(rshsdepot) Zephyrhills, FL

["James Dent" <james.dent_@_itochu.com>]

rshsdepot
-From the Tampa (FL) Tribune...

Depot Museum is set to buy caboose
JOHN WING
of The Tampa Tribune

A museum emphasizing the history of trains should have a caboose of its own.
That's the thinking of Depot Museum Director Kathleen Burnside, and a $5,000
grant the museum just received from a local foundation may help her get one.

Burnside has searched old rail yards throughout the state, followed tips
-From collectors and scanned the Internet looking for an affordable caboose
since the museum opened in 1998.

Several times she's been close to finding just the right one for the
Zephyrhills landmark, but either she didn't have enough money together or
another buyer beat her to it.

Burnside hopes that doesn't happen with a few caboose cars she's eyeing in
North Carolina.

For about $10,000, Burnside said she can get a fairly decent wooden or steel
caboose, transport it to the museum and put it on blocks until renovations
begin.

She envisions a walk-through display, with replica benches and other train
memorabilia behind glass partitions, she said.

With the $5,000 she has from the Pagliara Charitable Foundation, a Dunedin
group specializing in educational and civic grants, and $2,500 promised from
the city, she's about ready to make an offer. She's now waiting for proceeds
-From the Zephyrhills Historical Association's annual pig roast and auction
at next weekend's Founder's Day to round out her budget.

``We've been putting this together for a long time, but I'm really getting
excited now,'' Burnside said. ``The grant has kind of pushed the project
forward.''

The caboose project was a natural fit for the grant, Pagliara Foundation
trustee Jack St. Arnold said.

The group looks for community projects that also provide historical or
educational value for youth and school groups, he said.

``The thing that swung us on this one was the tremendous job they do
preserving and displaying the history of that community,'' St. Arnold said.
``And a train for them would reflect a unique part of that history.''

Restoration of the 2,700-square-foot museum started in 1990 after then-owner
CSX Railroad talked of tearing the old station down.

Trains, mostly carrying freight, stopped using the depot in the early 1970s.

Burnside, 53, said she has special memories of the train station from her
teenage years.

``Me and my girlfriends would take a train from there to the Florida State
Fair down in Tampa,'' Burnside said.

``It would drop you off right at the fairgrounds. They used to hold it where
the University of Tampa is now. My parents wouldn't let us drive to Tampa
then. They said there was too much traffic.''

With the depot's turn-of-the- century architecture, a wooden caboose would
be perfect, Burnside said.

But city maintenance staff say it might be prone to termite damage. A steel
one would be her second choice, but each would still require renovations,
estimated at $25,000.

Burnside said her first goal is to simply get a caboose on site.

After waiting eight years to get the building up and running and several
more before a caboose purchase was even an option, she's learned patience,
she said.

``I've always been fascinated with trains,'' Burnside said. ``When we have
school groups in, a caboose will just help give them an idea of what it was
like in another era of travel.''

The Depot Museum is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays and Fridays, and 1
to 6 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays.

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