(rshsdepot) Aiken, SC

[I95BERNIEW_@_aol.com]

From The Augusta Chronicle.
 
Bernie Wagenblast
 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
Railroad depot project remains on track
By Michelle Guffey | South  Carolina Bureau
Sunday, June 15, 2008

AIKEN --- Don Barnes, sporting a blue-striped railroad engineer's hat,  walks 
down the middle of the 80-foot-long vintage Pullman coach car on Union  
Street, describing what the car looked like in its heyday. 
 
"It was built in March 1918. Pullman built it for the Illinois Central  
Railroad," he said, adding that George Pullman insisted that the exterior of all  
the cars be painted green, with the name of the train in gold-leaf  lettering.
 
The passenger car and the one next it to are part of a project to build a  
replica of the old Aiken Railroad Depot that was demolished more than 50 years  
ago.
 
According to Mr. Barnes, who is a member of the Aiken Railroad Depot  
committee, found the two cars and a caboose on an abandoned track in the woods  in 
northern Tennessee.
 
"These cars are rare," he said. "All are either in museums or have been  
scrapped."
 
Mr. Barnes salvaged the caboose and the two rust-pitted, dilapidated cars.  
They arrived in Aiken last summer on tractor-trailers with a police escort 
after  a 530-mile journey that lasted four days.
 
"I could have gotten modern cars made after World War II, but we wanted  them 
to fit the era" of the depot when it was built, he said.
 
The coach cars will be refurbished into dining cars and will be available  
for catered parties and other events.
 
The cars will be restored to their 1920s elegance: cherry wood, white table  
clothes, wing-back sofas, velvet drapes with gold tassels, floral carpet,  
chandeliers down the center and wall chandeliers between each set of tables; and  
along the top of the walls will be handmade carvings created by a local  
artist.
 
The outside of the cars will be painted in Pullman green with "City of  
Aiken" in gold-leaf lettering on the side. Mr. Barnes explained that trains were  
always named after cities.
 
Before they can be decorated, the cars need a lot of exterior restoration,  
and they will not be fully restored until after the depot is completed.
 
Tim Simmons, the committee's chairman, said he hopes to hold the depot's  
grand opening by June of next year.
 
While workers have been restoring the railroad cars, the committee has been  
busy securing funds. So far, it has raised $2.1 million of the $3 million 
needed  to complete the project.
 
Construction on the depot is expected to begin in September.
 
"We've got enough money for that and the cars," Mr. Barnes said. "But we  
don't have enough, yet, to finish the interior" of the railroad cars.
 
Reach Michelle Guffey at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or 
_michelle.guffey_@_augustachronicle.com_ (mailto:michelle.guffey@augustachronicle.com) 



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