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(rshsdepot) Tuscumbia, AL

-From the northwest Alabama Times Daily...

New life for old depot? Railroad club seeks use of Tuscumbia station
By Robert Palmer
Staff Writer
June 12, 2001

TUSCUMBIA - The sound of steam whistles may soon echo again through the
halls of the city's old railroad depot.

The City Council on Monday authorized Mayor Wade Gann to negotiate an
agreement with the Shoals Southern Model Railroad Club to use part of the
depot.

Councilman Charles Lamon said the club wants to use the depot to set up a
model of the old Southern Railroad line from Stevenson to Iuka, Miss. The
club's models would be open to the public during weekends and festivals, he
said.

The Stevenson-to-Iuka line would depict the towns along the route and
include topographical features, Lamon said.

The agreement would be the first visible step in creating a railroad museum
at the depot, which was built in 1888.

Councilman Jim Couch said the city has contacted the state Historical
Commission for advice on the project and is working with the Northwest
Alabama Council of Local Governments to find grant money to restore the
two-story building at the corner of Fifth and Water streets.

Lamon said partitions in the depot that were added through the years will be
torn out and the original wooden floor will be restored as part of the
project.

"We want to get it back to as close to its original condition as possible,"
he said.

Long-range plans include finding a steam engine and Pullman cars for the
tracks next to the platform and building a trolley line to Spring Park and
Helen Keller's birthplace at Ivy Green. Keller's teacher, Anne Sullivan,
arrived in Tuscumbia from Perkins School for the Blind at the depot. As a
child, Keller was stricken with a fever that left her deaf and blind.
Sullivan's work to help the unruly girl was recounted in the play and movie,
"The Miracle Worker."

"Creating a railroad museum is our goal," Couch said. "If that happens, this
could take on a life of its own."

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