# My wife wants to buy a Train Station



## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Just when I am thinking that I am the nuttier half of our marriage I get a phone call from Marilyn asking me if I (meaning she) want(s) to BUY A TRAIN STATION! 

No kidding.

Marilyn travels the state to inspect nursing homes and she just phoned me to ask if I would want to buy this (after she told me about it I found it on Google Earth):












The first question I asked was what the heck would we do with it? She said "we will just put it in the field with the caboose" (no comment about what we actually would do with it).

The next question I asked was "how the heck would we move it here?" She said "I guess we would have to take the roof off." That was the extent of her comments.

I started to ask some more questions but she said she had to go because the owner just arrived with the keys to let her inside.

OK guys...

What would one do with a train station in their back yard?

How would someone move a station like this half way across a state?

Any ideas?

The bad news is that if we do not buy it, the station will probably be destroyed. The purchase price is not a factor. We really do not need it but we would hate to see it destroyed and it would be kind of neat to have it. If I was 20 years younger I would not hesitate to say yes.

Jerry

PS in case anyone is wondering, no we are not rich. Most of those reading this who are in our age group probably have as much or more income than we do and probably more money in the bank.


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## DKRickman (Mar 25, 2008)

What would you do with it? Put it in the field with the caboose, of course! 

Could you use a shed or outbuilding of some sort? I suspect that it would serve wonderfully for that - or possibly as a guest cabin. It looks small enough to be practical as a number of things. 

What is the history of the station? What RR? Is it of value to any local historical society, museum, or club? If so, it might be reasonable to donate use of the structure in exchange for help in moving and/or restoring it. 

You might just have the beginning of a RR museum!


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By DKRickman on 28 Apr 2011 11:03 AM 
What would you do with it? Put it in the field with the caboose, of course! 

Could you use a shed or outbuilding of some sort? I suspect that it would serve wonderfully for that - or possibly as a guest cabin. It looks small enough to be practical as a number of things. 

What is the history of the station? What RR? Is it of value to any local historical society, museum, or club? If so, it might be reasonable to donate use of the structure in exchange for help in moving and/or restoring it. 

You might just have the beginning of a RR museum! 

I don't want to say too much about the station until we decide if we can afford to move it. Where it is and where we would move it are too far for any museum or historical society to want it (that has been already been looked into).

If it was here, we could do a lot of things with it but most likely we would like to keep or restore it to original condition as much as we could. I don't think it has any sort of special historical significance.

The deal killer (unless we figure something else out) would be the cost of moving it. Just moving the caboose 5 miles cost us $5,000 and we could not afford anything like that (or more) to move the station a much greater distance. 

Thanks for the comments. You have some very good ideas.

Jerry


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Jerry,
I have a webpage here:

DL&W Pagoda Depots


That talks about a depot that was moved..looks to be about the same size as "yours"!
scroll down to "Wallace, NY", about half-way down the page.


If you like, I can put you in contact with the guy who moved it..
it was moved 40 years ago, but I doubt much has changed in "building moving technology" in the last 40 years.
(take it apart, load the pieces on a truck, move it, put it back together! 


(oh..and off topic..I was never able to get any of those maps to load into photoshop..my computer simply doesnt have enough memory to handle it..sorry..)


Scot


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Hi Scot,

I will show that webpage to Marilyn when she gets home tonight.

Meanwhile she went to the local library and learned that 1/2 of the original station is gone (the passenger side). In looking through the book Railroad Stations and Trains Through Arkansas and the Southwest I found a similar station that suggests there were two buildings sharing an extended roof. It looks like they tore the passenger station down and perhaps kept the freight station for a number of years and then it was moved off of railroad property.

I suspect that disassembling and reassembling the station might be a lot more than I could handle. I may end up trying to find a home for the depot with someone or some organization.

Regarding the maps, that is OK. I appreciate your efforts.

Thanks,

Jerry


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## Randy Stone (Jan 2, 2008)

As great as that building could be once it was renovated, you could probably build a replica for what it will cost to dismantle, move and re-assemble. 

So, unless you have a bottomless money pit or have some personal love of this little station in particular, I don't see it being practical. 

But then the train hobby isn't about being practical is it?


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## Dave Meashey (Jan 2, 2008)

Jerry; 

The tourist railroad I helped out at had one of its station buildings moved from East Petersburg, PA to Kempton, PA. The building was sawn into three segments at East Petersburg, and reassembled at Kempton. Just my hunch, but I am inclined to agree that the disassembly/reassembly is probably a larger bite than you want to chew. 

Best wishes, 
David Meashey


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

Go for it, Jerry.... Another piece of railroad history on your property...


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

I think I may be home free.

I phoned Marilyn back while she was still there and I told her that if she was really serious she could write the guy a check for it provided that he would agree that we would have one year from today to move the train station or forfeit the money we paid for it. In the meantime, if we decide we cannot move it, we would have a year to find a person or organization who would want it.

After she thought about it a bit she said she was ready to make that sort of commitment at this time.









Sometimes a conditional yes is a lot better than a no.









Now, if that had been a passenger station...

BTW Marilyn is on her way home and we have not finalized any decision yet (we will probably drive down together to look it over) but I am now willing to identify the station.

It is the former Cotton Belt Station at Rison, Arkansas and it can be found on Google Earth just off from the tracks at First and Main Streets in Rison, Arkansas.

As I said, we have NOT made a firm decision to do or not to do anything yet - so we are NOT looking for any competition from other potential buyers. If we decide not to buy it, we may have better contacts than the current owner to find a person or organization that will preserve the station.

Jerry


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

HMMMM Did she take any more pictures? What is the inside like? It really looks like a freight transfer station . 

JJ


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

There is an old county store about a mile from my house....similar size. My Mrs. proposed the same thing and cutting it up would be the easiest, but now the roof is coming off, so it is a moot point now that it is filling with rain and snow.


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## Spule 4 (Jan 2, 2008)

There is an old county store about a mile from my house....similar size. My Mrs. proposed the same thing and cutting it up would be the easiest, but now the roof is coming off, so it is a moot point now that it is filling with rain and snow.


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Posted By Spule 4 on 28 Apr 2011 03:18 PM 
There is an old county store about a mile from my house....similar size. My Mrs. proposed the same thing and cutting it up would be the easiest, but now the roof is coming off, so it is a moot point now that it is filling with rain and snow. 
I have had this double posting problem. When I click on Submit Nothing appears to happen. So I click onit again and it starts the posting processs. How ever When I open the thread there are two posts of the same info.

Do you want me to remove one of the doubles?

JJ


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Move the camper Jerry. Put the station in place of the camper, right next to the caboose. Would look real neat. 

As far as moving, I would think the caboose would cost more to move because of its awkward nature and its weight. I would think a building would be a much simpler move, after all you dont have to worry about the thing rolling off the back of the trailer.


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By John J on 28 Apr 2011 02:39 PM 
HMMMM Did she take any more pictures? What is the inside like? It really looks like a freight transfer station . 

JJ 

Hi JJ,

She is not home yet so I have not seen any of her photos. I got the image I posted direct from Google Earth and I don't know how old the photo is. If anyone is interested I will post her photos after she gets home (or tomorrow morning).

I did talk to Marilyn after she got inside and she said it is full of the guy's junk but also includes the original freight weighing equipment. 

The guy who moved our caboose for us is a house mover so I would talk to him if we get to that point.

If anyone is curious about how we had the caboose moved (it was pretty interesting) I had put photos of the move here and you are welcome to browse the photos

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/je...se%20Move/

Jerry.


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## Ward H (Jan 5, 2008)

Jerry, enjoyed you photos of the caboose move. Have you made any improvements to it?


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By Ward H on 28 Apr 2011 07:03 PM 
Jerry, enjoyed you photos of the caboose move. Have you made any improvements to it? 


Hi Ward,

I am embarrassed.









I had been running topics about the caboose restoration but I got sidetracked with building and rebuilding the caboose layout

http://www.mylargescale.com/Communi...fault.aspx 

and I had forgotten to keep the topics about the caboose itself up to date.

http://www.mylargescale.com/Communi...fault.aspx

http://www.forums.rrarchives.com/vi...&t=386

I need to update those forums but to answer your question, yes, I have made a lot of improvements. I have added 120/240VAC, (formerly wood but now electric) heating, air conditioning, plumbing - including hot & cold water, sink, toilet and dishwasher, computer desk, TV sets, work bench, refrigerator, etc. etc.

I pretty much live in the caboose most days and when Marilyn is gone out of town I turn the house heat and AC off and live in the caboose and camper. 

You might conclude that I have too many projects in the air but then I never wake up wondering what I am going to do.

Getting back to the train station - Marilyn is home and apparently the train station idea is far from dead. She brought a bunch of photos and other information about the station so the big question is whether there is any way possible for us to move it here.

From what I can tell it looks like the old station (it was built in 1902) was converted from a passenger and freight station to just a freight station with the bay and other windows removed. It appears to be in relatively good shape.

Jerry


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)




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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

The previous photo suggests that the current station is the original passenger and freight station. Marilyn was told that the waiting room was removed but after comparing photos I am not sure if they did not mean that the area that had been the waiting room (and the bay window) had not been simply paneled over as there is clearly different sized exterior paneling used on the current station.

I have put Marilyn's photos here in case anyone is interested in seeing them:

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/je...20Station/

I admit to being intimidated by the prospect of moving the station 88 miles to our home - especially since it is 24 miles to the nearest divided highway and the roof is so high.

At the moment the project seems beyond our ability to pull it off but we are not ready to give up on it.

Jerry


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

Jerry,
Looks like the depot is ready to slip the steel beams under.
If you do buy it, I hope you have a good pressure washer.
Looks like the birds have had their way for some time.
Ralph


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

After looking at the pictures, they remind me I need to take some time off working on the layout and clean house









Too bad there is no bay window. 

On the side with the steps, would be nice to restore a passenger/loading platform.


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

That is a much larger building than first appears. A daunting task to move but possible I'd geuss? Not sure I'd be up for it myself. You could do the layout indoors again though! Place it OVER the caboose layout! LOL! 

Chas


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

By the pictures it doesnt look that bad. A little bit of a fixer-upper, but it is solid. They dont make buildings like that anymore.


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By Ralph Berg on 29 Apr 2011 07:25 AM 

Jerry,
Looks like the depot is ready to slip the steel beams under.
If you do buy it, I hope you have a good pressure washer.
Looks like the birds have had their way for some time.
Ralph 


Hi Ralph,

Apparently when the station was moved off the railroad property they anticipated moving it again as it is left in a way that it should be very easy for a house mover to move it again. 













I am hoping to use these additional photos to show a prospective mover what to expect:

http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/je...20018a.JPG
http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/je...20019a.JPG
http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/je...20020a.JPG
http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/je...20021a.JPG

My wife believes the wood is Cyprus and is in good condition even though it is over 100 years old.

The white stuff is not bird droppings but instead are Mud Dauber (AKA dirt dobber) nests which are very common in this part of the country. As you mentioned, a pressure washer would make quick work out of them. While Mud Daubers are wasps they are not aggressive and are very easy to kill. I normally just pick them up with a needle nose pliers and step on them. Often it is easy to step on them when they are on the ground.

Jerry


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By John J on 29 Apr 2011 07:26 AM 
Too bad there is no bay window. 

On the side with the steps, would be nice to restore a passenger/loading platform.


Hi JJ,

After looking over the wood studs in the photos I suspect CP simply removed the outer siding along with doors, windows and the bay window and walled it in while adding freight doors.

If so it would not be too difficult to build a new bay new windows plus the other windows and doors.

If I ever get it here we will have all the time in the world to figure out what to do with it. I would like to restore it as a combination passenger and freight station.

Jerry


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By wchasr on 29 Apr 2011 07:37 AM 
That is a much larger building than first appears. A daunting task to move but possible I'd geuss? Not sure I'd be up for it myself. You could do the layout indoors again though! Place it OVER the caboose layout! LOL! 

Chas 


Hi Chas,

I have not mentioned anything to Marilyn about it but I do happen to have all that LGB brass track and turnouts that I removed when I rebuilt and expanded the caboose layout. 

The train station already has a bathroom and if I had the station I could insulate it and probably heat and cool it cheaper than the camper. It would not be difficult to find somewheres to put a bed.

Now if I could trade the camper for someone to move the train station here...

Jerry


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By jake3404 on 29 Apr 2011 09:15 AM 
By the pictures it doesnt look that bad. A little bit of a fixer-upper, but it is solid. They dont make buildings like that anymore. 
I agree.

The kicker will probably be the width of the roof overhang. The end walls are 20 feet wide (not too bad) and the length is 50 feet (again not too bad) BUT the overhang of the roof plus the height of it will probably prohibit moving it 88 miles in one piece.











I'm afraid that roof may prove to be a deal killer.

On the other hand these guys who moved the caboose really amazed me how they managed it with no heavy equipment. They really knew what they were doing and after all, house moving is their primary business.

Jerry


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## aceinspp (Jan 2, 2008)

I think before I'd even consider the purchase I check into the moving of it first. I would think then you can make a sound decision and to buy or not to buy. Later RJD


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

I just got off the phone with the house movers. When I mentioned the train station and described it, he knew exactly what I was talking about (perhaps he is the one who had moved it before).

Sometimes bad news







is really good news in disguise.









The estimate to move the train station IF I had someone to take the roof off and to put it back on would be a MINIMUM of $25,000 - $30,000. 

That is absolutely a deal killer. If anything, this really was good news because it moved the train station out of the realm of a remote possibility to an absolute no way possible.

I guess i will see if a friend wants it (I suspect he will and he will be able to come up with the resources to move it if he wants it).

Heck, it was worth a shot. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. After all it did take over 4 years to come up with a caboose.

Knowing Marilyn, this train station may not end up here but who knows what her next discovery will be.

Regardless of the outcome, this has been an interesting and fun two days for us .

Jerry


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## jake3404 (Dec 3, 2010)

Too bad Jerry. Would have been an interesting topic for discusion.


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## Stan Cedarleaf (Jan 2, 2008)

That's just a bit heavy for the move, Jerry. Would be a delight to have on the property. 

It would be interesting to see what the cost of having a new one built on your site just like it.


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

The truth is that in this time of our lives we really should be getting rid of stuff rather than still acquiring more stuff.

While a part of me wishes we could have made it happen another part (perhaps a greater part) is relieved that this is one project I won't have to follow through on.

I have so many unfinished projects I have no idea when I might (if) ever get caught up on my current ones.

Part of the fun of life is not knowing what possibilities tomorrow might bring and then trying to figure out which things fall into the possible list and which fall into the impossible list.

As Marilyn said, one advantage of her retiring in a few months is that she will no longer be able to tour the old downtown areas of the various towns across Arkansas looking for railroad related things that might be salvageable.

Jerry


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By jake3404 on 30 Apr 2011 09:12 AM 
Too bad Jerry. Would have been an interesting topic for discusion. 
Hi Jake,

You are right. It would have been very interesting just to find out what went with the station that was buried under all that junk. Those freight scales alone would have been very interesting antiques but without the train station to house them there would be no room for or point in having them.

I read in the Rison historical paper that a house in Rison was built with timber left over from an old courthouse. The lumber from the train station could have been reused to build a new station or quite a few different things. Our house is partially built from previously used lumber and 100 year old Cyprus would have been better than most woods currently available at Home Depot etc.

Sometimes with age comes the wisdom to know which projects to walk away from (and which to run away from).

It is tempting to buy the station and then turn around and resell it just to be able to tell (ourselves) that we once owned a 100 year old Cotton Belt train station.

My 1977 F-250 gets 7 miles per gallon so a round trip to haul the lumber here from Rison would cost $93.00 to haul a 16' trailer load of train station lumber to the house. That would be roughly 10 3/4 loads per $1,000.

I wonder how hard it would be to remove the wood siding from 100 year old Cyprus studs?

Jerry


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## John J (Dec 29, 2007)

Posted By Jerry McColgan on 30 Apr 2011 04:23 PM 
Posted By jake3404 on 30 Apr 2011 09:12 AM 
Too bad Jerry. Would have been an interesting topic for discusion. 
Hi Jake,

You are right. It would have been very interesting just to find out what went with the station that was buried under all that junk. Those freight scales alone would have been very interesting antiques but without the train station to house them there would be no room for or point in having them.

I read in the Rison historical paper that a house in Rison was built with timber left over from an old courthouse. The lumber from the train station could have been reused to build a new station or quite a few different things. Our house is partially built from previously used lumber and 100 year old Cyprus would have been better than most woods currently available at Home Depot etc.

Sometimes with age comes the wisdom to know which projects to walk away from (and which to run away from).

It is tempting to buy the station and then turn around and resell it just to be able to tell (ourselves) that we once owned a 100 year old Cotton Belt train station.

My 1977 F-250 gets 7 miles per gallon so a round trip to haul the lumber here from Rison would cost $93.00 to haul a 16' trailer load of train station lumber to the house. That would be roughly 10 3/4 loads per $1,000.

I wonder how hard it would be to remove the wood siding from 100 year old Cyprus studs?

Jerry

I did it on a much smaller building. Used a Sawsal to cut the nails between the siding and the studs. Used the wood to cover the walls in a guys den. Just about ran out but the sliding door saved my butt when it fit over the closit door exactly. Used the old hardware and all 

JJ

PS Got visited by a state trooper 3 times wanting to know if we had permission to take the wood. Had to sit on the ground while they called the owner. ( Was before Cell phone)


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By John J on 30 Apr 2011 04:32 PM 

I did it on a much smaller building. Used a Sawsal to cut the nails between the siding and the studs. Used the wood to cover the walls in a guys den. Just about ran out but the sliding door saved my butt when it fit over the closit door exactly. Used the old hardware and all 

JJ

PS Got visited by a state trooper 3 times wanting to know if we had permission to take the wood. Had to sit on the ground while they called the owner. ( Was before Cell phone) 



JJ,

You're my kind of guy. 

Instead of thinking "Can I?" you think "How am I going to?"









If you lived in Arkansas I think we could have pulled it off.

Jerry


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## jgallaway81 (Jan 5, 2009)

Jerry, if moving it as a train station is out of the question, and a solo salvage is also out, what about a group operation? Everyone pitches in so much, everyone moves teh wood pieces to a central location, and the portion paid towards teh price equates to teh amount of wood gotten?

@import url(http://www.mylargescale.com/Provide...ad.ashx?type=style&file=SyntaxHighlighter.css);@import url(/providers/htmleditorproviders/cehtmleditorprovider/dnngeneral.css);


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By jgallaway81 on 30 Apr 2011 08:44 PM 
Jerry, if moving it as a train station is out of the question, and a solo salvage is also out, what about a group operation? 


I have a couple of unlikely possibilities that I will pursue. The problem with group activities is that we do not have any large groups around here and the situation changes a lot when the proposed move is onto private property - even if the intention is to preserve the caboose and train station and to keep them available to the public when possible. Few people would drive 60+ miles round trip just to see a caboose and train station in my field. The problem (in my opinion) is that there is so little public interest in railroads that it is falling on individuals like me to make whatever effort they can to preserve whatever they can.

There are surprisingly few people involved in model railroading of any gauge in central Arkansas. Add to that I am quite a ways outside of the metropolitan area. Most of the people involved in model railroading here are not originally from Arkansas and most Arkansans who are interested in 1:1 railroads either worked for the railroads or had parents who worked for the railroads. I believe there is a direct link between personal experience with mass transit (railroads in particular) and interest in model railroading.

Perhaps proof of this is that the caboose was virtually abandoned and being heavily vandalized when the school district had it (no protection whatsoever) and when they finally agreed to sell it, I was the only bidder and only person interested in preserving it.

The simple fact is that railroad preservation is not of particular importance to most Americans. The fact is that aside from older generations the general population of Arkansas has had very little experience with public transportation in general and railroads in particular. I believe that Arkansas has the highest personal vehicle mileage per capita because it is a rural state with virtually no public transportation outside of very few major cities.

If I had not been stationed in England for 3 years where steam railroads were still the major method of transportation between cities I too would probably have little interest in railroads (real or model).

I am not giving up yet but I am not optimistic either. I even suggested to Marilyn that perhaps we might see if it might be possible to buy or lease the land where the train station is located and just keep it there and restore it as much as possible without moving it. That might buy enough time to find an organization to give it to that would take care of it. She was not interested and the problems would include liability and potential vandalism plus the cost of gas for us to run back and forth.

Jerry


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## markoles (Jan 2, 2008)

Jerry,

And here I thought you were going to finally have a place to store all of your trains!!! You could have removed the basement layout and built it up inside the station!!


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Posted By markoles on 02 May 2011 10:53 AM 
Jerry,

And here I thought you were going to finally have a place to store all of your trains!!! You could have removed the basement layout and built it up inside the station!! 


Hi Mark,

While she has been careful not to say anything specific I suspect that, if we got the train station, when it arrived and was set up, Marilyn would have pointed to the caboose and said "That's yours" and then (pointing at the train station) would have said "That's mine (hers)."









We had both wanted a caboose that had all of the original equipment. Marilyn wanted a wood caboose and I wanted a center cupola caboose such as:











When it turned out that we got the MoPac Extended Vision caboose that had been gutted by MoPac before donating it, I discovered that it was perfect for me in that I could put anything inside it since there was nothing original left in it.

It would have been nice if we got the station and were able to restore it like it had been. I think it could have been done relatively inexpensively and with a minimum of expense but I suspect there would have been significant resistance if I wanted to put any trains or a layout inside it. If we had been able to move it here at a cost we could live with, I would have been willing to let Marilyn do whatever she wanted to do with it as long as it did not involve a lot of work on my part.

It looks like it was just a pie in the sky idea but (as with the caboose) sometimes the impossible happens.

Jerry


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