It was sweltering Tuesday afternoon when Harold S. Royster swung his leg over the iron pipe gate that marks the boundary of the old Western Railway of Alabama maintenance yard with a nimbleness that belied his 86 years. Royster was following Andrew Waldo, Episcopal priest and railroad buff, who thinks the old rail facility could be just the ticket to get visitors to downtown Montgomery. Abandoned since the early 1970's, the yard is now covered with trees and woody shrubs and weeds. Royster spent 40 years as a policeman with the Western Railway, retiring as special agent in charge in Montgomery. He was there to help Waldo identify what some of the existing buildings had been used for and to help him figure out where structures now gone had been located. Royster searched the undergrowth and his memory to call back the days when the yards bustled with skilled workmen and railroad equipment, instead of as a refuge for the night for homeless people. "You could not ever have told me it would look like this," he said, stepping around a healthy-looking patch of poison ivy. Much is gone. The small building near the front gate where workmen clocked in lies in ruins. The office building behind left barely a trace. Pieces of track, almost hidden by the accretion of dirt and undergrowth, lead nowhere. Of the old roundhouse, only the pit remains. "It broke my heart when they did away with the roundhouse," Royster said. He laughingly recalled the time he talked the master mechanic in charge into letting him drive a locomotive onto the turntable, which was used to turn engines around. "The master mechanic said he lost 20 pounds watching me put the engine on the round table. He was afraid I was going to drive it right off the other side."

As the visitors tramped through the old yard, a freight train rumbled past on nearby tracks, reminding them that railroads are alive and well. Royster recalled walking those tracks all the way to Selma and back, interviewing people along the way about a runaway train that left its crew in Selma and finally crashed into a caboose after passing through the main yard in Montgomery. [Note from Andrew: L&N Hist. Soc. Members should refer to Issue 17, May, 1989 for a hair-raising account of this event.] Royster was persuaded that the crew members left the train's engine running while they ate in a small building by the tracks. The diesel engine's vibrations finally worked the brake loose and advanced the throttle, and the train took off.

The train crew stuck to the story that someone had stolen the train, but none of the witnesses he interviewed saw anyone aboard, Royster said. Only after the engineer retired did he acknowledge that Royster had drawn the correct conclusion. Despite nature's efforts to cover up man's work, many of the old buildings, like Royster have aged well.

Standing in the old train shed, not unlike the one at Union Station, Royster recalled that when ball teams or bands sponsored by the railroad won competitions, tables laden with food and drink replaced rail cars as railroad employees and their guests celebrated. It was to that same train shed that Royster was once called to deal with a drunk engineer. The engineer was "bad about drinking," Royster recalled, and he was having trouble climbing aboard his engine. "What are you doing?" Royster asked. "I'm trying to get on this engine so I can go to work." Royster determined that more than alcohol was at work and told one of the onlookers to call an ambulance. He hauled the man down -- "he must have weighed 250 pounds" -- and pushed him to the front gate in a wheelbarrow to meet the ambulance. The engineer was having a heart attack, Royster said, but he somehow survived. Waldo, who grew up in Montgomery, is rector at a church in Minnesota. His Montgomery roots are strong, and he has thrown himself into bringing the old yard back to life.

The facilities already have ben added to the Alabama Register of Historic Places. Waldo envisions the Western of Alabama shops as the home of a world-class [museum of transportation and economic development] and research center. He's convinced that it could be the kind of attraction that could attract tourists and residents to the area, something planners say is vital to successful revitalization of the riverfront area. He's been carrying that message to everyone who will listen. Thus far he's gotten lots of interest, but no commitments.

If you drive out North Court Street near Sabel Steel and look to your right, you'll see the old coal tipple, one of the largest in the Southeast, and the roof of the old train shed. Most of the rest of the yard is hidden by the undergrowth. Some people will see only an abandoned industrial site. If you look close enough, though, you may see a treasure.

Call Bill Brown at 334-261-1515 or send e-mail to advertiser@compuserve.com