W E S T E R N D I S T R I C T

This afternoon’s Scaledown Radio was as usual hosted by blogster Chris Holt with guests Bernie Drouillard, Ron Drouillard, and yours truly discussing an upcoming exhibit to take place at the Art Gallery of Windsor from Oct. 3 to Dec. 3.  The exhibit will feature historic photos, route maps, artifacts, and much more of our area’s historic and forgotten past as innovators and leaders in light rail urban and interurban transit.  All of this with an eye on bringing streetcars back to Windsor and Essex county.  Other communities have already rediscovered light rail and have benefited greatly from it.  Why not us?

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On the corner of Parent and Tecumseh Rd. E, this very old former car dealership is the latest to fall prey to the busy building eaters of Windsor. For those who remember, it was for the longest time a thriving GM dealership under Bill Howitt. After that it went through a succession of occupants including Hyundai and Overseas Motors.  I am not sure if anyone else remembers anything about the history of this location? I am told the very rear section dates back to at least the ’30s when it was a Bell Canada building. More in-depth history at International Metropolis.

This 1952 Plymouth Cranbrook is special to its owner, my old friend Jeff,  whom I grew up with on Pelissier street in the ’70s. The reason it is so special is that it rolled off the line at the Windsor Assembly Plant some fifty-seven years ago, built by the hands of UAW Local 195.  With some TLC it is once again a daily driver.  This is not a professional restoration destined for a life behind a rope in a snooty museum. It’s simply a well made car hailing from a forgotten era.  Only one part (in the 6v electrical system) has been replaced with a modern solid state equivelant. Some other parts were harvested from a 2nd “parts” Cranbrook. The rest is original, including the 95hp flathead straight 6 and smooth-shifting “three on the tree” manual transmission. No on-board computer here to tether you to a dealer mechanic, nor any $500 motors for rolling windows up/down. But this is still the best way to take a summer drive out to Amherstburg and back, hands down.

Built in 1896, this interesting and well-maintained Tilbury church faces the Thames river and serves the second oldest parish in southwestern Ontario.

A former SW&A streetcar lays to rest in a field at the Halton County Radial Railway.  Could we one day be penning a new chapter in Windsor’s history as being a leader in light rail public transportation?

In the 1930s, at the London (now University) street garage:

Drouillard road is a district that retains its 1930s working class charm; a blank canvas ripe for revitalization, its historic structures unscathed by the scourge of aluminum cladding, stucco, and other cruel “renovations”.

Obviously once a busy town centre, this intersection on Winter Line road is now vacant and derelict, of interest only to motorists quickly passing through.  The old roadhouse appears to have served as multi-residential for a time.

Today we set the wayback machine for the 1930s.  Where the CN tracks cross Gleeson Line in Tilbury there exists what may be the last operational set of railway crossing wigwams in Canada.  Mention has been made in the last year that these will be soon replaced by modern crossing signals.