When someone handed Dave Tanner of Windsor a radiator cap from a 1923 Ford Model T, they told him it would make a nice paperweight. A paperweight — what we call things that are pretty but useless.
Instead, Tanner built the rest of the Model T Depot Hack the rad cap had originally come from. This is the way Dave Tanner works – still –at age 77. You can see his handiwork, and that of hundreds of his colleagues, at the Canadian Transportation Museum and Heritage Village.
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It’s the volunteers who build, restore, fundraise and plan, reaching back in history as they simultaneously look to the future.
To call the museum a hidden gem is an understatement; tucked deep in the heart of Essex County, it’s located in Kingsville, just a spit from the Detroit-Windsor border. As you drive a rally-worthy set of directions through farming concessions, all of a sudden there it is, a modern one-storey building set back from the road, nestled in what I will find out is 100 acres of forest and fields.
1923 Model T Depot Hack that Dave Tanner rebuilt after being given the rad cap as a paperweight.
Lorraine Sommerfeld, Driving
Sixty years ago, a bunch of old-car guys (the cars, not necessarily the guys) with the Historic Vehicle Society of Ontario (HVSO) gathered in the rural neck of the woods and asked themselves the same question most old-car guys eventually ask themselves: how do we preserve, promote and pass on this passion for such an important element in our culture? How do we harness generations of metal and mankind?
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Inside the museum, dozens of vehicles outline a proud history of the Canadian connection to the automotive industry, with conveyances from the mid 1800s up to a flash Viper. A swath of permanent exhibits are augmented by vehicles on loan from generous collectors; while I was there, a 1927 once owned by Charles Lindbergh was being featured, one of many rides sporting a Concours plate from several of those highbrow shows.
A three-wheeled Isetta from the 50s proudly sports its BMW badge, its peel-back leather roof a reminder that a front-end collision involving its single door would have left the occupant with no other means of escape. Displays are lovingly crafted with generous attention to detail; you visit the car, you also visit the era.
1927 Packard owned by Charles Lindbergh.
Lorraine Sommerfeld, Driving
A generous benefactor helped the car museum building come into being; the Heritage Village located in back has evolved as they’ve extended their historic reach to include buildings dating from the late 1700s to the 1920s that were otherwise slated for demolition. Laid out beneath a forest canopy, you can tour original buildings, including cabins, a schoolhouse, a general store, a jail and a church.
A fire hall houses 20 ambulances and fire trucks of varying vintages. The Museum retains a full-time teacher on staff and has extensive education programs that have made it a truly one-of-a-kind field trip for thousands of students
With so many moving parts, on-going funding is always a struggle; they’ve added a full 1950s-era diner on site, as well as a gift shop and a rental hall, and you can even get married in the heritage church. Special events are staged throughout the season, from auctions, flea markets, tours, dinners, festivals and, of course, car shows. Mark July 19th down, when they’ll be holding an all-British car show, an event going on 20 years now featuring about 100 cars. Without the support of so many volunteers, it simply couldn’t exist.
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Dave Tanner, he of the rad cap, started life in Lutterworth, England, as an engineering pattern maker. That skill, that ability to create anything out of wood, has made him a special asset to The Museum. From that rad cap, he sourced a frame, an engine and a chassis. “And I thought, I can make a wooden body…”
In those pre-Internet days, that meant scouring magazines for a pattern company in Pennsylvania. “These cars were originally sold with the body as an option. It was sold in a flat pack, so what I did really wasn’t that odd, if you think about it.” Not odd perhaps, but stunning. The resulting coach is a work of art, lovingly brought back to life by one man, and all from a radiator cap. In an adjoining room sits a 1917 Champion Sparkplug Model T; it’s been rebuilt completely from photos.
The picture that became the plan for the 1917 Ford Model T, displayed at the Canadian Transportation Museum and Heritage Village.
Lorraine Sommerfeld, Driving
Tanner does much of the rehab work on the houses they restore, too. I ask where he gets his wood from as we tour the premise. “Hydro poles,” he smiles. Decommissioned hydro poles are donated and he works from those. In his garage workshop, he forces the utility from these unremarkable sources and brings forth the art. A beautiful arbour sits just off the driveway on the sprawling front lawn of the museum. A tribute to his late wife, Barbara. It’s the only time Tanner gets quiet, tears forming. That 1923 Model T sports both their names on the donation plaque; I’m guessing for all of these volunteers, it’s rarely a solo effort.
Like Tanner, there are volunteers with generations of skill; out back and off-site sit donated vehicles ready for their rebirth. Materials, however, force their budgetary hand. Keeping up a rotating cast of cars, developing teaching modules that incorporate history with present day and saving both cars and buildings from irreparable loss is a Herculean task.
The arbour Dave Tanner built in memory of his wife … all wood from hydro poles.
Lorraine Sommerfeld, Driving
If you love cars, this is a hidden gem well worth a day trip. There’s room for kids to run around outside, an endless fountain of information in the form of the people who live and breathe the history of the automobile, and a terrific tribute to Canada’s role and place in automotive history.
You can check on upcoming events, directions and information at their website, www.ctmhv.com.
The inscription.
Lorraine Sommerfeld, Driving
