(rshsdepot) Folkston, GA

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

=46rom Trains.com News Wire...

Folkston, Ga., to dedicate railroad viewing platform on Saturday

Add Folkston, Ga., to the list of communities with railroad viewing
platforms.

On Saturday August 4, the town of 2178 people will dedicate its platform
that sits alongside CSX=92s busy Nahanta Subdivision, just south of the
junction with the Jessup Subdivision.

The dedication celebration will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and will feat=
ure
city officials, politicians, state tourism officials, and local railfans.

Between 50 and 60 trains a day pass the platform on South Tower Street, s=
ays
Folkston resident Marvin =93Cookie=94 Williams, a retiree and railfan who=
 played
a role in getting the platform off the ground.

A year ago, at a luncheon meeting with Folkston Mayor Dixie McGurn, Willi=
ams
struck up a conversation with a tourism official and found they shared a
common interest in model railroading. They all discussed how railfans fro=
m
Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina descend on the town to watch trains.
The tourism official went to see Williams=92 Lionel layout, and spotted t=
he
station platform. =93He picked it up and said =91This is what you need to=
 build,
=92=94 Williams recalls.

A $30,000 state grant and a year later, the platform sits on city-owned l=
and
about 75 feet from the tracks. It=92s located at milepost 602.4, just sou=
th of
the junction of the former ACL lines to Waycross and Jessup, Ga., to the
north and Jacksonville, Fla., to the south. =93We call it the Folkston
 Funnel,=94 Williams says. =93The railroad calls it the Florida Funnel.=94

The platform, which is 32 feet long and 15 feet wide, boasts center posts
and a roof, much like the Lionel platform on Williams=92 layout. It featu=
res
benches and tables, lighting, ceiling fans, and a scanner with speakers
placed at either end of the platform. The former ACL depot, which the
railroad donated to the city, sits nearby.

Folkston is another community straddling a main line that figures it may =
as
well make lemonade from what many would consider to be a lemon of a
location, what with all the noise and traffic headaches a busy rail line =
can
bring.

=93To us, they=92re a nuisance,=94 City Clerk Darlene Williamson says of =
the
trains. =93But some people like to watch them. It=92s always fun to see n=
ew
faces.=94

And the platform, the city hopes, will encourage more new faces to come
watch trains and give a tourist boost to the burg near the Georgia-Florid=
a
border.

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