(rshsdepot) Decatur, GA

["jdent1_@_optonline.net" <jdent1@optonline.net>]

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From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution 12/17/02=2E=2E

Century-old train station in Decatur moves a bit

By KAREN HILL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Decatur railroad depot got some tracks of its own Monday, slowly
beginning the move on gray girders to its new home a few yards northwest o
f
its century-old location

CSX Rail Lines Inc=2E donated the 111-year-old depot to Decatur last year 
but
required the city to move it away from the still-active tracks that run
alongside

The city is paying $262,300, nearly all from grants and private donations,

to move the depot 33 feet north and 20 feet west of its current location a
t
the intersection of Candler Street and Howard Avenue near Agnes Scott
College

The city is spending $20,000 on the move; DeKalb County added $25,000, sai
d
Lyn Menne, Decatur's director of neighborhood and economic development

The company handling the move, International Chimney Co=2E of Buffalo, N
Y=2E,
also used tracks in 1999 to pull the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in North
Carolina away from the pounding surf that was threatening to tip it into
the Atlantic Ocean

It should take two or three days for workers, using a front-end loader to
power the depot along the tracks, to complete the move

The movers "told me it's not quite as boring as watching grass grow,"
Assistant City Manager Hugh Saxon said of the painstakingly slow work

International Chimney worker Gary Toothman said that Monday's work went
smoothly

"Nah," he said, grinning broadly when asked if there had been any problems

"We've moved lighthouses=2E Last year, in New Jersey, we moved an airplane

hangar=2E"

In addition to moving the depot, International Chimney will build a new
roof=2E The old, rotting roof forced city officials to close the Freight
Room, a popular nightclub in the depot, in 1998=2E Since then, the buildin
g
has been empty

The city still has not decided how to use the depot, which needs extensive

restoration

The depot was the hub of Decatur's economic and social life through the
1930s, until automobiles replaced trains as the favored mode of commuter
transportation to downtown Atlanta





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=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

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