Re: (rshsdepot) Hamlet, NC depot moves today

["Mark A. Thomas" <markt_@_duke.edu>]

- --On Friday, April 04, 2003 10:00 AM -0500 "jdent1_@_optonline.net" 
<jdent1_@_optonline.net> wrote:

> According to a poster on the Trainorder.com RR discussion board the
> Hamlet, NC depot is to be moved today 210 feet across the tracks
> for restoration.

Yes, it was right on schedule. See the web page from the NCDOT Rail 
Division:  http://www.bytrain.org/hamlet/

I got off work and drove down there (about 2-1/2 hours from me). I 
got there a little after the planned start time of 8:30 and it had 
started to inch across the track.  There were a long pauses, 
interspersed with short and slow movements.  It took maybe 2 to 2-1/2 
hours to clear the track, by 10:00 or 10:30 or certainly by 11:00.

I don't know how long it will be before they remove the wheels/jacks 
under the station and lower it to it's new foundation.  The 
contractor on the building move is Edwards Moving and Rigging out of 
Kentucky. Their website: http://www.edwardsmoving.com/  Under "Photo 
Album" then "structural relocation," they have a shot of moving the 
Big Four depot in Lafayette, IN.  Also, under "Awards," the 1991 pic 
looks to me like a train station, but I don't know.

I don't think they got as many onlookers as expected, although there 
were a few hundred if you count all the schoolkids who got to watch 
it as a field trip.  Although they had put up chain link fences 
around the site, they were remarkably lax about letting people wander 
around as long as they didn't get in the way. Also, the fences along 
the best view, from the SE, were low or nonexistant, so you saw all 
the railfans with cameras and lawnchairs over on that side and 
crossing the track and all (the track, was, of course, closed at this 
point. The dozens of contractors, CSX employees, and NCDOT people 
didn't hassle anyone, so I guess we stayed politely out of the way.

The town had set up bleachers on the SW side, south of Main St, but 
there was no sun on the side of the station visible from that 
direction during the move, and you couldn't even see the famous 
corner with the turret (since the station had previously been rotated 
90 degrees).  See the diagram at 
http://www.bytrain.org/hamlet/diagram.html  The lines actually form 
more of an "X" at this point (NW to SE, Charlotte to Wilmington, and 
NE to SW, Raleigh to Columbia).  (i.e., rotate the diagram another 25 
deegrees clockwise). Also, there was a taller fence from the SW side.

During the move, CSX used the window of opportunity of the diamond 
being shut down to do some maintenance.  They removed the diamond, 
dug out all the soggy junk under it, did some maintenance work in the 
hole to improve drainage (I think added a drain pipe), and refilled 
the hole with clean ballast. In the meantime, they worked on the 
diamond itself to tighten it up (I guess it was shaking apart), 
before replacing it.

Now, if CSX could only do such maintenance on all their track! :-)

They still had E-W (Atlanta/Charlotte to Wilmington,NC) trains during 
the morning, but any that would have gone through the diamond were 
routed up to the yard to the NE, then the engines run back around to 
the other end to continue on their way.  A lot of the trains always 
go up into the yard, anyway, and there isn't as much traffic on the 
Raleigh-Columbia line (although the Silver Star goes that way, both 
directions at night if it's on time).

They left an old brick building (supposedly an old express office) 
north of the diamond, next to the station's old location, which will 
continue to be used by CSX for storage or offices.

I don't have a digital camera, but if no one else posts any photos 
before I get my slides back, I can scan a few in and post them to the 
group.

- --Mark Thomas


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

------------------------------