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Caption: Flags a Flying....NS&T #83 south bound on Elm Street (Cranberry St.) at George Street in the Humberstone section of Port Colborne. On the left is the former Humberstone Builders Supply (long since closed, now building demolished, soon to be housing), in the distance the Humberstone Shoe Company that dates from the early 1900's. The company was formed by German immigrant shoemakers that grew out of a small shop to over 400 employees at one point producing over 1,000,000 pairs of footwear per year. At the end of production the factory had the contract with the Canadian Armed Forces for military boots, and made steel toed boots for commercial / industrial markets as well. The plant was converted to apartments in the 1990's. The ballpark on the right still exists on land donated by the Humberstone Shoe Company, and is aptly named Humberstone Shoe Park.
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This is so great. Thank you.
Great quality photo and very historic!
What a great look back in time. It is saddening that every community once had industry that made things for the people. And almost all of it has disappeared over the years so we can support China.
Agree Arnold…what is even more interesting…they were homegrown Industries, invented in PtC, Welland or St Catharines (and many other parts of Ontario and Canada in general)….that is the part that is lost on the Politicians and Leaders of today, not only did we make our own stuff, but we did it with Companies created locally….
Wow, what a neat scene.
Thanks for all the kind comments…Cheers MIKE
I see a spur in the distance..
Yes Steve…good eyes…the factory had a warehouse that ran south from Main, parallel to Elm ending at Neff, boxcars were picked up by the NS&T, not sure if freight shipments lasted into the diesel age, I do not remember the spur being there when the line was removed in the mid 80s..the SW corner of Main and Elm had a long history of industrial
activity, originally the Neff Foundry was there, the Neff family transitioned to Bicycles, later versions were very similar to todays “safety” bikes, as the 2 wheel craze started to die down, they took a run at Automobile production,..the so called NEFF STEAM BUGGY completed in 1901 is purported to be the 2nd oldest surviving CDN built car (PC Museum has it)…sadly the Neff factory was destroyed by fire around 1910ish…paving the way for the Humberstone Shoe Factory
Thank you for the explanation. So when was the last train down this line?
Canada Starch (now Jungbunzlauer) opened 1983, the connection to Feeder was made, then the push south to Robin Hood, line was complete 1984…so my guess street running ended in 84…as I recall the rails came in on railcars and went north on Elm to the Robin Hood yard…ELM had extra Red and Green lights for each stoplight…not that the Engineer paid much attention to them….