Today’s two old photos come from the John Stefani collection, which he has graciously scanned and passed along for posting.
John notes that you can see the tall CKLW tower in the background of the photo, allowing us to know this was taken after 1954.
A few notes from noted local transportation historian Bernie Drouillard:
The three diesels on the right are Wabash Railway, made by GM. They had operating rights from Windsor to Fort Erie (going by memory). They later became the Norfolk & Western Railway.
The first ferry looks like the Huron. The paddlewheel behind it might be the Landsdowne. The furthest is either the Windsor or the Detroit.
You can spot the Norton Palmer and Prince Edward poking up in the horizon to the left. The tall dark building near the middle that coincides with the smokestack is the Ferry building. And you can see the British American off in the distance too. All gone.
This photo is also undated and a little harder to figure out. John checked with Bernie, and he says it looks like it was taken at the Crawford Roundhouse.
The roundhouse is still there (with minor alterations), and still in operation today. It is located in the red circle above.
Do any of our railfan readers have anything else they can add to the description? Doug?
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Doug is reserving comment until this afternoon except to ask where the Crawford roundhouse is. My knoledge of Windsor (from a railfan's perspective) is pretty much limited to the waterfront.....
Is it somewhere near this red circle that the Rail Rationalization Plan has identified a new possible VIA station?
Sorry Doug... This is the location of the roundhouse:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=1350+crawford+ave+windsor+on&sll=42.299405,-83.039603&sspn=0.007269,0.014462&ie=UTF8&ll=42.300135,-83.039775&spn=0.007269,0.014462&t=h&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1
It's located just east of the marker.
So that would make the Crawford roundhouse a Canadian Pacific/Pere Marquette (C&O) facility, right? The roundhouse along the riverfront being a CN/Wabash-N&W shop.
From our things I didn't know department, the currently 3 stall Crawford roundhouse aparently was built with 22 stalls when built in 1911. There's a great history of the CP London Division includings a map of the Crawford yard at:
http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/CPR_London/London1.htm
As to the CN facility, didn't you post (a couple of years ago) a picture of the turntable pit full of water? And no, I never did find that picture from 1965 of CN 4-8-4 6167 sitting on the turntable (under steam) prior to a Michigan Railroad Club excursion. Sorry.
Doug - Correct, CN./
Thanks for the link. As for the water in the turntable photo, I don't remeber that one. If I did post it, it wasn't mine, and I'm not sure where it came from sadly... If you ever do find those photos... :)
I remember the ld turnable and pit full of water. it was somewhere in the vicinity of the Bert Week"s (great investment) garden. I walked past it many times. i will look and see if I have a picture of it. I have some of the pumphouse before restoration and some of rail cars in the same are along the Drive.
Nice pictures from John Stefani. Thanks.
These are some really good photo's, thanks for posting them. Any idea whatever happened to the 2 rail cars that were at Tecumseh & Ouellette ? I beleive it was the Hacienda Restaurant ? Were those rail cars used around here before the dining room conversion ?
Here is a couple pictures of what the roundhouse looks like now for the CPR.
http://www.trainweb.org/swontariotrain/CPR/SD40-2%20&%20SD40-2F/slides/cpwindsoryardb.html
http://www.trainweb.org/swontariotrain/CPR/SD40-2%20&%20SD40-2F/slides/cpwindsoryardc.html
Also can see other pictures of some raiolroad stuff from this area and other southern Ontario parts on my web site as well.
http://www.trainweb.org/swontariotrain/
Nice stuff, Ian.....
Anyone know the current status of the Lansdowne? She sank last year at her dock in Erie, PA with a couple of ex-Milwaukee Road Skytop Observation cars still on her deck from when she was a resturant. I understand she was refloated, but the last thing I heard was someone wanted to sink her in Lake Erie to use as a man-made reef.
I was looking at a David Plowden book this evening with pictures of both her and the Huron and it brought back memories of standing at Brush Street Station watching them go back and forth across the river......
She is Dry dock, but i forget where shit is at this current moment. She was either still in Erie, PA, or in Buffalo Region in Dry Dock getting her haul fix. She was supposed to be moved there sometime in the past year.