Let's go to the beach! London & Port Stanley Railway Company - Postcards

It is far too hot for dandy highly-technical articles on the electrification of the L&PS from archive.org. 

Instead, here are some postcards which I've been chilling in the freezer for you.

This fine summary of the history of the line is the best and most concise writing you'll ever see on the subject. 

It is from:

The Intercity Electric Railway Industry in Canada; John F Due; 1966; University of Toronto Press.

If you are curious ... Footnote 14 (below) just refers to an unpublished thesis by another author circa the 1940s.

*  *  *

All of the postcards below bear serial numbers indicating they were published in 1918 - although the photos may have been taken at a earlier date.

The photo immediately below also appears in the wartime annual report spanning the years 1916-1919.

A century ago, the seemingly 'endless' supply of coal-free hydro-electricity fuelled both economic optimism and large projects which would consume it.

*  *  *

If you look closely, you will be able to see one of the freight motors used on the L&PS on the tail of the Port Stanley wye track (see the map at the end). It seems likely that freight motors were employed on especially busy days when long trains were necessary to meet passenger demand. 

With the war still on during the summer of 1918 (theoretically, the latest possible date for this '1918 postcard' photo) ... you can see that automobiles were surprisingly common even then. This is a bad omen for the future of the L&PS.

*  *  *

Finally! ... we have a postcard which was actually used and postmarked. I was quite curious about the unlikely possibility of casino-based legalized gambling in Port Stanley a century ago. 

However, there are many definitions of casino which predate our modern acceptance of legalized gambling in all places at all times using smartphones. Elsewhere on the internet are photos of the large, open-air wooden dance floor on the second level of this ... casino. 

*  *  *

Here is the most historically interesting page showing L&PS facilities and operations from that multi-year wartime annual report.

from: The London & Port Stanley Railway, Annual Reports 1916-1919; London Railway Commission (reprint).

*  *  *

Below, you can see the London & Port Stanley tracks in Port Stanley circa 1920.

from: Historical Topographic Map Digitization Project - https://ocul.on.ca/topomaps/collection/

from: Historical Topographic Map Digitization Project - https://ocul.on.ca/topomaps/collection/

The South Western Traction Company (above) was completed from London to Port Stanley in 1907. Its barns and most of its cars were destroyed by fire shortly thereafter. The SWTC's interurban-type operations also ran along city streets. Comparing its rural routing side-by-side with the L&PS (above), you can see that even in the country, the SWTC could never be considered direct or high speed.

Once the London and Port Stanley acquired heavy, powerful 'hydro-electric' equipment which could run at a relatively high speed ... the SWTC could not compete. Operations of the SWTC were ended in October 1918 and the line was immediately scrapped.