‘Awe inspiring’ station stirs vivid memories for Middle Georgians

The last run of the Nancy Hanks passenger train in Macon was such a momentous occasion that Macon-Bibb County Mayor Robert Reichert’s father decided to record it.

Albert P. Reichert Sr. brought a cassette tape to chronicle the day’s events in 1971 for his son, who was fighting in the Vietnam War at the time. As the train came through, a crowd of people gathered one last time to see the train, which for years offered routes from Savannah to Macon to Atlanta.

“Sure enough, here it comes,” Reichert said, recalling the recording. “You could hear the roar of the diesel engine and the horn honking and the ding, ding, ding of the bell ringing,”

Reichert is among countless other Middle Georgians who have indelible memories of trips on trains coming and going from the Terminal Station.

Daylong visits to Rich’s department store are among the reasons many people such as Reichert traveled by train to the state’s capital.

“I remember riding from Macon to Atlanta, getting off and walking a block and a half to Rich’s department store and go shopping and get back on and ride in the evening,” he said.

As children, Tommy Halliburton and his sister Sarah would ride the Nancy Hanks to Atlanta and traipse across the tracks to the popular shopping center. A couple of decades later, Halliburton and his wife, Margaret, were part of a group that hosted a party at the Terminal Station, with men donning coveralls and black-and-white striped engineer hats.

“The Terminal Station was the perfect place to have a railroad-themed party,” the 73-year-old said. “What I remember about the grand Terminal Station is that it was great and still is great.”

In the late 1950s to early ‘60s, Susan Middleton would visit her brother’s family in Atlanta after Christmas. The station was segregated at the time, but the train rides offered Middleton, a future Bibb County school board member, a chance to travel through areas she would not otherwise see.

“It was so awe inspiring to go in the building that had all that marble and echoes and high ceilings and the whole business of buying the tickets,” she said.

For many Middle Georgians, the trains were the mode of transportation that family members used departing and returning from battle.

While living on a small farm in north Bibb County, Patricia Williams-Scarbary received news that her father was at the Terminal Station after having fought in the Army during World War II.

Overjoyed, she got dressed and headed to the station.

“I was very little at that time but I remember clearly,” Williams-Scarbary said in an email. “Upon entering the station there was a coffee shop on the left with beautifully red topped horseshoe-shaped counters.

“There sat my very handsome daddy. We ran to him, as he turned to hug us, his elbow hit his coffee cup, spilling coffee everywhere, but no one cared. A father, husband, soldier was home from a long, scary absence. I remember my heels clicking on the lovely marble floors, the wide steps leading up to the rails.”

This story was originally published November 25, 2016 at 1:31 PM with the headline "‘Awe inspiring’ station stirs vivid memories for Middle Georgians."