Research in Detroit-1911(?) T police cars. Right hand drive?

[Rob]

I came across these in un cataloged photos at the Detroit Library. They will be digitalized along with a few other pics of the same cars. Initially I thought the negative was reversed, but both front and rear view show right hand drive and the store advertising print isn't’ reversed? Notice the custom rear deck body, with step plate:

[tdump]

I like the front bumpers! Must have been to push rioters out of the way?

[Susanne]

Gotta shove those dead horses (and Wintons that failed) out of the way... --giggles--

Seriously, tho, I love the municipal uses of the T, especially early on...

One of these days i'd love to find a Winton... 'nuff said!

[DHort]

Times Square Automobile Company.

Is there any chance this photo is in Detroit archives and it is a photo of the Windsor Police Dept?

Canadian fire plug or street light?

[Kaiser]

Who wanted a Winton (as usual i have no connection, just found it on the Interweb)
https://www.prewarcar.com/284373-1904-winton

[Walter Higgins]

Great find! These are the ten chief's cars ordered new by the FDNY. I have only ever seen the below photo in the Clymer book, "Henry's Wonderful Model T" and it is what started my obsession with the one-year-only Open Runabout:

[Kaiser]

The demountables look like 6 lugs, were they a Ford item or from another supplier, Firestones had 5 if i remember right?

[Rob]

Thanks guys. Walter, great find. These and three other will be scanned into the digital Detroit Library collection and available online. I’ll post a link when they are online.

I wonder why right hand drive?

[Colin Mavins]

My question is were they made in the States or in Canada did Detroit make any right hand drive cars

[Walter Higgins]

Thanks guys. Walter, great find. These and three other will be scanned into the digital Detroit Library collection and available online. I’ll post a link when they are online.

I wonder why right hand drive?

Please do post a link when they come up. No doubt DPL has many other great photos, but they tend to label them with very basic descriptors which makes a search impossible and their inventory is too extensive to sit there and scroll through several thousands of them. Hopefully since you now know what it is they will name them properly.

I couldn't tell you why they are right-hand drive, but for that reason and several others is why I decided not to model my own car after this. Originally I was going to build this exact car since there doesn't seem to be a real example in existence anymore, but between the fact that they are RHD, use a slew of one-off parts on a model that already uses a slew of one-off parts, and that (until now) there were no photos of the rear of the car, I decided to take the easy way out. Maybe because of it I'll only have 20 years into mine instead of 40.

[Walter Higgins]

I only just now noticed the Times Square Auto Co. across the street, verifying placement in New York. Might they have been the dealer that filled the order? The two photos are taken in different locations as shown by the street lamps.

Notice that the taillamp is also mounted on the right and not on a typical bracket. The lamp is hanging outboard of the rear deck.

[KWTownsend]

Fire engines remained right-hand drive for many more years than passenger cars or even other heavy trucks. The story I heard was with the driver on the right side of the rig it was easier to get proper placement in relationship to a fire hydrant. Maybe they just wanted the chief car to have the same driving configuration.

: ^ )

[Oldav8tor]

A 1910 fire truck in the Stahl Collection in Michigan.

[Kaiser]

Found an address for the Times Square Automobile Co. in an old add which did not Copy/paste but it was on the South-West corner of 56th street and Broadway, New York, New York, took a look with streetvieuw and there is nothing recognisable left there, all concrete highrises, bummerrr
Was curious if there was something left but nope, nada, nothing...