#: locale=en
## Tour
### Description
### Title
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Great American Stations
Following a renovation that included moving and rotating the historic structure, the Hamlet Depot now serves as a museum and site of a popular annual railroad festival.
The Hamlet Depot, the only Victorian Queen Anne style station in North Carolina, was built in 1900 for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad as both a passenger station and division headquarters.
This two-story station was originally constructed at the crossing of the Raleigh and Augusta Air Line and Central Carolina Railways. Restoration of the Depot was completed in 2004, at a cost of $11.7 million, a joint project of the City of Hamlet and North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), utilizing federal transportation funds.
The restoration of this station was many years in the making with the drawings and preparations beginning in 1997. By 1999, CSX, the successor to the Seaboard Air Line, notified the city and NCDOT of a concern about restoring a building surrounded by active railroad tracks, so it was decided that the station should be moved to a less active area, southward across the east-west rail line, and rotated 90 degrees, to sit along Main Street, which was also realigned to accommodate the station.
In 2001, CSX sold the station to the city of Hamlet for $1. In 2002, the 1942 brick addition was demolished and the original structure stabilized.
In March of 2003, the moving company began preparing the building for the move and the station was jacked up and rotated. By April 4, 2003, the station had been moved 210 feet across the tracks to its new foundation and stabilized. Renovations began that summer and were completed by the fall of 2004.
The city of Hamlet dedicated the station to NCDOT Board of Transportation member, G. R. Kindley. The Depot has received the Historic Preservation Society of North Carolina’s 2005 Carraway Award for outstanding preservation work by public agencies. The station has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1992.
In the late 1800s, John Shortridge established a woolen and saw mill along Marks Creek in the Sandhills of North Carolina. In 1879, a railroad running from Wilmington passed through the area that would become Hamlet to the Pee Dee River, where it connected to a line running to Charlotte.
Another railroad was being built from Raleigh through to Augusta; it was through the influence of early residents that these tracks also crossed through Hamlet.
The town originally got its name from Mr. Shortridge, who observed to his friends that in his native England, such small villages were called “hamlets.” Hamlet was not incorporated as a city until 1897.
Hamlet grew with the railroad, as it provided hospitality for travelers passing from New York to Florida. By 1936, Hamlet was dubbed the “Hub of the Seaboard,” with five Seaboard Air Line Railroad lines leading out from the city and about 30 passenger train departures each day.
More tidbits:
• Freight trains still come to Hamlet for maintenance at the CSX Transportation Maintenance Shops.
• The citizens of Hamlet today host the railroad-themed Annual Seaboard Festival Day on the fourth Saturday in October.
• The Hamlet Depot is also home to a museum tracing the rail history of the area. It includes hands-on exhibits, visual displays and interactive consoles.
• Hamlet is also the birthplace of legendary jazzman and saxophonist John Coltrane, and of the first African-American Marine officer, Frederick C. Branch.
Museum Director
Hamlet Depot & Museums
Phone: 910-582-0603
2 West Main Street • Hamlet, NC • 28345
director@hamlethistoricdepot.org
http://hamlethistoricdepot.org
Contact the Museum Director for help in planning your visit, scheduling a tour, donating or loaning artifacts, renting the facilities, and more.
Educators can get assistance with scheduling field trips to the Depot and with lesson plan materials.
Special tours can be arranged for large groups, such as clubs and senior citizen organizations.
The Director can also help prepare for any special needs you may have. We’re eager to help make your experience at the Hamlet Depot enjoyable and memorable.
We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you at the Hamlet Depot.
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info@loremipsum.com
Tlf.: +11 111 111 111
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info@loremipsum.com
Tlf.: +11 111 111 111
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JOHN DOE
Licensed Real Estate Salesperson
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LOREM IPSUM
DOLOR SIT AME
CONSECTETUR ADIPISCING ELIT. MORBI BIBENDUM PHARETRA LOREM, ACCUMSAN SAN NULLA.
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LOREM IPSUM:
$150,000
presented by
Hamlet Depot & Museums
and
Hamlet Historic Depot, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
This station identifying placard is one of two that originally hung on the Depot's exterior. Passengers on Seaboard passenger trains eagerly anticipated the Hamlet sign coming into view.
Hamlet meant a rest stop while the trains were fueled and provisioned.
Hamlet meant hawkers selling cheap cartons of cigarettes to carry to faraway places.
Hamlet meant a chance to pick up the latest editions of magazines and newspapers from all over the country.
Hamlet meant the best hamburgers around at the grill located inside what is now the west wing of the Depot.
Railfans delight in their own wrap-around porch at the Visitors Center next to the Hamlet Depot.
From here, fans get panoramic views of all the rail action on the north-south line as well as the east-west rails. You'll never miss the adventures.
Comfortable seating is provided. The bench is one the original benches from the passenger waiting area in the Depot. The old benches did not meet ADA requirements for seat width, so they could not be re-installed in the building.
When the museum buildings are open, vending and restroom facilities are provided.
These are pictures of the fire escape that was once mounted to the exterior wall of the Amtrak Crew Base wing of the Depot.
The Depot had two fire escapes, one on each wing. Each was repaired and repainted during the rehabilitation phase. They were both also demolished before the project was completed.
The fire escapes were not original to the building, and it was decided that they would require too much maintenance in the future to justify leaving them in place. So, down they came.
Once the engine and caboose were in place on their display track, work could begin to build the corral around the display.
The first step in that work was to install this French drain. Essentially, it’s just a 4" PVC pipe with holes in it, put down around the display perimeter to drain away rainwater. A filter sock covers the pipe to keep particles out, so the pipes don’t get clogged.
The drain keeps the site dry and helps keep the track bed from getting undermined. Wouldn’t want 390,000 lbs. of locomotive and caboose to float away.
Here roof shingles are being installed at the small intersecting roof between the Depot's two main wings.
Down below the shingles, where the slope of the roof begins to flatten out, you can see the third type of roofing on the Depot, a system of welded flat-seam panels.
The Berridge shingles were pre-painted, but the new flat-seam panels and the original standing-seam panels on the witch's hat all had to be painted to match the shingles.
A lot of things got picked up and moved around during the Depot's rehabilitation. Seaboard’s locomotive and caboose, the Baggage Shed, and the Depot itself all went for rides around the site.
All this lifting and moving gave a chance to ascertain the approximate weight of these items. So, how did they stack up?
The SDP-35 weighed in at around 330,000 lbs. (some items had been removed when #1114 was retired). The caboose added another 60,000 lbs.
But the Depot edged them both for the title of heavyweight. Weighing in at about 404,000 lbs., the Depot alone exceeded the combined weight of the engine and the caboose.
Viewed another way, just the weight of the engine and caboose is about like having a Hamlet Depot rolling down the track. Think about that next time a freight train is passing overhead on a bridge.
By mid-October 2004, thoughts had turned to decorating. One of the final touches in the Depot’s rehabilitation was this Amtrak schedule board.
Here, Ellen Holding from NCDOT is applying the Silver Star’s schedule to the millwork supplied during the renovation.
Val, one of the concrete finishers and the first to encounter Sal, the Depot’s resident ghost, offered his assistance on the Spanish translations.
The Rotunda room was not always the big open room with panoramic views of the tracks that we see today.
At the start of the rehabilitation, this room was divided into three separate, rather uninspiring spaces for the railroad's Division offices.
The partitions that chopped this room up were removed during the rehabilitation phase. Look closely on the ceiling, though, and you can still see evidence of how these partitions were laid out.
Take a good look at the demolition floor plan above. The curved wall now leading into the Rotunda room was not there prior to the rehabilitation.
The straight walls that formed Room 216 were demolished, and this new, gracefully curving wall was added to complement the existing curved wall opposite.
(Room 216 was where the railroad had conducted hearing screenings on employees. The constant clanging, blaring, ringing and chugging took its toll on railroad employees’ hearing.)
Nothing was simple in the Depot’s rehabilitation. True to form, this new curved wall proved another challenge. The existing corridor wall was built with 2x6 framing, but the partitions in the Rotunda room had been constructed of 2x4s. This was not an issue – unless you wanted to join the two walls, which was now the plan in constructing the new curved wall.
Two different size stud walls meant that, when the walls come together, somewhere there was going to be a bump in the wall. A bump would have interrupted the graceful lines of the curved wall. The Depot deserved better, but what to do?
Starting from the 2x6 corridor wall, in order to marry the new curved wall to the 2x4 Rotunda partition at the other end of the curve, each stud in the new curved wall was shaved down slightly, so that by the time the curve reached the 2x4 partition, the wall had actually shrunk in thickness, from 2x6 down to 2x4.
This way, there’s no bump where the new curved wall joins the other two walls. Now, it just looks like the curve has always been there, which is exactly what most people assume.
A prized part of the Depot rehabilitation project was the addition of Main Street Park. The park was constructed on the site of the former Terminal Hotel, which served railroad personnel and was one of Hamlet's most active social centers.
Sadly, the Terminal Hotel was lost to fire in 1993, but not before being featured in the 1991 film Billy Bathgate.
Out of the ashes arose a new and award-winning park that is a favorite backdrop for picnics, exercising, performances, dog walking, and portrait photography.
Read more about the Terminal Hotel http://ourhamlet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4045.
A key component of the $11.6 million Depot rehabilitation project was moving the building from its original home across the east-west track.
Main Street and its railroad grade crossing were shifted to their current location to make room for the Depot to be rolled to its new home.
Had the street not been moved, cars would be driving through the large sliding door in the Amtrak Crew Base today.
Nine original pole lights stand along the rail passenger platform. There are eight 2-head and two 3-head poles.
They underwent a year-long restoration in Virginia. Damaged or missing components were re-cast to match the originals. Only one original globe exists, so all the globes are replacements.
For those who are counting, what about the 10th pole? Where did it come from?
One entire pole assembly had to be completely crafted from scratch. See if you can figure out which one is the replacement.
Visitors have remarked that they fondly remember light fixtures just like the ones hanging in the Depot today, usually from their school days. In fact, this type fixture is known as a “schoolhouse fixture.”
Many people assume the lights are original to the building. But once again, the Depot likes to trick you. These are brand-new fixtures, as of 2004.
In 1900 when the Depot was built, electric lights were not installed. The town of Hamlet was in the process of getting electric utilities up and running, but it would be another three years before reliable electric power was available.
So, the Depot began its career with gas lights, fed by a network of piping above the ceiling and inside the walls. Portions of that piping still remain and are especially visible in the attic.
Pendant fixtures, suspended from the ceiling, as well as wall sconces, mounted lower on the walls, were individually lit as needed in the Depot (no light switch to turn on a bank of lights in those days).
The intensity of the light could be adjusted at each fixture manually, most likely by pulling on a chain that regulated the gas flow at each fixture.
Gas lights were quite bright (think a camping lantern). Given the dark interior paint colors of the time, that brightness would have been a welcome feature to counteract the Depot’s original dark scheme.
To see how gas lights typical of the Depot’s era would have worked, follow the incomparable Judy Garland as she turns down the lights throughout the house in the bannister scene from MGMS’s 1944 cinema version of Meet Me in St. Louis.
How come the window and door casings and the wainscots in the Kitchen aren’t painted in the Depot’s standard brown?
It all goes back to health department regulations. The health department shot down the brown paint because it did not provide sufficient contrast for their inspectors to spot anything that should not be in a kitchen.
So, the Kitchen was repainted in a lighter color, and now diners in the Rotunda room can rest assured that anything brown on their plate was meant to be there.
On March 23, 2004, a special truck arrived at the Depot, outfitted with hydraulic tree spades. It was used to transplant a 4"-caliper Southern live oak to its new home at the Depot, which was still under construction at the time.
Live oaks line the streets of Hamlet and shade yards all over town. Some are as old as the town itself. It is fitting that the Depot boasts a fine example of this stately tree for its very own.
Read more about these iconic trees at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quercus_virginiana.
There are three levels of the Depot open to the public. The fourth, the attic, is never seen.
You are now under the witch's hat, the roof over the rotunda portion of the Depot building.
Given that the Depot was built in 1900, the trees to build it were likely harvested in the late 1890s. The South still had significant old-growth pine forest stands during that time. Therefore, the trees used to build the Depot were likely 100 years old, maybe more.
So you're looking at lumber cut from trees that were growing when the United States was a new nation, possibly even from when George Washington was president.
Think about that. And think about how easily it all could have been lost were it not for the heroic effort to save the Depot.
The rafters form the graceful shape of the witch's hat, but the framing system that holds up the iconic roof we know so well is actually much more complex than simple rafters splayed out in a circle.
As strong as old-growth lumber of the day was, the builders recognized the span was too great to support the roof loads alone.
They devised a secondary supporting means for the rafters – a set of intersecting bridge trusses underneath the circular rafter framing.
Periodic kickers from the trusses up to the witch's hat rafters provide the additional support the roof framing needed.
The bridge trusses also act to pull the outside walls of the rotunda inward, thereby balancing the forces the witch's hat rafters exert on the outside walls.
During construction, a considerable amount of hazardous material was stripped from the Depot. Collins Ibeto was the Depot’s industrial hygienist, hailing from Nigeria, where he had been a national football player (soccer to us Americans).
Collins monitored air and surfaces for safety during the abatement of all the hazardous materials from the Depot. Here he is in the basement, performing an air monitoring test.
Years and years of lead-based paint had been applied to any surface of the Depot that would accept it, inside and out. It seems that, in slack periods, the railroad would send employees out with a paintbrush to tidy up its buildings, and that resulted in layer upon layer of paint that was now deemed hazardous.
All the bad stuff had to go, and the paint removal process generated a considerable amount of hazardous dust particles and paint chips, which also had to go, but not before being chemically neutralized.
More than that, asbestos had to be abated from the building, which involved its own set of hazards and procedures for removal.
Then another problem developed in the attic – bat guano and coal dust. The attic floor had collected these hazards to a depth of 4" in between the ceiling joists. It had to go too, not only because of the health hazard it posed, but because the fine particles of coal ash kept sifting through the cracks between boards of the second-floor ceiling.
Through it all, Collins kept vigil on the air quality and the surface accumulation of hazardous dust. Areas were cleaned as the work progressed, and if tests failed in any area during or after abatement, Collins would redirect the work until the environment of the Depot returned to a safe range.
Collins was not, however, allowed to demonstrate his fancy soccer footwork on the Depot’s new ball finial for the rotunda roof.
In this photo from March 10, 2004, installation of the new Berridge roof shingles had reached the valley between the museum wing and the crotch of the building. The standing-seam roof of the rotunda witch's hat can be seen sticking up beyond.
Much skilled work lay ahead to marry the new shingles to the 1910s-era standing-seam for a watertight installation.
Take a look – the rafters that form the witch's hat roof are each a single, continuous piece of lumber, from the base at the attic floor to the peak of the rotunda roof.
Not a sign of a bow anywhere, even after more than 100 years of bearing their weight.
The trusses have braces that meet at the truss intersection, down at the attic floor level.
Surprisingly, this intersection is off-center from the peak of the witch’s hat.
The builders needed the extra clearance under the roof framing for the trusses to fit, and they were smart enough to know that the bridge trusses need not be centered under the witch's hat peak to do their job. These are working trusses; they were not built for show.
Nonetheless, we can marvel today at the beauty of their form and the complexity of the job they do to hold up the roof that makes the Hamlet Depot one of the most photographed railroad buildings in the nation.
In 2020, the City of Hamlet purchased this remarkable handmade locomotive. It was built by Hamlet native, Gene Ross, a former CSX employee and master metalworker.
The locomotive is massive – about the size of an SUV. As part of Gene’s grand plan, the locomotive’s boiler concealed a grill that he envisioned would become the centerpiece of grand backyard feasts. However, Gene could never bring himself to actually cook on the grill for fear of the smoke and heat tarnishing his prized creation.
Gene had offers from cities around the country, but he wanted his masterpiece to stay in Hamlet and be displayed at the Depot for all to see.
It's another fine example of the unique exhibits you'll encounter when you visit the Hamlet Depot & Museums.
By late February 2004, prep work for the new roof shingles was nearing completion.
Carpentry repairs to the sheathing were complete. The new roof framing at the elevator wing was done, and the building was able to at last be put in the dry, something it had not known in many years.
While roof work was going on overhead, attention inside the building was turning to finishes.
Adjoining the Rotunda room is a caterer's kitchen. This room was the ladies' restroom in the Depot's former life. The quarry tile floor is original to those days.
The kitchen is furnished with warming drawers, refrigeration, an icemaker and a microwave to support events held at the Depot. Like most everything else installed on the second floor during the rehabilitation, this equipment came in through the Rotunda windows.
Contact the museum Director at (910) 582-0603 for a list of approved caterers and further information.
Before leaving for a date with the carpenters in Raleigh, the tattered Tornado went on an exhaustive search for its new home.
It spent some time trying out the views from under the newly reconstructed Baggage Shed. That's it in the snowy scene from 2004.
In fact, a glass showcase under the Baggage Shed was at one time considered for the Tornado's permanent home. But the Baggage Shed proved to be too attractive for outdoor events, so it was decided the Tornado needed to go elsewhere.
Another spot considered was inside the Opera House up Main Street from the Depot. Also, the alley beside the Opera House was tossed about (which would have undoubtedly led to lots of jokes about "Tornado Alley").
Fairmont Speeders, like this Seaboard example on display in the Tornado Building, afforded railroads cheap transportation for maintenance-of-way (MOW) crews to reach work areas along the line.
Comfort was not a consideration or an option, though some Speeders were outfitted with a windshield and even a roof.
Long-time Depot volunteer, Riley Watson, once had to abandon ship from his Speeder when a late freight crested the rise in front of him. Riley and his crew bailed in time, but their payload of watermelons was a casualty in the ensuing collision.
Check out a Speeder in action in this video. Speeder enthusiasts offer excursions nationwide. One such outfit is nearby in Red Springs, NC.
The caboose is divided into efficient compartments capable of handling all the crew's needs.
Here you see the crew's sleeping quarters for the times when their train was on layover far from home. Two bunks and closet space are all you need (and all you get).
A caboose was once a fixture on a freight train. It was office and home for the crew. But rarely do we ever see a caboose on a working train today.
What happened? Why don't freight trains have cabooses anymore?
Check out this video to learn more.
Seen enough? Ready to stay in a real caboose on your next vacation? You can "rough it" in style in an SCL caboose in Clyde, in the North Carolina mountains. Click above for a look.
From their elevated position in the cupola, the crew could see over the tops of the cars that made up the train. This allowed them to perform the critical function of monitoring the train for trouble.
They were especially vigilant for "hot boxes," indicated by smoke billowing from a journal box on the axles of the freight cars.
Hot boxes resulted from low oil in the axle bearing boxes, which allowed the cotton packing to dry out and overheat the bearings. Overheating bearings would smoke and eventually fail, causing a fire or even derailment.
What is this Tornado Building anyway? No, it's not a storm shelter, as many visitors have theorized.
It's home to a full-scale, 1892 wooden replica of the Raleigh & Gaston Railroad's ground-breaking locomotive, the Tornado. The locomotive and tender were taken to the shops of NCDOT in Raleigh in 2004 for a complete restoration.
Alongside the Tornado you'll see other exhibits only found here, such as Seaboard's famous Silver Meteor; a handmade grill; a detailed O-scale model railroad; and more.
A working railroad crossing signal stands in a landscape bed on the Palmetto Wye walkway, between the Baggage Shed and the Tornado Building.
The Baggage Shed is yet another relocated building at the Depot complex. It was originally attached to the brick express freight building, which still stands across the tracks from the Depot.
The Baggage Shed connected the express freight building to what is now the Amtrak Crew Base wing of the Depot. You can see in the picture above where that connection occurred. Note the line of the Baggage Shed roof midway up the endwall.
Go across the street and look at the east end of the express freight building and you’ll see where the other end of the Baggage Shed attached.
If trains don't have cabooses for crews to monitor the cars anymore, who is doing the work those crews used to do?
Meet FRED – Flashing Rear-End Device (also known as an EOT – End-of-Train device). Smart FREDs use two-way radio telemetry to monitor things like brake pressure. FRED can even apply brakes on all cars at once in an emergency.
Computers and GPS tracking keep up with where the cars are going and what they are hauling. So no need anymore for a caboose’s kitchen table to do your paperwork.
As for the old “hot box” problem, it’s just that – an old problem. Axle technology evolved away from journal boxes, which eliminated the threat posed by one of those boxes running hot. One less job for FRED.
In this photo from September 17, 2004, Frankie is carefully working on one of the many door jambs that required repair or reconfiguration to accept a door.
The swing on several doors had to be reversed to fit the new plan for the Depot, and jambs had to be modified accordingly.
This was tedious work involving tools more at home on the Depot’s model railroads than in a carpenter’s bag.
You won’t want to miss this one-of-a-kind display – the Hamlet Depot’s presentation of the Silver Meteor.
The "Meter" was the premier streamlined passenger train from New York to Florida from the time it was introduced in 1939 until well after Amtrak assumed operation of passenger rail in 1971.
This prestigious Seaboard Air Line train stopped in Hamlet daily, always bringing out a crowd of onlookers to the Depot. The train was so famous that Amtrak still offers its own version as part of its Silver Service line of Florida trains.
Visitors often want to know if the original plaster survived the move across the tracks. Yes, it did.
So is the plaster you see today throughout the Depot original to the building? No, it's not.
James Best was a master plasterer with molds of every trim profile used throughout the historic buildings of New Orleans. Due to his vast experience (he had been plastering for over 50 years), James was brought in to restore the Depot's plaster. At the time, James was 80 years old.
James had thoughts for the construction team on how best to proceed. He had been plastering longer than anyone else on the team had even been alive, so the team decided to go with James' recommendations.
James said the Depot's original plaster was in great shape. It had survived the move intact and showed little signs of cracking. That was the good news.
The trouble lay in the lath, a system of concealed horizontal wooden strips applied to the wall studs to support the plaster. James showed the team how the nails that support the lath had rusted through and were allowing the lath to flap against the studs. This movement allowed an unacceptable amount of flexing in the original plaster. In the world of plaster, flexing leads to cracking.
James said vibrations from passing trains would only worsen the condition in years to come, and eventually, large sections of the plaster would fail and have to be replaced.
The construction team heeded James' warning, and down came the old plaster. In its place, new metal lath was installed, and James and two helpers set about re-plastering the entire building, employing the same textured finish as the original plaster.
No one ever managed to photograph James' hands at work without capturing a blur.
Upon entering the Tornado Building, you are stepping into more than a museum lobby. It's also our workshop.
This is where the magic happens to create, update and maintain all the model railroad scenery, rolling stock, buildings and electronics.
A dedicated group of volunteers meets here regularly to work on the museum's layouts.
Contact the museum Director for information on how you can join this talented group.
Originally, the space in front of these windows was to be the Janitor's Closet. It had been a restroom prior to the Depot move. A narrow hallway squeezed between this space and the Rotunda.
But the rehabilitation project manager found the view from these windows too appealing to be shut away in a closet. This photo, taken inside the closet on a snowy day during construction in 2004, convinced the rest of the team.
The existing walls were taken down, and this overlook was left for us to enjoy today. Evidence of the old angled restroom walls is still visible on the ceiling.
You will see two styles of radiator as you tour the Depot. Both styles are antique and historically significant to Hamlet.
The ones with the fancy scroll work are original to the Depot and were its primary source of heat for decades.
The plain ones came from the old Hamlet Hospital to replace the fancy ones that had been stolen while the Depot awaited transport across the tracks.
All the radiators were restored by Paul Scholl. He disassembled each radiator, breaking it down into its component cells, and cleaned and painted each assembly.
The radiators once again supply heat to the Depot, though this time, they are fed by hot water instead of steam, and they function more as supplemental heat to the building's primary systems.
Among the items on display is this working model of a Stuart Walking Beam.
Play the video to see one in action.
We strive to make the Hamlet Depot & Museums accessible to all patrons.
The entire Depot complex is handicap accessible and ADA-compliant.
Van-accessible parking is provided on both sides of the street, conveniently located near building entrances. Curbs are mountable and thresholds, where they exist, are easily negotiated by wheelchairs and scooters.
Restrooms are fully accessible, and a modern elevator safely transports guests from the basement to the second floor.
So come and experience all the Depot has to offer.
Take the elevator or stairs to the basement and descend into another time.
Welcome to Hamlet, circa 1952.
Here you'll find this stunning HO (1:87 scale) model railroad showcasing Hamlet at the peak of its railroading prowess in the early 1950s.
Many of the buildings represented here still stand today (although a few have been moved, such as the Depot and Baggage Shed). How many can you recognize?
A modern, low-level, ADA-compliant passenger loading platform awaits around the corner. It is capable of servicing six Amtrak cars at one time without the use of step stools.
For the visually impaired, the platform edge is delineated by a truncated-dome tactile warning strip. The domes also conceal two embedded 2001 North Carolina Wright Brothers quarters, placed there during construction of the platform in 2003.
For passengers in wheelchairs, Amtrak will provide access to the train via station-based mobile lifts.
The Depot rehabilitation project benefitted from an entire team of highly skilled carpenters. Dennis Sedberry was one of them.
Here, Dennis is preparing to install the marble toilet partitions. Heavy rains at Georgia Marble’s quarry had delayed shipment of the partition slabs. That in turn meant the marble subcontractor could not get to the installation when needed. Time was getting short, so Dennis took it on.
What does a top-flight carpenter know about drilling and fitting marble? “We're about to find out,” was his reply. One slip and a crack would spider across the slab of stone, destroying it.
Dennis created jigs and jacks to hold the heavy slabs of marble in place. Then, he drilled holes for the mounting hardware. Next morning, the partitions were hanging in the bathrooms.
Guess we found out.
Ever wonder why your pictures of the Depot often look like you didn’t bother to check the level of your camera before you snapped the picture?
Thank this dip in the rotunda’s lower pent eave (the lower roof supported by brackets).
The dip is evident in photos going back at least to the 1950s. Considerable effort was put into trying to remove the dip without rebuilding the lower pent eave. But the dip remains as part of the character of the old building.
So, now we settle for our photos looking askew.
During construction at the Depot, the Visitors Center building was owned by B.B. Stinson and housed several businesses. One was the Rainbow Vacuum Cleaner store.
Sam was a curious, big black Labrador Retriever who came to work in the Rainbow store every day. He also liked to come to work at the Depot, though he habitually showed up without his hard hat.
When the dot-finish walkways were being poured in front of the Visitors Center – a slow and laborious processes – Sam would trot through the fresh concrete, creating more work for the concrete finishers.
Sam had to be confined, or else the dot-finish walkways would feature big black Lab tracks. So Sam came to work in the construction job trailer, helping with scheduling and change orders, while the finishers finished the walkways.
On the last day of the concrete pours, Sam came out to stick his paw in the fresh concrete. His paw print is in a corner in front of the Visitors Center. See if you can find it.
In this photo from February 24, 2004, the slow process of pouring the dot-finish walkways in Main Street Park was coming along.
In the foreground is the wing wall of the north end of the trestle. You can now follow the walkways to the trestle and the pedestrian bridge constructed on top of the trestle.
Another example of the expert finish carpenters who worked on the Depot was this father-and-son team, Harry and Brenner McRae.
In this photo from October of 2004, they are cleaning and sorting window hardware in preparation for installation on the many window sashes in the Depot.
It took tremendous skill to knit the Depot back together, blending old and new materials together as seamlessly as possible. Fortunately, people like Harry and Brenner were up to the challenge.
One of the first things you'll see in the park is a surviving example of a Seaboard EMD SDP-35 locomotive. This is a 6-axle road switcher diesel-electric engine built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Division from July, 1964 to September, 1965.
With passenger service declining, Seaboard wanted a passenger locomotive that could pull double duty in freight service. Enter the SDPs.
The "P" in SDP stands for "Passenger." Seaboard purchased 20 of these units to replace aging "E units" to pull passenger trains. But as anticipated, #1114 also saw duty in freight service.
Come climb aboard #1114.
As finishes inside the Depot advanced, the interior of the building no longer was suited to be the carpentry workshop. So, in the fall of 2004, the workshop moved outdoors under the lower pent eave.
There, Dustin kept the crews entertained with his stories, impressions, and comic relief. Being yet another stellar carpenter, Dustin is responsible for much of the window and door trim you'll see when you visit the Depot.
On March 30, 2004, Hamlet welcomed the completed Depot at the town's annual street fair, the 22nd annual Seaboard Festival.
With vendors, rides, music and dancing, and the ever-present freight train horns, a large gathering turned out for its first glimpse at what five years of work had produced at the Depot.
Architect David Gall remarked upon seeing the crowds that it was everything he had envisioned it to be.
32 barrels of paint chips still sat in the Visitors Center parking lot, waiting for the neutralizing agents to do their magic on the lead-based paint before the drums could be taken to a landfill. But no one seemed to mind.
The Depot isn't the only place to catch a train. Remember to include Main Street Park in your Amtrak railfanning.
Here Amtrak #92, the northbound Silver Star, arrives in Hamlet on March 23, 2018 on its way to Raleigh, Washington and New York.
In the days before refrigeration, ice was the only option. This ice box could store a block of ice on one side of the box. The ice would chill the box, and food placed in the other half of the box wouldn't spoil.
Overhead in the Rotunda room, critical support members span the entire room. Two intersecting trusses hold up the iconic witch's hat roof over the Rotunda and help pull the walls inward. Such has been the case for over a century.
But modern engineering practice does not recognize the carrying capacity of the timbers overhead. Engineers could not definitively state that the old trusses overhead could do their job of holding the building together.
Extra support was called for to meet modern codes. But no one wanted to see a new column added to the center of the Rotunda room. So what was the final solution?
The Depot needed a saddle. Not the horse kind, but this steel invention, custom designed to help distribute the loads of the trusses above. The saddle was affixed to the truss intersection, and additional stirrups were added along the bottom chord of the trusses to help distribute the load among all the chord members. No supporting column was needed after all.
So the question now is – is the saddle holding up the Depot, or is the Depot holding up the saddle? We’ll have to get back to you.
The pine flooring on the second floor is largely original. It was repaired and sanded and then refinished.
Occasionally throughout the second floor, you'll see square patches in the flooring. These patches mark the spot where steel cables were added to the building to tie it together in preparation for the move across the tracks.
Leading up from the Division Offices door under the lower pent eave on the west wing is this main stairway. These stairs used to be much steeper.
Look overhead on the ceiling of the run of stairs from the door up to the intermediate landing. There you will see evidence on the ceiling of the original wall that ran along the stairs at the second floor. The stairs originally ran straight in one continuous, steep climb to the second floor hallway.
After many months of temporary corrugated piping serving as downspouts until the exterior carpentry and painting work could finish, the Depot finally received its new copper downspouts in mid-October of 2004.
Rain had been a constant threat to progress on site. Regular deluges and two Hurricanes, Isabel and Ivan, had hindered progress. Throughout the project, rain and train horns had been constant companions.
Ken Taylor captured video footage of the day the downspouts went up. Their installation signaled the closing moments of a five-year journey to save the Depot.
An SDP-35 is identical to an SD-35 except the SDP includes a steam generator for making heat for passenger cars.
The passenger-ready version SDP is easily distinguished from a freight-only SD by the squared-off long hood in back, which is where the boiler for steam generation is housed.
Seaboard SDPs could be found at the head of fast, luxury passenger trains, like the Silver Meteor. They could just as easily be found lugging a heavy freight train.
Here you see the railroad's idea of a mobile office in the days before computers.
Railroad crews worked at their kitchen table just like everyone else. The caboose's table and benches provided a place to take meals and work on paperwork.
The caboose carried the records of the various cars' destinations and payloads, so there was always plenty of paperwork.
Like just about everything else at the Depot, #1114 and the caboose were picked up and moved here.
On a sweltering day, August 19, 2003, #1114 and its caboose were hoisted from their rail spur at the old Depot location across the tracks.
The pair "ran the wye" one last time before easing past the Depot, which itself was adjusting to its new home.
By the end of the day, #1114 and its caboose were set down on their new display track beside Main Street. They would need a rehab of their own before they would be ready to host the public.
Today the Baggage Shed is a favorite gathering spot for picnics, reunions, meetings and exercise.
There is easy, accessible parking and level access to the surrounding lawns and gardens of Main Street Park. Ample seating and table amenities await.
Other can't-miss attractions on this side of the street, such as the Tornado Building and engine and caboose, are only steps away.
The Baggage Shed can also be reserved for gatherings. Just contact the museum Director.
People are drawn to the Hamlet Depot from all over the world. Take Ganbaatar Dunkechig, an engineer from Mongolia, and his grandson, Yason.
Ganbaatar operates passenger trains near the border with Russia, where short, stocky horses graze in fields beside the tracks.
Despite the language barrier, Ganbaatar instantly knew how to operate #1114. In fact, upon sitting down at the control stand, his first words were "No horn. No horn." (The horn handle was missing from #1114. It has since been restored.)
Manufacture of the new rated doors at the Depot had been delayed at the Eggers Industries factory. It was looking doubtful that the Depot would have its doors in time for its grand opening.
When it finally looked like the doors might emerge from production in time, Superintendent Jim Watts hit the road to the Eggers factory in Wisconsin to fetch the doors.
Once the doors arrived, one crew was prepping the doors for hardware, one was sanding, another was hanging, and another was painting – often at the same time on the same door leaf.
One requirement to work on the painting crew was being named Fred.
On October 4, 2004, this Fred was applying the finishing touches to the trim work. He had seen the Depot in its most desperate condition, and now he was turning it into a gem.
The Depot was nearing completion, seven days ahead of schedule, the cause of much wonderment and disbelief.
The gable of the Amtrak Crew Base wing served as a testing ground of sorts.
Early in 2004, a debate was raging among the design team. The topic: What color do we paint the gables?
A paint conservator had been retained to determine the original color scheme. Determining the colors of the lower walls and trim was fairly straightforward, but the wooden shakes on the gables proved more problematic.
The major stumbling block was that the team was unable to determine if the shakes were original to the building. It is logical that they had been replaced, as the gables are exposed to the weather more than any other component of the building.
Without knowing if the shakes were original, the paint conservator couldn’t say if the paint colors he uncovered were original.
The team turned to historical photographs for help. No luck there. Only black-and-white photos of the Depot were available from the era when it would have still strutted its Queen Anne colors.
Intensive study of the contrast variations of building elements portrayed in those old photos yielded no conclusive evidence of the gable colors. This was due to heavy shadows on the gables in the photos.
So, the choice came down painting the gables gold, like the walls, or red, like the trim. (Green had already been ruled out because the rake and window trim color was already determined to be green.)
To aid in the discussion, this gable was painted half and half, as a test just for comparison.
In the end, the tenets of architectural history won out. Queen Anne buildings such as the Depot typically would have had their gables painted a different color than the walls at lower levels, so that's exactly what the team agreed to do.
Which color would you have chosen?
Rail passengers needed a platform from which to board and detrain, but building one was complicated.
The Depot’s platform is a low-level access platform, meaning it is below the height of car floors. It is also ADA-compliant, with a yellow stripe and truncated dome strip for the visually impaired. Embedded somewhere in those truncated domes are two 2001 North Carolina quarters.
The platform had to be built to exacting specifications to clear not only passenger but freight rail equipment as well. And it had to be done while such traffic continued to roll past the under-construction platform four times a day. But concrete forms couldn’t be taken down and put back up every time a train showed up.
CSX arranged to slow the traffic to a crawl while tests were made to determine if the temporary forms for the concrete and the braces to hold them up would clear the equipment. The forms would stay up for two weeks, and not a single incident involving a collision with a passing train was recorded.
Throughout the Depot complex, the concrete walkways have a special, historical finish. Small dimples in the concrete form a texture called dot-finish. Some say it looks like an ice-cream sandwich.
This finish required a special roller to make the dimpled impressions in the concrete. Since no historical roller was available, this special roller was fabricated by a machine shop in Troy, NC.
The roller was only part of the story. Using it proved tedious and time-consuming.
The roller could not be applied to the concrete until the concrete was almost set. The concrete had to support the weight of the roller, but if the concrete got too hard, the roller wouldn't press into the concrete enough to make the dimples.
Access to the work area in order to use the roller was another issue. Concrete had to be poured in small enough sections that the finishers could reach the area from all sides without stepping into wet concrete. So, the concrete was poured in small blocks.
Between the Depot, the Visitors Center, the boarding platform and Main Street Park, it would take months to pour all the concrete sections in this fashion.
Why is there a skylight over the smokestack of the Tornado?
The plan was for the Tornado to rest on a replica of the wooden track the locomotive originally travelled upon. Careful measurements were taken to ensure the completed train and track assembly would fit under the building's roof.
But when the restored Tornado arrived back from the DOT shops in Raleigh, the track assembly included a double layer of wooden members. This had not been anticipated during the design phase of the gallery.
So, what to do? Simple. Pop a hole in the roof for the Tornado's smokestack to stick up into and set a skylight over the top.
Problem solved, and the room gets flooded with indirect daylight to boot.
The Depot got its ball back. Actually, it got this new stainless-steel version.
Historical photographs had revealed the rotunda witch's hat once had a ball finial. How or why it was removed or what became of it is not known. But photographic evidence reveals it was there in 1916 and gone by the 1950s.
The new 2004 replacement ball stayed locked up in the construction mobile office until time for its installation.
When the project manager's little girls, Shelby and Jessie, would stop by for lunch, they would play with the ball, rolling it from one end of the trailer to the other.
The day finally came in May 2004 for the ball to assume its prominent perch on top of the witch's hat. It was a happy day for most but a sad day for Shelby and Jessie, who no longer had their shiny ball to roll around.
To mark their special association with the rotunda ball, Shelby and Jessie got their own special brick in the Depot's Brick Garden.
Everything associated with the exterior wall at the elevator lobby had to be produced. Ditto for the wall joining the two wings. That included new brackets at the upper pent eave.
The new brackets match the old in every detail except for one crucial one – the shape of the finials.
The original brackets sport an onion-shaped finial, and faithful replicas were fabricated for the new brackets as well. But the project architect, David Gall, wanted to use the brackets to tell a story.
When buildings undergo repairs, it's quite common for the skills of the repair crew to not equal those of the original builders. David wanted the brackets to reflect this common fact by outfitting the new brackets with a simpler finial that required less skill to make.
This didn't sit well with the project superintendent, Kevin Pigford, who had taken careful caliper measurements and turned replicas that were indistinguishable from the old finials. Kevin had more than enough skill to copy the old onion finials, and in fact, he did.
But David's storytelling scheme won out, and Kevin ended up remaking the finials into a simpler, squared-off shape. Today, you can identify the new brackets by these simpler finials.
This same storytelling strategy was employed in other places around the building. Can you spot them?
By September of 2003, the end of the building now housing the elevator had been structurally stabilized enough to begin rebuilding the exterior wall.
This entire wall had to be built from scratch. The old two-story 1940 addition to the Depot had connected here, and all the finishes in this area had been torn away to make that connection.
See more photos of this work when you hover over the wall on the panorama.
On July 1, 1967, two major east coast railroads combined. Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line formed Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, and for the first time in 67 years, the Depot was under new ownership.
Learn more at https://www.aclsal.org.
The passenger waiting room doors received many coats of paint through the years. Those layers were methodically stripped away in the lead paint abatement work.
As the layers melted away, the colors of bygone eras were revealed. Decorators of the past seemed particularly fond of blue, brown and green.
Here, 1970s Amtrak orange has seen the light of day again.
One of Amtrak's new Viewliner II shiny diners, the Albany, recently rolled into Hamlet. It was in the consist of the combined Silver Star and Palmetto, which were running together during Amtrak's COVID-19 pandemic service reductions.
Ride along in the video below and see the insides of one of these diners.
Three original sliding doors were salvaged and reinstalled. One can be seen in this gallery of the museum, and the other two are located in the Amtrak Crew Base.
When it came time to add a sliding door to the Gift Shop entrance in 2019, these doors served as inspiration for the design.
As completion of the Depot neared, nobody wanted to wait for the grass to grow. Change Order #86 addressed that by replacing the originally-proposed grass seeding with sod.
Here McGarret with Bryan't Turf is shown near the diamond laying new sod supplied by Sandhills Turf in Candor, NC.
Railroad crews were nothing if not ingenious. When out on the line, they faced a situation where there was little in the way of communication and even less chance for extra help for miles around. Crews had to come up with solutions.
One was this ingenious wheelbarrow, designed with offset handles.
Crews could place the flanged wheel of the wheelbarrow on a rail and then stand to one side to push without having to try to balance their feet on the rail.
The Baggage Shed was reconstructed on this site as part of the Depot rehabilitation project.
It was once planned as a shelter for a railroad exhibit. In fact, the asphalt paving under the shed was chosen as a temporary floor until the final use for the Baggage Shed could be determined.
In the absence of a designated use, the community chose their own use – picnics and gatherings.
In fact, the Town of Aberdeen liked the idea so much that they requested their own version of a Baggage Shed at their town lake.
Abandoned luggage wasn't a problem invented by the airlines. Railroads faced the same issue.
These bags were left at the Depot without anyone ever coming to claim them. While abandoned luggage would trigger a security emergency today, these bags were just put aside until the rightful owner showed up to claim them.
What do you suppose could be inside?
In April of 2004, it was decided that the two fire escapes on the building should be removed. They were judged to be a maintenance problem for the future and not historically significant to the building.
In this May 1, 2004 photo, the fire escape on the end near the Visitors Center is still in place, but demo has begun – the ladder rungs have been removed.
This scene from January 24, 2004 shows the building steel for the rotunda area sorted and ready for installation inside the building.
Meanwhile, on the high iron, a couple of Union Pacific engines are leading an intermodal consist westbound past the Depot.
Trains (and train horns) were a constant presence during construction, seeming to come out of nowhere every time anyone tried to have a phone conversation or meeting onsite.
All the rotunda windows are curved. Each one has a unique bow, slightly different from its neighbors.
Some of the rotunda windows are new, but most are original. Some of the glass is new, some is original.
Where new glass was required, templates were made of each curved sash. These were sent to Morty, a glass bender in New York, who received the restoration glass shipment from Russia and bent it to match each individual form.
That's just another example of how complex the work to salvage the Depot became. A web of talented people near and far played key roles in this effort.
In this photo from September 15, 2004, the Waiting Room walls, windows, doors, trim, and wainscots were complete.
Left to install would be the flooring and the benches. Note the wooden templates leaning against the wall. These were cut to the shape of the walls as a pattern for the new benches.
A striking feature of the Depot is this parade of wooden brackets that march around the lower pent eave, supporting the roof.
Three brackets on the west wing had to be replaced during the rehabilitation of the Depot.
They had been damaged after being struck by an oil truck years ago when the Depot sat across the tracks. (This would have been the north wing at that time.)
Rehabilitation superintendent Kevin Pigford set up on site and fabricated duplicate brackets. See if you can tell the new ones from the old.
The Commemorative Brick Garden is located between the Depot and the Visitors Center. It offers a quiet place to sit under the dappled shade of the cherry trees (quiet at least until a train rumbles by).
You can support the Depot by purchasing a brick for the garden to commemorate a special time or to remember a loved one. Just contact the museum Director at (910) 582-0603 for further information.
Rail passengers eagerly anticipated the Hamlet station stop. One reason was the best hamburgers around, found at the Depot grill. It was located in the wing now oriented along the east-west tracks.
Evidence of a kitchen fire at the old grill was uncovered during construction. This charred stud is all we have to remind us of the char-grilled burgers that had Seaboard passengers drooling for miles.
This coal-fired stove provided all the heat a caboose crew could hope to get. It also served as a place to cook. See how in the video below.
Throughout the Depot, the renovation plans called for adding structural steel columns and beams to bolster the wood members that had supported the building for over a century.
In many cases, as in this photo at the main stairs opposite this wall, old wood framing was actually cut away to allow the new steel to bear all the weight above.
In a sense, this was buidling a building in reverse, with the steel erection coming after the walls and roof were already in place.
The rehabilitation of the Depot proved to be a series of long-term, highly specialized projects. The window and door restoration project was one.
Over $250,000 and seven months of tedious effort went into restoring the existing windows. Each window was disassembled and reglazed. All new hardware, sash cords, window weights, and flashings were installed. All the windows are fully functional today, though most have blocks to prevent operation.
Acquiring replacement glass turned out to be intriguing. The existing glass had a definite amount of seeding (tiny air bubbles in the glass) and waviness that was characteristic of early 1900s glass manufacturing.
Matching that glass took the team to Russia, where restoration glass was still made. The first glass sample, supposedly from the early 1900s, did not match the Depot glass. It did not have the right amount of seeding and waviness. In the end, a glass from a little later period, the late 1910s, proved a better match to the Depot's glass.
While most of the glass is original, the Depot still required over $60,000 in restoration glass.
The elevator lobby end of the museum wing required extensive rebuilding.
The old 1940 two-story brick addition had allowed a considerable amount of water damage to this end of the Depot.
All new steel and wood framing were installed to support the floors. A new rated stair tower was built, and now for the first time, the Depot can boast an elevator to make overcoming those high ceilings a little easier.
The little wing where the elevator and stairs are located was a particular mess.
Here, Ted Sedberry is leading the way toward methodically undoing the damage.
In the early days of the restoration effort, it was not uncommon for Ted and his crew to emerge from this wing of the building at lunchtime covered in soot. They looked more like coalminers than carpenters.
On the first day of Ted’s work, when he was asked how it was going, he replied, “All we lack is finishing up.” A year and a half later, he finished up.
John Shortridge is credited with luring the railroad to this part of North Carolina. The Town of Hamlet grew up around that railroad. So Shortridge is generally considered the founder of Hamlet.
This cypress board was plucked from a dam Shortridge had built near the Depot to support his mill operations. In 2007, the board was taken to the Underwater Archaeology Branch at Fort Fisher.
There the board went into a tank of ethylene glycol on May 18, 2007, along with a gun carriage found in the Cape Fear River.
Capillary action wicked the ethylene glycol into the board. The compound acts as a preservative to keep the board from deteriorating.
It was estimated that the two artifacts would sit in the vat for 12-18 months, depending on how the gun carriage responded to the preservative.
The board would ultimately emerge from the vat on April 14, 2009, nearly two years after it went in. Scientists determined the board could be removed provided it is kept in climate-controlled space from now on. The gun carriage stayed in a while longer.
The Depot's heyday coincided with what is commonly known as "the golden age of railroading." This was that magical time when nation's railroads were switching over from steam-powered locomotives to more economical diesel.
Seaboard was an early adopter of diesel. It steadily converted its aging fleet of steam engines to diesel. This meant for decades steam and diesel power coexisted on the rails, much to railfanners' delight.
This interactive display in the Depot will help explain the differences between steam and diesel. Come try it out.
Restoring the serpentine walls on either side of the Ticket office windows in the passenger lobby was a major goal of the rehabilitation.
In years gone by, these gracefully curving partitions had been taken down, probably to relieve crowding in the passenger lobby.
Here you can see new stud framing for these walls.
If you were building one of these walls, what method would you use to transfer the line of the curved wall from the construction plans to the floor?
Railroad crews had reason to know how many wheels were under a steam locomotive.
The quantity and arrangement of a locomotive's wheels play a key role in transferring the power a steam engine generates to the rails below. It also gives insight into how long the engine is, a critical piece of information if the locomotive is to travel on tight curves.
On this display you can learn about the Whyte Notation system of designating a steam engine's wheel arrangement. Whyte's system references the number of wheels, not the number of axles. So can you ever have an odd number in a Whyte designation?
Follow the Palmetto Wye walkway to the southwest end of the park and you'll find yourself crossing an old trestle.
The trestle was built for coal delivery. Hopper cars carrying coal would roll over the trestle and dump their loads to the ground below. The coal was then scooped up and loaded onto delivery trucks to carry coal to homes and businesses all over town.
When the park was built in 2003-2004, a foot bridge was constructed on top of the old trestle, but not before a huge effort to uncover the trestle from all the kudzu that had overtaken it.
Spend a relaxing day in the park. Enjoy the winding pathways and open greenways. The lawn is a great place for exercise, play or quiet reflection.
Take in the sounds of train horns and bells, which are never too far away in Hamlet. Listen to the unique cadence of a train crossing the diamond.
Time your visit right and you'll even get a glimpse Amtrak's Silver Star as it slips into Hamlet for a crew change. Hamlet is the half-way point on the Star's journey from New York to Miami.
Main Street Park has something for everyone.
Two wooden columns in the Waiting Room supported the second floor. When the old wood framing was reinforced with new structural steel, a solid square steel post was added.
The steel beams overhead were wrapped with beadboard material salvaged from the Depot.
The columns were salvaged too. They were reinstalled over the new island bench in the center of the room. One column is hollow and is just for show. The other conceals the solid steel post.
Can you identify which is which?
The original rehabilitation plans called for the addition of a small window between the Gift Shop and the first gallery.
When the carpenters opened up the wall to frame the new window, they found evidence of an old archway. Digging deeper, it became apparent it resembled the arch at the adjacent Ticket Office.
At the next progress meeting, the team decided to restore the arch and make it match the one at the Ticket Office.
Consequently, we have this magnificent feature to enjoy today.
The Depot lost its chimney through the years, but the rehabilitation phase of the project restored it.
Superintendent Kevin Pigford constructed the chimney in February of 2004. Unlike the original, however, this chimney is more for show.
It does serve a purpose, though. Notice the louvered vent in the chimney on the track side of the building. This is the exhaust vent for the generator down below in the basement. A long run of pipe connects the generator to the chimney louver.
Millions of years ago, the area around Hamlet was covered by a shallow sea that left behind deep deposits of sand layered over a clay base.
In digging the Depot basement, excavators only encountered sand. That's 12' of sand. Digging the elevator pit revealed another 4' of sand. Then there was the elevator sump pit, another 18" of sand.
Then, when this casing was inserted to house the hydraulic cylinder that operates the elevator, the boring machine went through another 88" of sand.
That's almost 25' of nothing but sand.
In a project teeming with heroes, Jimmy Owens managed to stand out. Jimmy led the crew installing the Depot's new roof.
Jimmy was a master at fabricating metalwork, which was fortunate because the Depot needed a new finial to adorn one of the gables. Jimmy pulled down the one remaining old finial and used it for a pattern to make his new finial.
Can you tell from the photo above which finial is the original one and which is Jimmy's new one?
Don't ask us; we don't know either because Jimmy wouldn't tell us.
Chances are, you'll get a charge out of your visit to the Hamlet Depot & Museums.
Now, your car can too.
Electric Charging Station
Main Street Park parking lot
7 McDonald Ave.
Hamlet, NC 28345
Hours of operation: 24 hrs. daily
Number of J1772 Connectors: 2
Number of DC Fast Chargers: 0
EV Network: ChargePoint Network
Visitors can take a stroll beside the Tornado Building on the "Palmetto Wye" walkway. It was built during the Rehabilitation phase of the Depot project as part of the new Main Street Park. The walkway lies at the edge of the right-of-way of the old Palmetto Railroad.
The Palmetto Railroad was originally chartered to construct a line from Hamlet to Columbia, SC. However, only 18 miles of track were ever built (from Hamlet to Cheraw, SC, between 1885 and 1887). These 18 miles of track connected Hamlet with the Cheraw & Darlington Railroad.
Leasing the Palmetto Railroad had provided the fledgling Seaboard Air Line Railway its first entry point into South Carolina. Seaboard ultimately acquired the Palmetto in 1900, the same year the original portion of the Hamlet Depot was built. Seaboard eventually extended the line to Columbia, and Hamlet became an important hub of the Seaboard.
Several years after construction of the park was finished in 2004, it was discovered that title to the Palmetto Railroad right-of-way had never been conveyed to the City of Hamlet. County records do not indicate the resolution.
As part of the rehabilitation work, in late April of 2004, this new window opening was cut into the wall between the Rotunda and the new Kitchen.
Note the new metal lath on the Kitchen walls for the new plaster. Beyond, in the Rotunda, you can still see the old wood lath on the walls above the wainscots. This would get covered by new metal lath and plaster in the months to come.
Seaboard Air Line billed itself as the "Route of Courteous Service" because of the impeccable attention paid to passengers on its trains.
Serving popular destinations of Florida and New York with service second to none allowed Seaboard to profit from a loyal travelling fan base.
Still, the real money was in moving freight. Seaboard executives were savvy enough to know that if they could lure the titans of industry to ride their passenger trains, shipping business was likely to follow.
Seaboard decided to put its fleet of boxcars rolling around the countryside to good use advertising their named passenger trains. These rolling billboards were meant to drum up passenger business, which in turn SAL hoped would lead to more freight business from happy executives.
Hamlet's HO layout features boxcars typical of SAL's fleet. Many are adorned with heralds of the famous Seaboard trains of the day. These rolling billboards helped turn Seaboard into a household name. They fed the lore and mystique of SAL's prized passenger service while they simultaneously boosted the money-making freight business.
Like just about everything else at the Depot, #1114 and the caboose were picked up and moved here.
On a sweltering day, August 19, 2003, #1114 and its caboose were hoisted from their rail spur at the old Depot location across the tracks.
The pair "ran the wye" one last time before easing past the Depot, which itself was adjusting to its new home.
By the end of the day, #1114 and its caboose were set down on their new display track beside Main Street. They would need a rehab of their own before they would be ready to host the public.
Freddy Tann was one of many heroes of the Depot rehabilitation. Freddy was the leader of the paint crew. Here he is, painting one of the bollards at the rear of the Depot.
He scraped, stripped, sanded, puttied, caulked, primed and painted his way through 18 months at the Depot.
About six of those months were spent in Tyvek suits and respirators while he and his crew stripped the paint off the building. And three of those months were June, July and August.
Everything but the glass and the door hardware got painted or stained at the Depot. Most of it had to have the old lead-based paint removed before it could be painted.
Everyone could appreciate the magnitude of the job Freddy faced, and everyone always had a kind word of encouragement for him.
When someone would tell Freddy to not worry about stripping paint off of something because it gets torn out, Freddy would light up and dance a jig and say, “Aw, man, that’s great! Let me help you with that!”
He was often asked how he was ever going to accomplish all the abatement and painting work ahead of him. Freddy's famous reply was always, "As soon as I get a system worked out, I'll be rolling. I just need to get a system."
Freddy must have found his system, because he finished all he had to do on time and with an ever-present cheerful disposition. He was on the job at day 1 and he was the last one to leave when the project was over.
Freddy Tann. Our hero.
Though the Depot was originally just a wood-framed building, during the rehabilitation, a considerable amount of structural steel was added to reinforce the wooden floor systems overhead.
Connections for that steel were bolted where feasible, but some places required welding. Welding involves flame. Flame next to 100-year-old wood framing is a scary thought indeed. One careless move and the Depot would have been a raging inferno.
Enter Weezy. Weezy was nimble enough to crawl through the building framework to access points that needed to be welded. She carefully packed welding blankets next to the old wood to insulate it from the heat. A fire watch was maintained all around her work area for two hours after each welding session.
Heart stopping as it was to witness, not a spark went out of control. The Depot survived the installation of its modern steel skeleton.
As the halfway point along the eastern seaboard, Hamlet lies in a strategic location for servicing trains. This was especially true for fresh produce making its way from points south to markets in the north.
In the days before refrigeration, ice was the only way to keep fresh foods from spoiling. Hamlet became a key location for replenishing the ice in cars laden with fresh meats and produce.
The HO layout features this model of the icing facility once located in Hamlet.
At times it seemed like the job of reroofing the Depot was bigger than the people trying to make it happen. The work went on for months.
Townspeople were taking bets on whether or not the roof would be finished before all the work to strip the paint off the building was finished. Neither the roofing crew leader, Jimmy Owens, or the abatement crew leader, Freddy Tann, would jump in on that bet.
Both kept pushing onward. By February of 2004, Jimmy was clearly pulling ahead. By May the Depot was sporting a shiny new roof.
Freddy got the last laugh, though. Jimmy’s downspouts couldn’t go up until Freddy had finished painting the exterior walls, so Freddy technically won the race.
On March 31, 2004, a generator arrived on a flatbed truck at the Depot. That much was easy. Getting it into the basement was another story.
Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the formation of the Department of Homeland Security, the Depot was designated an emergency evacuation point. Among other things, that meant the Depot would need a generator so it could function in the event of power outages.
A generator large enough to power the entire Depot complex – including the rail platform lights and the entire park – is massive. No one wanted a generator as big as a delivery truck sitting around interrupting views of the Depot.
Consequently, the basement was chosen as the home for the generator. The only problem was, the basement had not been built to accommodate a generator. Oh, and the Depot was already sitting on top of the basement.
The manufacturer shipped the generator broken down into three parts to try and help. Only problem there was that part #1 was humongous.
The team had carefully planned for the arrival of the generator. Meticulous measurements were taken to see if the generator could fit down into the large well at the intersection of the two wings of the building. Preliminary indications were that it would fit – barely.
Still, no one knew for sure if the generator would fit. A tense afternoon ensued as the crews from J.T. Yates Electric lowered the generator and maneuvered it into the well. It did fit – barely.
Once in the basement, the generator was placed on skates and whisked away to its station in the basement.
Prior to 2003, the Depot sat across the tracks. There it served as the division offices for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. Hamlet was an active passenger hub for the Seaboard, at its peak seeing 24 passenger trains a day.
All the big names of the Seaboard Florida trains stopped in Hamlet, including the Orange Blossom Special, Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and Silver Comet.
Passenger rail service started to decline in the late 1950s with the advent of interstate highways, better automobiles, and increasing availability of air travel.
However, the Depot would continue to serve a strong passenger demand up through SAL's merger with Atlantic Coast Line in 1967. The combined railroad, Seaboard Coast Line, maintained a thriving passenger presence in Hamlet.
Rail ridership continued to slide nationwide, and in 1971, most railroads offloaded their passenger service onto a new federally backed rail corporation, Amtrak. Amtrak continues to serve Hamlet today, and recent years has seen surges in ridership, proving the train is still a popular way to travel.
As far as the Depot's new steel skeleton is concerned, function had to follow form.
The new steel at the Rotunda had to match the existing curve of the building. Templates were made of the existing wall base plates so the correct shape could be applied to the steel.
Ironically, it was later determined that removing the old wood framing so these curved beams could be inserted would weaken the structure, so they were never installed.
Running around somewhere on the layout is this model of Seaboard's #1114.
The real thing awaits outside in Main Street Park.
A little building sits along the passenger boarding platform. It was built here in late 2003 as part of the Depot project. But why? What's inside? Can you guess?
As a new building, it has to be the one thing onsite that wasn't relocated, right? Well, no.
The construction site was extremely tight, and as deliveries increased, it was just easier to unbolt the building from its foundation and slide it over to make a little lay-down room for a few days.
On the Depot project, everybody rides.
More than the Depot moved from one side of the tracks to the other. The trackside pole lights went along too.
On August 7, 2003, the old lights were taken down from their original bases at the old rail platform across the tracks.
From there, they would be transported to Virginia for complete restoration.
Ted Sedberry was still hard at it on July 1, 2004, having started on day one of the project by tackling rebuilding the elevator wing of the building.
Here he and his saw partner, Gerald West, were transforming old beadboard salvaged from the Depot into new wainscot for the serpentine walls.
This happens to be the wall between the Gift Shop and the Amtrak Waiting Room, taken from the Gift Shop side of the wall.
Ted was getting close to finishing up, but months of work still lay ahead.
Before the restored pole lights could be installed on the new Amtrak boarding platform, new tapered bases had to be built. They match the originals.
Before the bases could go in, reinforced concrete footings had to be built.
Before the footings could be built, the conduit and conductors to feed the pole lights had to be installed. Before that, grading, site utilities . . .
Such is the rhythm of construction. Get out of sequence and you're looking at reworking something you just built.
From the Rotunda room on the second floor, you get excellent views of the tracks below, including the diamond where the N-S and E-W tracks cross.
While still under construction, the Depot saw several snows, including this one captured from the Rotunda room on February 26.
As Christmas of 2003 approached, the scene at the Depot was noticeably evolving.
In this scene from December 12, you can see the replacement siding on the lower part of the Depot wall. It had been removed for access to the walls during the move.
In the distance, the baggage shed has been reassembled on its new foundation. In the months ahead, it would receive its new roof and paint.
From the beginning, the DOT's rehabilitation of the Depot included plans for a model railroad that would give visitors a sense of what Hamlet looked like in the 1950s.
Work began in 2004 on this ambitious project. Nearly a year later, the skilled modelers of the Southbound Model Railroaders in Winston-Salem delivered their creation to Hamlet.
They went to great lengths to make sure the scene they modeled only includes buildings and trains that would have been found in Hamlet in 1952.
Even today, the model railroaders who maintain this layout follow that strict rule. If they replace an engine or car, they make certain the time period is correct.
Hence, you won't see Seaboard's famous Silver Meteor sun lounge cars on this layout, as they were introduced in 1956, after the cutoff date for this diorama.
But you will see the Hamlet roundhouse, a pink elephant, a Meteor, a Comet and a Star, the Opera House, a dog beside a fire hydrant, a subway, a Doodlebug, eight diamonds, a butterfly shed . . .
Be sure to stop in our Gift Shop and pick up Seaboard- and Hamlet-themed hats, shirts and more. These make great gift items.
Proceeds from the Gift Shop help support the mission of the museums and have made many of the displays possible.
The paint scheme you see throughout the interior of the Depot is not the original color palette. A paint conservator carefully dug through layer upon layer of paint to arrive at the original colors.
Room 211 down this corridor was set up as a paint color mockup. Door trim was the rosy color seen above; baseboards and doors were black; walls were the blue you see here; wainscots were a darker shade of blue. The reaction to the paint combination by the project team was universal – revolting.
So, the team set about selecting a new scheme. A member of DOT drew inspiration from toilet partitions at DOT; hence the brown selected for the trim and wainscots. It was paired with the lighter grey color for the walls. Both colors are seen near the door in the mockup room photo.
Looking for a great place to host a birthday party? Anniversary celebration? Baby shower? Or conference?
The Depot is available for event rentals.
Featuring a podium, microphone system, television, catering kitchen, and table and chairs, the space is fully ADA accesible.
To rent the Rotunda, please contact the museum Director at (910) 582-0603 for further information.
In March of 2004, work began on the floor system at the first floor. The Depot’s original floor system had been left behind at the old site.
Before the maple flooring could be laid, a plywood subfloor would need to be installed over the slab-on-deck at the main floor.
Underneath the subfloor, wood sleepers had to be installed throughout the first floor. They were shot directly to the concrete slab. Each one was tapered and adjusted as necessary for level so the final floor wouldn't have the dips and rises characteristic of old buildings.
Beside the tracks you'll see a tall pole with arms at the top. This is a railroad semaphore.
In the days before computers controlled railroad communication, mechanical signals like this relayed information to engineers on how or if they could proceed.
The Depot's semaphore is turned 90° away from its proper orientation so as not to confuse train crews on the active track beside the signal.
Hover over the Depot's semaphore for a link that explains how these unique signals worked.
In September of 2004, finishes were well underway. The first coats of paint were applied, and the interior began to take shape.
The design team wanted to differentiate the Amtrak space in some way. They focused on the wainscot in this space.
A special color was chosen – "Library Pewter" – giving the Amtrak Waiting Room its distinctive look that we see today.
Buildings built in the early 20th century had little need for modern mechanical systems that are essential in a modern building.
The Depot was rehabilitated for the 21st century and beyond, so provisions for plumbing, HVAC, etc. had to be made.
To serve the second floor, a false ceiling had to be constructed to create the interstitial space for plumbing and fire protection piping, as well as electrical, fire alarm and data conductors.
Fred had endured nearly a year of scraping and stripping, lead paint abatement in Tyvek suits, caulking and sanding.
He had worked on top of the roof, under the roof, inside the building and hanging onto the side of the building.
Now, in August of 2004, Fred finally got to roll on some paint.
On December 26, 2004, the newly-reopened Depot was welcomed by a Christmas snow.
If only Seaboard's famous luxury passenger train, the Orange Blossom Special, had rolled in that morning as it did for so many years, the Christmas joy of many a railfan would have been complete.
By April of 2004, the structural work at the Depot was nearing completion. Thoughts could now turn toward implementing plans for the building's finishes.
Steel work was complete and the wood sleepers over the first-floor concrete slab had been installed. Plywood subfloor installation was nearing completion, which was a crucial step toward preparing for the new maple flooring.
The Depot still looked like a wreck, and many hurdles still lurked in the distance, but it was stronger than ever and ready for the finishes that would show off what a gem it really is.
In mid-November of 2004, the temporary trailer that had been set up for Hamlet's Amtrak station was decommissioned. It had been active since the Depot was closed to commence work onsite.
On November 17, the newly reopened Depot once again welcomed Amtrak's northbound Silver Star. It was officially the first train to stop at the Depot.
However, the honor of first passenger goes to a UNC-Charlotte student the night before. The temporary station was closed, so the project manager invited her in out of the cold.
She plopped down near the ticket window, plugged in her laptop computer, and asked if the Depot had Wi-Fi. This being 2004, Wi-Fi was mostly rumor. She said in five years we would all be carrying the internet around in our pockets. She hit it pretty close.
Another issue created by the addition of a generator after the basement was built was the need for ventilation.
The generator's engine needs to cycle fresh air into the building. Operable louvers regulate this process. Trouble was, the generator was added after the building had been set down on the new basement foundation.
So, during the rehabilitation phase, the soil next to the Amtrak Crew Base wing was excavated all the way down to below the basement floor. Then, these two new concrete wells were built to facilitate the air flow required by the generator. Concrete was loaded from the trucks into a hopper attached to a crane and hoisted into position at the new wells.
But that’s not all. Two large openings then had to be cut into the Depot’s foot-thick basement walls to accommodate the new louvers. These louvers open and close automatically when the generator is running.
Switch stands, like this example on display in the Depot, came in many styles and sizes. However, they all share two common purposes.
The first is track alignment. The large handle can be turned to move a large switch that redirects the rails. This allows a train access to a different track.
The second purpose is signaling. The colored targets on top of the stand indicate the selected track alignment, according to how the switch was set.
Almost everything at the Depot was covered with lead-based paint. Twenty-two layers (at least) of the stuff.
Original plans called for scraping and sanding the paint and containment of the paint chips for disposal. But the DOT was fresh off a bad experience at the Selma Depot where this method had resulted in a failing paint job.
In November of 2003, with the original scraping method well underway, the team began to explore other options for paint removal to completely eliminate the old paint. Meanwhile, scraping would continue.
In July of 2004, the hardscape components arrived for the exterior of the Depot and Main Street Park. There were park benches with seat backs, as well as other benches with no backs for the rail boarding platform. Decorative bollards were customized with ash cans on top. The cans were sized to fit a coffee can filled with sand for smokers’ butts.
Exterior trash cans arrived too. Placement of the cans became a federal case. Federal agencies were deeply concerned about the terrorist threat posed by exterior trash receptacles and wanted them omitted. After some negotiation on placement, they were allowed to remain.
Main Street Park construction ran in parallel with the Depot rehabilitation.
While work was progressing inside to strengthen the Depot when this photo was taken on January 23, 2004, much had already happened on the Park side of the street.
The engine and caboose were in place on their display track; the Baggage Shed had been erected onsite; storm drains and curb & gutter were in place; and work was well underway to build the brick columns that would buttress the fencing.
Many people don't realize, but the Depot has three distinctly different types of roofing material. Each type required a totally different skill set to install. In this view from March of 2004, all three types have come together in one location.
• The rotunda witch's hat is clad in standing-seam metal. This roof dates back to the early 1910s when the Depot's roof was converted to metal. (The original roof was wood shingles. You can easily spot this roof in historical pictures by the eyebrow dormers on each wing.) The old standing-seam required soldering 156 patches to make it watertight.
• The steeper slopes of the wings are clad in pre-painted shingles by Berridge Manufacturing. The color of these shingles dictated the color of red for the remaining roof types. The shingles interlock for watertightness.
• The lower-sloped portions – the actual overhangs of the upper pent eaves – are covered in flat-seam roof. These are flat panels of terne-coated steel that were laid end-to-end and soldered in place.
In this photo you can also see the built-in gutters of the curved portions of the rotunda roofs.
All three types of roofing are joined with various shapes of caps and flashings. Now you can see why re-roofing the Depot took months to accomplish.
Visitors often want to know if the benches in the Waiting Room are original. They are not.
However, the benches were designed to resemble typical railroad benches of the era. They are exceptionally complex, employing compound curves. Each one was built to fit the corresponding curve of the building.
Poplar wood was chosen for its stability. The benches were originally to be painted, but after they were delivered, the design changed to staining.
The benches are considered furniture and could be removed at any time.
The Depot's now iconic red rotunda roof took shape early in the rehabilitation process and served as inspiration during the 18 months ahead to finish the Depot.
The rotunda "witch's hat" roof and the curved section of the lower pent roof below it both date back to the early 1910s. Prior to that, the Depot had a wood shingle roof.
These roofs are standing-seam metal, an excellent roof material, and overall, were in good shape. Still, they required 156 metal patches.
At the first glimpse of the red paint being applied, everyone knew the Depot was going to be special.
Before the new roof could go on, the old one had to come off. By February of 2004, this task was well underway.
In this view of the museum wing looking toward downtown, you can see the old wooden sheathing boards, partially covered by new roofing felt.
As the roof flattens out, you can see the transition to what will become the third type of roofing on the Depot – welded flat seam.
The base for the Silver Meteor exhibit pays tribute to the Seaboard bridge over NC Highway 38 in Hamlet. The prototype bridge was built in 1938. It spans 41 feet over the roadway and is adorned with graceful Art Deco styling.
The millwork was built in the shops of expert craftsman, Kevin Pigford. "The Pig" happened to also have been the lead superintendent of the Rehabilitation phase of the Depot. Kevin's abundant talent brought the Depot back to life and made it what you see today.
Local artist Lilly Matheson painted the base to resemble the weathered concrete of the real bridge.
Jim Watts, lead superintendent for the construction of Main Street Park and the Visitors Center, happened by on the day Kevin and Justice delivered the base to the Tornado Building.
This is the Railway Express Agency building that once handled shipments of small parcels to cities and towns all over the country, like FedEx or UPS today.
The Baggage Shed, now located across the street in Main Street Park, once stood between this building and the wing of the Depot now housing the Amtrak Crew Base.
Look closely on the end wall of the Railway Express building and you can still see the ghost of the outline of the Baggage Shed gable.
The Silver Meteor display features 1/48” (O-Scale) models of an EMD E-8 locomotive in SAL’s “mint” paint scheme as produced by Sunset Models.
The highly detailed, aluminum-body passenger car models, built by Golden Gate Depot, accurately represent each type of car that would have been assigned to a mid-1950s Silver Meteor consist.
The rest had to be built onsite by many hands. The entire exhibit took over two years to produce and features exquisite work by many talented volunteers.
Heading to Disney World? Amtrak will take you from Hamlet straight to Orlando. Get a rental car, taxi or ride share service right from the station.
How about the museums in D.C.? Hop off at Union Station in Washington and the National Mall is only minutes away by bus, Metro or taxi.
New York more your thing? The Silver Star takes you from Hamlet to Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan with ease. Madison Square Garden, the Empire State Building, Macy's on 34th Street, live theater and more are short walks from the station.
Park at Hamlet and let Amtrak do the driving.
This is the only remaining globe from the original set that once adorned the trackside pole lights.
It and its housing were used to pattern the new replacement globes by. The globes are the size of a small pumpkin and are very thick and very heavy.