The Rev. Andrew Waldo likes trains, especially old ones, and his hobby has prompted the Episcopal minister to try to rescue an aging train shed and adjoining workshops in North Montgomery despite the fact he now lives in Minnesota. Waldo, who grew up in Montgomery, is trying to persuade local civic leaders that the remains of the Western Railway of Alabama car shops and engine terminal, near Sabel Steel off North Court Street, should be turned into a railroad museum as part of the city's Riverfront Development project. Starting by 1905, the Western Railway of Alabama shops that Waldo wants to save provided car and engine maintenance for railroads throughout central Alabama. There are remains of a coaling tipple, car shops, a paint shop, and [planing mill and pattern shop] on the site near North Court. The most visible structure is the concrete coaling tipple, which Waldo says is one of the largest in the Southeast. The train shed which housed the car shops is -- while less ornate -- very reminiscent of the passenger shed behind Union Station, and it remains in surprisingly good condition. There is also the base structure of a roundhouse on the site. Waldo is trying to proselytize such groups as the Riverfront Development Committee, the Alabama Historical Commission, Landmarks, railfans and retired railroad employees to join in his effort. He says they have indicated strong interest, although there have been no commitments. Since Waldo first publicly broached the subject in a guest column in the Advertiser in April, the facilities have been added to the Alabama Register of Historic Places. He envisions the Western of Alabama shops as the home of a "world class transportation museum and research center -- containing not just trains, but [cars], carriages, mule carts, buses -- closely connected with the Chamber of Commerce's hopes for riverfront development."

There are a lot of hurdles to be over come Waldo's vision is to become a reality -- money, the availability of railroad relics, the inertia of community leadership. But city and chamber officials and history and railroad buffs could be a potent force to make this happen. There are also 22 railroad companies still operating in the state, ranging from such giants as CSX Transportation, with more than 1,200 miles of track in the state, to tiny local railroads with two or three miles of track. If these companies could be interested in helping, it would be a major boost to a museum. There is a tremendous interest in railroad history in the United States today. If Montgomery could become home to a truly first-rate railroad museum, it should be a major tourist attraction for the city and the state.

We urge community leaders to take this idea seriously, and to thoroughly study its feasibility. A railroad museum might be just the ticket to boost tourism and to revitalize an aging section of the city.