Train restoration plan derailed

The plan to move Locomotive 509 from Central City Park and restore it for use as an excursion train has run out of steam.

In May 2011, Macon agreed to lease the engine and attached coal tender to Hartwell Railroad Co. for 30 years at $1 per year. In exchange, the Bowersville company offered to rebuild the locomotive as an excursion train for use mostly on its north Georgia lines, with discounted trips to Macon residents at least twice a year.

That contract gave Hartwell three years to make substantial progress on restoration. About the start of 2012, workers removed paint and asbestos from the engine. At some point, Hartwell also took a number of parts from the engine.

But nothing else happened, and the train’s exposed boiler began to rust.

When the three-year mark passed May 11, 2014, without any action, Macon-Bibb County Attorney Judd Drake sent Hartwell Railroad Co. a letter terminating the lease and returning the nominal payment. In mid-July, Drake asked for the missing parts back.

“They returned those at the end of August, first of September, and they’re stored in a building in Central City Park,” Drake said.

When the deal was made, Hartwell representative Jason Sobczynski said restoration might cost $450,000. Hartwell projected perhaps a year of work before the engine would be running again.

In 2013, Macon and Bibb County officials got sporadic assurances from Hartwell that restoration work would begin soon. As late as this past March, a Hartwell executive said the company still planned on restoring the engine, but wouldn’t give Macon-Bibb officials a tentative schedule.

Drake said he only knew what parts to ask for because a member of a local railroad enthusiasts group watched the parts being removed.

“They made a list of them, so that’s how we knew to get them back,” he said.

Ben Hamrick, business manager for the Recreation Department, sent Drake a copy of that list in a July 16 memo.

“At a minimum they need to return these parts to us as we pursue the restoration of the train,” Hamrick wrote.

The eight-item list includes valves, bars, linkages and other hardware. Drake forwarded it to Hartwell owner Bennie Ray Anderson, warning of “appropriate legal action” if they weren’t returned.

The engine remains on display in Central City Park, where it’s been since 1956. Two tarps are tied over most of the rusting boiler.

An adjacent plaque, dated 1984, dubs it part of “Benny A. Scott Plaza.” Scott was the first black fireman on the Central of Georgia Railroad. He also was the fireman on the final run of Engine 509, the railroad’s last steam locomotive. The plaque says it commemorates Scott’s “conscientious community volunteer efforts to the citizens of Macon.”

Now that the Hartwell deal is off, Macon-Bibb has no plans for the locomotive, government spokesman Chris Floore said. There has been some talk of moving it near Terminal Station, but those are “just idle discussions” so far, he said.

Floore said he knows there has been interest expressed in other plans for the locomotive, but the government hasn’t been contacted about it recently.

In 2012, the Coastal Heritage Society, which operates the Georgia State Railroad Museum, offered to house the locomotive in its Savannah roundhouse if Hartwell failed to make good on its promise.

But it would cost about $40,000 to move, heritage society officials said at the time. Fully restoring it to running condition and meeting Federal Railroad Administration standards might take $1 million, they estimated.

Terry Koller, director of railroad operations for the Coastal Heritage Society, said the offer to house the locomotive is still open, but the group doesn’t have money to move or restore it.

Koller said he understands the desire to keep the train engine in Macon, but at least the engine should be sheltered and treated to prevent further rust, he said.

“My recommendation would be find somewhere it can be inside, or at least under cover, or it’s going to continue to deteriorate,” Koller said.

The most successful efforts to fund relocation and restoration are usually backed by private donors with an interest in trains, he said, and most of the grants that might be available are quite small.

“It’s very difficult to raise money for this type of thing,” Koller said.

Absent a major donor, one possibility would be the next special purpose local option sales tax. The railroad museum got most of its recent funding from a Chatham County SPLOST, Koller said. For several years the heritage society has been restoring a passenger/baggage coach for the Thronateeska Heritage Center in Albany, he said.

“That was funded with SPLOST money,” Koller said.

To contact writer Jim Gaines, call 744-4489.

This story was originally published November 2, 2014 at 10:24 PM with the headline "Train restoration plan derailed ."