RHODES: 1929 wreck brought end to CW and LE railway

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On June 12, 1929, Chatham, Wallaceburg and Lake Erie railway motorman Tom Cooper was involved in a disastrous wreck, and I will explain that a bit later in the story. 

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Thomas Henry Cooper was born in 1886 and is first listed in the town directories in 1912 as being a labourer, but his employer is not mentioned. 

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He was an employee of the CW and LE, I believe, from 1914 to the demise of the railway in 1930. 

He started out as a brakeman and later became a conductor and ultimately a motorman.  

The directories indicate that he left the railway for a brief period in 1918 to work for Gray Dort, which was a prospering automobile assembly company with three large factories in Chatham.  

I came across Tom’s name while researching a 19th-century seven-unit row house known as the Wellington Terrace Apartments which was located at 65 Wellington St. W., northeast corner of Wellington and Fourth streets. Tom lived in the most westerly unit of the building which pre-dated 1875.  

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It, no doubt, was a valued property in its day but by the mid 1950s it was run down and worn out. It was then torn down and its property became a parking lot in which function it continues, but I do understand that the site is slated for development.  

Tom, all told, worked for the CW and LE for about 15 years and was with the railway at its demise. Tom, unfortunately, was parcel to that demise.

Seeing Tom’s name as a tenant of the Wellington Terrace, I was reminded of a major incident in his life.  

The CW and LE, over time, had phased out their street cars in favour of an expanding freight business which involved a daily freight train between Charing Cross and Wallaceburg.  

They had developed enough business to operate a daily service freighting merchandise between the New York Central, at Charing Cross, and Wallaceburg. 

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To accommodate this business they purchased a powerful Westinghouse Baldwyn freight motor which was one of four that had been used to build the hydroelectric complex at Niagara Falls. Tom was the motorman on this freight.  

On June 12, 1929, Tom was operating the No. 11 freight which was pulling an overloaded string of gondola cars, northward, across Third Street Bridge. 

One of the cars went through the deck of the bridge and ended up in a vertical position with one end lodged in the river mud and the other leaning against the south pier of the bridge. 

The bridge was put out of operation for several months.  

CW and LE was now out of business permanently.  

At the demise of the CW and LE Tom became an artist and operated out of his home in the Wellington Terrace.  

I am not sure about the fields he specialized in, but I recall seeing a painting he did of No. 11 many years ago, and it was very nicely done. I am sure it still exists, but I do not know what became of it.  

During the Second World War Tom was employed at the Chatham Chrysler plant, and I believe he retired before 1959. 

He died in 1971 and reposes in Maple Leaf Cemetery.   

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