Streetcar No. 351's finder gets national recognition
Bernie Drouillard, the amateur railway historian who was instrumental in the discovery and saving of Windsor's Streetcar No. 351, has been recognized with an Award of Excellence from the Canadian Urban Transit Association.
The 102-year-old streetcar has since been taken over by the City of Windsor, which funded a $750,000 restoration and is preparing to build a $7-million Celestial Beacon project on riverfront parkland near Askin Avenue to house it. But the story started about 13 years ago with Drouillard making an “astounding” discovery — a rusting 50-foot hulk of rotting wood and steel — inside an old cottage in Belle River.
No. 351 is one of only three known streetcars remaining from 220 that used to operate in Windsor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The other two belong to museums, so restoring No. 351 was seen as Windsor's last opportunity to showcase its electric railway history. Windsor was the first city in Canada to operate electric streetcars starting in 1886.
No. 351 was built in 1918 in Cincinnati and operated in New Jersey before being one of 20 purchased and brought to Windsor in 1927.
An attempt to restore the streetcar privately by businessmen Van Niforos and George Sofos didn't work out, and Drouillard was involved in the city taking it over.
“Bernie went above and beyond and inspired many to work together to restore this vital piece of transit history,” Mayor Drew Dilkens said in a news release issued Thursday to congratulate Drouillard. “Bernie is a deserving recipient of this award for his continued commitment to preserving and bridging the knowledge gap in the history of transit for the City of Windsor.”
The award is meant to recognize a person who made a major contribution to the betterment of a public transit initiative. It was presented recently at the CUTA'S virtual transit conference.