Salt Mine Collapse

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• thanks Heywood! i wonder if that's why the wall on the brick building is missing.

  did or do you work for the ETR? i have always had a love for that line since i grew up at elsmere and hanna, right next to the old wearhouse/factory spur serving kelsey-hayes and the like. that's what sparked my interest in trains, when that line was torn out i was very sad.
  i still remember them spotting cars at the windsor medical center, and finding incredibly old ties (c. 1912 i think) just north of the ROW sparating hanna and gigiac park.....that's when my interest in history started.
  if you do or did work for them, do you know how i can go about finding old track plans, or customers served...better yet....old photos? some kind of company archive prehaps?
  i've read the history at the ETR site, and the "historical map" doesn't help except for telling me there are multipule maps that go with the one on line.
  i plan on modeling as much of the line as i can and without these materials i'm stuck to what i can see in the terms of scars in the earth on google maps where ROW's used to be.

  i'm happy to be working where i am now because i get to see the ETR everyday again switching and spotting cars around ADM. i think it was engine 108 just finished up at the ojibway yard and crossed ojibway parkway headed home.
  if you could help me out with that info i would greatly appreciate it!

  oops....sorry for the rant everyone. way off topic!

• Aaron, start here http://www.shepleyrail.com/phpBB3/

• Aaron,

  Yes to all the above. but I must defer to a "good friend" of mine, now if he will chime in here, you will be in for a treat.
  You lived by what we called the' factory branch'. Back in the day there were coal yards all down that branch. Once Auto Spec, Chrysler, Kelsey Hayes and LA Young left town we lifted the rail and sold the property.

• john, haywood....you guys rock! thanks a bunch!!!

  is it Mr. Droulliard we're waiting for here? lol i figured it would either be john or bernie.

  i have to say, i wasn't happy watching houses being built on the ROW. it just ment the train was never coming back. but as a rule of thumb i suppose, once rails are lifted they never return.
  i remember the whole east side of langlois street between hanna and techumseh being lumpy, empty feilds. only to find out a spur cut right thru the middle of that block and it was all industry! and my car is currently parked a foot away from the roadbed that used to head to the brighton beach plant. i can't help imagining ol' #9 chuffing along the property here...which by the way was a special treat to go for a ride on. loved the look on everyones face as we came around the bend and crossed crawford!.

  Andrew - can we do a post on the ETR?? if there's one longtime windsor buisness......

• Heywood, history will live on because of our curiosity and love of learning about things. Yardmaster, Moe told us the story regarding this event and look at all the people leaning about the roll the E.T.R. played in this 55 years later. Sure glad I was able to ask him his description of this part of history.

• Yes this is where our Government wants to build a bridge sink holes & all.
  I don’t know who is the worst enemy in Canada the Government or the CAW Union.
  In Canada the Government & the Union both steal you blind.

• Where the cave in happened was closer to the raceway , the land on brighton beach has been extensively drilled and tested over a couple year period before the new power plant was built but also again when the feds were looking for a new bridge site . The enviromental studies all passed .

• The Cave ins were attributed to unmapped abandoned Salt Brime wells.Glaciers my ass!

• A couple of years after this picture was taken a friend and I went searching for the buildings that sunk into the ground at the salt mine. We found one that was still standing but on quite a tilt. We went inside and the floor gave way beneath me. I rode the big chunk of floor to the level below. As I passed through the hole, I scrapped my arms which I was holding above my head. The skin was scrapped and bloody and looked quite nasty. I had a difficult time explaining the injuries to my mom.

  Nice website.

  Cheers!

• I well remember the day of the sinking—a Sunday—and my family even drove down to see it (we were west-enders). According to the newspaper report the next day, there was great concern for public safety regarding the two tanks, seen at lower right in the photo. They were full of chlorine gas. Nothing happened, though.