Central Railroad Depot & Red Caboose

Central Railroad Depot and Red Caboose. . The car that traditionally signals the end of the train is fittingly displayed as a memorial to Central's railroad heritage. The Norfolk and Western caboose was donated by Norfolk Southern Railroad in 1988 thanks to then Mayor Al Cumbie and Norfolk Southern Railroad employee Charles Head. The caboose was displayed beside the main tracks at the 1988 Labor Day Railroad Festival. In 1990, through the efforts of the Railroad Festival Committee, Mayor Al Cumbie, Central Town Council and Norman Canoy, the caboose was situated at its present position near the baseball field., The NKP 451-500, Class C7 cabooses were built by International Railway Car Company in Kenton, Ohio. The above caboose was built in August 1962 and reconditioned in April 1977. It went to the N&W in the 1964 merger and was renumbered to NW 557551 to 557600 in 1965, 1967 and 1968. According to Charles Head, the markings on the caboose designate the year the caboose was built (August 1962) and reconditioned (April 1977). The space on the right under INSP is for the car inspectors to note the date and time of the last inspection. The inspector would check the brake shoes and brake piston travel as well as determining if there was sufficient lubrication in the journal box. The journals all had friction bearings and if they ran out of lubrication it would result in a "hot box.", The construction date of the original depot is unknown, though likely built when the railroad first came to Central in the early 1870s. Mrs. B.E. Allen writes in her history of Central that "the depot and sixteen of the principal businesses” were burned after July 4, 1897 when portions of the train business were moved to Greenville, SC., According to local citizen A.J. Crane, a new freight depot was built and replaced with the third and current depot building around 1940. The building was donated to the town of Central by Southern Railway Company and on December 11, 1973, Bill Wright Moving Company of Anderson transferred the structure from downtown Central to its current Gaines Street location., Captions (clockwise from top right) , . Photographic evidence from the 1930s shows a depot sat along the tracks Images of this depot do not match those of the 1950s and 1970s when the depot was moved to its current location. , . The building was moved west down Central's Main Street and aver the crossing in the center of town, then parallel eastward along the track to its destination of Gaines Street. , . John Sims, above, was listed as the railroad agent on the 1930 census.