint

• I don't think all 3 overpasses survived until the late '90s. I thought it was only 2 there.