Just There: Lessons from streetcar scenes in Winnipeg

I'm always impressed by the detail in old black-and-white photos. Scanning them and enlarging the resulting images seems to always yield interesting details and surprises. 

Over the past few days I've posted a few images of Winnipeg's Portage & Main that my uncle shot in the 1940s. Each included a streetcar, so I decided to blow up the streetcar section to see what there was to see. Over there on the left is the intersection of Portage & Main with a streetcar on each thoroughfare.

And here are a couple of streetcars on Portage, obscured by automobiles and pedestrians, but still clearly visible.

And finally, here's a streetcar just peeking out of the left side of the image near The Bank of Hamilton on Main St..

I think what's important in all three is that they include streetcars not by deliberate choice, but because they happened to be there when my uncle was shooting pictures of other things that interested him. They were an everyday part of the world in that era, so naturally they're just there. It's that feeling of 'just there' that I'm looking for in my model photos. Just there if I'm looking out of an office window. Just there if I'm walking across an intersection. Just there if I'm going to the bank. Just there.

The Bank of Hamilton building, Winnipeg, 1940s (?)

This magnificent structure is The Bank of Hamilton building on Winnipeg's Main St., along Banker's Row. The Heritage Winnipeg blog has this to say about the building: Started in 1916 at a cost of $400,000 and completed two years later, the building was the most lavish branch in Canada constructed by the Hamilton company.

And is now standard with these Winnipeg photos, there's a streetcar peeking out of the lower left. I don't think my uncle was particularly interested in streetcars, but I think they show up in all these photos simply because the city was busy and there were a lot of them on the streets. They were just another mundane feature of everyday life.

Another view of Portage & Main, Winnipeg, 1940s (?)

Another view of the intersection of Portage & Main in Winnipeg. Over on the right side of the image is a better view of the facade of the Canadian National Railway building. Over on the left - somewhat obscured by automobiles and pedestrians - are a couple of streetcars.

Portage & Main, Winnipeg, 1940s (?)

A photo taken from high above Main St in Winnipeg looking towards Portage Ave. circa sometime in the 1940s, although I can't be certain about the date. 

That large dark building originating on the right is The McIntyre Block. Towering above the block, near the centre of the photo, is The McArthur Building on Portage. Near the intersection is the Canadian National Railways building, which looks rather modern compared to its neighbours.

And in this photo, unlike a few others I've posted, you can see streetcars on both Portage and Main, and not just track and overhead wire :-)

Pony trap gauge

This image is sliced from a larger one I stumbled across at Shorpy. The caption states: New Orleans circa 1890. "St. Charles Hotel from Canal Street." 5x7 inch glass negative by William Henry Jackson.

I was intrigued by the pony trap rolling down the street in the left-hand set of tracks. Its wheels, although a little skewed, are rolling in the street track's groove. The ride must have been a vast improvement compared to rolling over the cobblestone street. The picture gives a lot of insight into how the gauge for horse drawn trams, and later their electrified descendants, were decided upon.

Band Car

A couple of weeks ago Vince gave me a copy of a book called Montreal's Electric Streetcars: An Illustrated History of the Tramway Era: 1892 to 1959 by Richard M. Binns, published in 1973 by Railfare Enterprises. It's excellent and I was surprised by what seems like a lot of unique rolling stock. One item is this Band Car. The caption below the photo has this to say: A happy little Car! The MTC Employees' Band had their own travelling bandstand during the early 1900s. One of its final runs was to advertise the "Alexander's Ragtime Band" movie in the early 1930s. Elsewhere near the photo it's stated that: The Band Car was 26 feet long overall by seven feet wide and weighed 15,100 lbs. It was painted light yellow and carried no decoration or lettering. I can imagine an unpowered, narrow-gauge version being built by E. L. Moore for his E & K RR, in the spirit of the Spumoni Club Coach, a powered vehicle that was - inadvertently I admit - built as an unpowered coach. Or, building it as a powered trolley for an electric street railway, would open-up a lot of good stories. And speaking of stories, I leave you with Tyrone Power, Alice Faye, Don Ameche, Jack Haley, and Ethel Merman....take it away Irv....

Flying Tiger PCC

Vince and I were chatting and I mentioned an interesting old book I bought over the summer: The Los Angeles Railway Through The Years by Steven L. Easklon, published in 1973. One of the things I particularly like about it is it's chock full of photos, and lots of them are L.A. street scenes of the 1930s and 1940s. Even so, this PCC photo attributed to William Bassler jumped out at me. Its caption reads: Above is P.C.C. #3010 at the east end of the "P" line sporting the famous Flying Tiger paint scheme during World War II advertising a need for streetcar motormen. That would make one impressive model, especially in TTC red.

Rochester streetcar track and house fire?

I'm still sorting through batches of old photos. This one was likely shot in Rochester, New York early in the 20th century. It's an odd picture. When I zoomed into where the action is happening, it looks like two hoses are stretched across the road. On the centre track in the distance, I thought I made out what might be a horse drawn trolley, but it's not, it's a horse drawn carriage that is almost on the track. Just to the left, and a little above it, the top of a streetcar on the other track is peeking out. Is that large, horse drawn wagon in the right foreground a piece of fire-fighting equipment? I'm not sure what it happening, but the whole thing gives me the impression that some sort of fire emergency might be on the go.

Interurban line by a lake

I was going through some old envelopes from my father's place and stumbled across these two photos pasted in a small album. I have no idea when or where they were shot. Maybe they were taken around Rochester, New York as my relatives lived there in the early 20th century. Maybe they're somehow related to these photos of an interurban crash or derailment I came across a few years ago. In the top photo you can see the car way down there in the distance. In the bottom photo you can see how close the track is to the lakeshore.

Peter Witt streetcars, Toronto

This image of a line of Toronto Transit Commission Peter Witt streetcars is cropped from a larger photo taken by my father, probably in the late 1940s. Location? Down on the lakeshore somewhere is my guess. What are the Witts doing there? I have no idea. Also, the photo isn't sharp enough to read the sign on top of that large building on the left.

Here's another Witt image cropped from another of my father's photos. Same vintage. Likely taken the same day as the first one. The only building I can identify is that tall, thin one just right of centre. That's the Canadian Bank of Commerce Building. It was built in 1929, and was the tallest building in the Commonwealth until 1962.

Car 55

Being August, the Canadian National Exhibition will open soon for another year. I took this photo at the Ex sometime in the mid to late '70s. Vince informs me that it's Toronto Civc Railways car 55 that now resides at the Halton County Radial Railway museum. I took this picture with some sort of Kodak Instamatic camera that used 110 film. And to add to the nostalgia, I came across this CNE streetcar transfer from '79 while going through some of my mum's old photos.

Somewhere along the TTC streetcar tracks....

... in late 1940's Toronto. Where exactly? I have no idea.

Portage Ave., Winnipeg, 1944

Portage Avenue at Hargrave, Winnipeg, September 1944; Caption and photo by William Henry Wood.

There's a streetcar in the distance. I zoomed in on the scanned photo, but since the original section was rather small, the result was also rather small, grainy, and didn't reveal anything.

Winnipeg streetcar

As best I can tell this shot was taken in Winnipeg, Manitoba, sometime in 1944. Where in Winnipeg? I have no idea. One store signs appears to read 'Avenue Grill', and another says 'Dunn's Tailors'. The car number is 36. Photo by William Henry Wood.

I came across this street scene with a streetcar amongst my Uncle Bill's photos. No annotations. I think it was taken in 1944 in Winnipeg given its location in the photo album. It was cropped from this one,

Photo by William Henry Wood.

This one was right beside the streetcar photo, and I think it also was shot in or around Winnipeg. 

That big black sign with large white letters painted on the building (centre, right) says 'F. H Lepper and Co., Plumbing and Gas Fitting'. Photo by William Henry Wood.

I looked around the web a bit to see if I could find anything that might help me identify the location and came across Winnipeg Streetcar 356 Restoration. They have a link to this fascinating video about the history of the Winnipeg streetcar system,

Backtracks from Beth Azore on Vimeo.

I highly recommend viewing it. It has professional production values, restored photos and film clips, isn't overly sentimental, and doesn't shy away from discussing the types of people and business activities it takes to build such a system.

Interurban derailment?

Over the Thanksgiving weekend I was going through the family archives and came across these three photographs. They weren't all in the same albums, but the first and third may have been taken at the same event. I don't know if the second one is part of the group, but the body language of the men in the photo suggests something important might be happening.

All I know about these photos is purely speculative. My best guess is that they were taken somewhere in upstate New York, possibly near Rochester, sometime in the 1920s.

Saturday, 28 April 1923, Highland Park, Rochester, NY

I recently came across these photos in our family archive. The first is a view apparently taken along South Avenue in Rochester, New York, opposite Highland Park. I don't know the company that operated the streetcar. The bottom photo is looking into the park. Although I know I shouldn't be, I'm always amazed at the difference between the early 20th century and its final years.