HISTORY LOST: PART FIVE IN A SERIES Railyard restoration lacks steam By Allison Griffin November 19, 2004 - Montgomery Advertiser Article reprinted with the express permission of the Montgomery Advertiser. The Rev. Mark Waldo looks at the condition of the 437-foot train car shed on the site of the Western Railway of Alabama car and engine shops near downtown Montgomery. Waldo is president of Old Alabama Rails, a not-for-profit group trying to save the historical site. -- Mickey Welsh Advertiser The Rev. Andrew Waldo, an Episcopal priest who lives in Minnesota but grew up in Montgomery, has dedicated years to the research of the site and the documentation of its former glory. He loves railroads, but even more than that, he's drawn to the people whose lives were inextricably tied to the rails, "people who had these incredibly difficult jobs that they loved." And he knows that without a recorded history, more than just the physical remains of the WRA site will disappear. Standing between desolation and recovery is, as you may have guessed, money -- and an awful lot of it. To help raise awareness as well as funds, Waldo founded Old Alabama Rails, a grassroots, not-for-profit corporation that works to save the site and restore it for use as a museum. The group has been at work for a few years now. But in some ways, its battle to preserve a piece of Montgomery's history has just begun. Site under contract CSX Real Property Inc., a division of the transportation company, owns the property -- 42 acres in all, with an asking price of $570,000. The site is in an interesting position, both figuratively and literally: It's located on the edge of the area that's commonly mentioned in downtown redevelopment plans. It's bordered on the west by North Court Street, not too far from the river, and is very close to Riverwalk Stadium. The fact it's so large and still undeveloped makes it attractiive as a commercial property, one city spokesman said. But it also has its drawbacks: It's bordered by the railroad, which presents access issues. And the surrounding area is entirely industrial: Steel yards and the current CSX railyard are across the street. Interest in the property has been high, but in the words of the broker handling it, there's been "lots of interest, and very few checks." That, apparently, is about to change. "We have an offer in hand," said Richard Crunkleton, a partner in the firm of Ahearn and Crunkleton in Huntsville. "The property is under contract, subject to a number of contingencies, and those are being investigated," Crunkleton said. "I'd say we're at the 95 percent mark." The closing, however, is at least a few months off.

This aerial photograph of the Western Railway of Alabama site, taken about 1960 by employee Thomas "Nookey" Davis, shows the site in its prime. North Perry Street is in the bottom left corner. At the very top in the left corner is the concrete coaling tower, which still stands today. The very long building on the left is the still-intact train car shed. The roundhouse, upper center, no longer exists. -- Old Alabama Rails Collection Special to the Advertiser Neither Crunkleton nor CSX Real Property Inc. would disclose the buyer's identity. Waldo is not surprised; he and others had noticed surveying stakes on the property recently. And his hopes for restoration aren't totally wiped out: "We have heard that offers have been made that didn't pan out." Crunkleton concedes that there have been several potential buyers in the past. A buyer with an obvious interest would be the city of Montgomery. The city's needs for expansion -- a new municipal court facility and jail -- have been in talks for some time. But the city, right now, is noncommittal. "We have investigated that site for a potential facility that is still in the planning stages, but at this stage of the game, we have not made a decision on whether we want to pursue the site or not," said Jeff Downes, executive assistant to Mayor Bobby Bright. "We have an interest, but no commitment yet." Old Alabama Rails has had discussions with the city, Downes said, but "we could not reach any consensus on the funding for any long-term project there." Asked if he was aware of any other groups or people trying to buy the property, Downes said, "I'm not aware, but that would not mean that it's not happening." Whoever the buyer is, Waldo still has hopes of putting a museum on the site and preserving this piece of Montgomery's past. "It's not over till it's over." An ambitious plan Money issues aside, it's imagination, one official believes, that will be crucial to saving the site. Bob Gamble of the Alabama Historical Commission notes cities such as Chattanooga, Tenn., Savannah, Ga., and Baltimore that have turned their railroad histories into successful ventures, converting old buildings into complexes that offer entertainment as well as historical interpretation. "It's imagination and creativity, that's what it boils down to," Gamble said. "Where there's a desire, ways can be found to save these kinds of buildings." For its part, Old Alabama Rails has developed the Alabama Railpark Project, an ambitious plan to turn the site into a "major attraction in Montgomery." The group's extensive plan -- spelled out clearly and attractively on its Web site, www.oldalabamarails.org -- calls for restoration of the buildings, interactive exhibits, a colorful restaurant, entertainment for families, a working roundhouse and turntable, retail plazas, a hotel and a theater. The group envisions, fittingly, that rail tracks would used for excursions around the downtown area. Total cost of the multi-year project: at least $30 million. Waldo knows it will take an entire community's support. His father, the Rev. Mark Waldo, president of Old Alabama Rails, agrees: "We have ideas, but we need synergy with others." A story to tell There's little doubt that railroads gave Montgomery the foundation for its early growth. Crucial to that growth were the railroad shops -- where the engines and cars were built, repaired and maintained. It's hard now to imagine the rail shop in its prime, bustling with hundreds of employees moving the engines and cars in and out of the yard. A dozen or more buildings once covered this site. The property was industrial in appearance, but prosperous. Thirty years after the shops closed for good, all evidence of prosperity is gone. Take a drive north on Court Street from downtown, over the tracks and past the steel yards. Look to the right, above the chest-high brush. The shells you see are all that are left of the Western Railway of Alabama Car & Engine Shops, which date back over a century. "A lot of people's lives are tied to that railroad," Andrew Waldo said. "It's a railroad with history." Pieces of history On a bright fall day, the late afternoon sun peeks through the rafters of the planing mill, where wooden railcars were built from scratch. The steel beams remain, but virtually every bit of wood used to construct the second floor and the roof has crashed to the ground or has rotted to pieces. The walls are virtually nonexistent. Just one wall remains of the paint shop building at the Western Railway of Alabama site. This shop was built in 1901. -- Mickey Welsh Advertiser Just to the left is an odd sight -- a brick wall, with little visible support. It was built in 1906, making it the oldest structure still existing in this railyard, which began operations in the late 1800s. The wall is the lone survivor of the shop where the railcars were painted. Some of the interesting brickwork detail remains, but the creeping vines will one day overtake the wall and likely bring it down -- if the weather, vandals, vagrants or development don't get it first. Ahead is the car shed, now just a shell but interesting in that the entire roof expanse -- it's 437 feet long -- is intact. But the walls are completely gone and the building is gutted. Looking north from the far end of the shed, the tall concrete shell of the coaling tower -- where coal was stored before it was loaded onto the trains -- still looms over the desolation, though its mechanisms are long gone. The thick overgrowth of tall weeds and scrub brush keep most visitors away. To the right is the still-standing former supply shed, but it's by no means stable. Leading a couple of visitors through the site, Mark Waldo described the structures and reflected on its past. About its current state, he says, "Things need to be used to survive." He figures it's been eight or nine months since his last visit to the site, and when asked if it's deteriorated further since then, he quickly answers yes. What's next? To get the community excited about the site's possibilities may prove to be a daunting task. The site doesn't offer the aesthetic interest of, say, Union Station, built in 1897 and restored to glory today. The Western Railway site doesn't have a commanding view of the river; its views, obstructed now by overgrown brush and trash, would be largely of the neighboring CSX railyard. And it was, even in its heyday, an industrial, working site: trains were built and repaired there. So little of the original buildings is left that it's difficult, even with the aid of old photographs, to imagine what the structures were like when they were still standing. "It's hard to look at something like that and for the average guy to get turned on to it," said Gamble of the Historical Commission. "It's hard to get people to want to preserve those sites from a visual appeal." But it's not impossible, Gamble believes. "You have to educate people that buildings shouldn't have to be pretty to be preserved."