Remembering L&N glory days

Bill Robinson
Register News Writer

BEREA June 06, 2009 09:33 pm

— Trains no longer stop at the L&N depot in Berea, but the brick structure built in 1917 can still draw a crowd.
At least two long-time railroad employees were on hand for the annual L&N Day celebration Saturday to share their memories of the railroad’s glory days, when the L&N was principal mode of transportation much of the state.
In the 1940s, four passenger trains – two northbound and two southbound – stopped in Berea every day, said railroad enthusiast Orville Boes, a retired Berea College business professor.
“When I moved to Berea in 1950, you could get on a train here in Berea and travel anywhere in the United States,” he said.
Instead of taking passengers north or south, however, the free tickets given out Saturday at the depot during Berea’s 10th annual L&N Day celebration gave passage only to nostalgia.
Jim Cummins of Corbin, who began a 42-year railroad career at the Berea depot in 1956, cancelled the souvenir tickets with the station’s original stamp. The date was set to 1917, the year the brick structure was built. It’s the only remaining depot of its kind on the rail line between Cincinnati and Knoxville.
Cummins also displayed a photo of the wooden depot that served Berea before 1917.
“After the wooden depot burned, the L&N build this brick building” that still stands, he said.
Cummins spent his entire career with the L&N and its successor companies, Family Lines and the CSX.
Among the memorabilia he had on display was a 1959 dining-car menu. Entrees of fried Gulf Coast fish, fried chicken or ham and turkey cold cuts could be purchased for $2.95.
Cummins also had a railroad message fork with which trains that did not stop at a station used to pick up messages.
A paper message was tied to a loop of string attached to the large wooden fork’s two prongs.
“The engineer or conductor would stick his arm through the string loop and pull it out of the fork as the train passed by,” Cummins said as he demonstrated the technique.
Before the message fork, railroads used an all wooden message loop on a long stick, he said.
“The man on the train would stick his arm through the loop and pull the whole thing into the train,” Cummins said.
Stations had to replace their loops if they were to communicate with passing trains, so the message fork was a better system, he said.
Cummins wore his L&N string tie Saturday.
“I don’t go anywhere without it,” he said.
In 1992, the CSX made Cummins a dispatcher and transferred him to Jacksonville.
Both Cummins and wife are natives of Mt. Vernon, where they grew up. They retired to Corbin, where the L&N once maintained a large repair shop.
At about 12:30 p.m. a northbound freight slowed a bit as it passed the depot. Visitors abandoned the exhibits, rushed to the fence and waved to the engineer, who returned the wave.
Janet Willis of Berea was among those who waved.
“I’ve always loved trains,” she said. “When I was a little girl, my grandmother lived next to the railroad. Whenever a train passed, I’d run out to wave at the engineer and the conductor.”
Lawrence Hensley of Taylorsville also had an exhibit set up at the depot Saturday.
“I worked 42 years for railroads, just to see if I was going to like it,” he said.
Hensley started with the Norfolk and Western in 1954 working with steam locomotives. He lost his job four years later when the line discontinued steam power, but worked the next 38 years for the L&N and its successor companies, he said.
“I was a brakeman, then a switchman and finally a yard foreman, making up trains,” he said, summarizing his career.
Passenger service to and from Berea ended in 1968, and the station was closed. In 1975, the city purchased the depot for $17,000 to prevent its demolition. That year the structure was placed on the National Register of Historical Places.
In July of 1987, the depot was returned to its role of welcoming visitors to Berea when it became the Berea Welcome Center and tourism commission office. The L&N Day celebration was begun two years later.
Every Thursday evening, the tourism commission hosts Jammin’ on the Porch, when local musicians entertain for free.
Among the regular performers each week are bluegrass musicians Donna and Lewis Lamb, who with banjo players Lee Hoffman and J.R. Parrett make up The Depot Pickers. Donna plays the guitar and sings while Lewis plays the fiddle.
On Saturday, the group entertained visitors with such numbers as the "Wabash Cannon Ball."
According to information provided by the Berea Welcome Center, train service came to Berea in 1883, when the Kentucky Central Railway System built a line through Madison County. It was purchased in 1891 by the L&N.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@richmondregister.com or at 624-6622.

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