Caboose plans derailed

Bell Buckle Chamber of Commerce officers (from left) Jenny Hunt, treasurer; Billy Phillips, vice president; and Lorinda Gambill, secretary, stand before the caboose they hope will someday be the chamber's home.
(T-G Photo by Mary Reeves)

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Right now, both towns share a problem -- how to best preserve part of that history. In the mid-1990s, CSX donated old cabooses to both municipalities and since then, the towns have been trying to get the old railroad cars fixed up for one purpose or another.

"We want to turn it into a welcome center and office for the Chamber of Commerce," said Bell Buckle Alderman Jenny Hunt, who is also the treasurer for the chamber.

In Wartrace, town recorder Laura Gentry said they had different plans.

"We talked at one point about making it a little museum," she said. "Where you could go and look at the old photos and push a button and hear some of the old folks talking about the railroad. A real nice little railroad museum."

Engineering tourism

Bell Buckle has worked hard to keep the number of permanent residents low -- about 400 -- and the number of its visitors growing. The upcoming Webb School Arts and Crafts Fair (Oct. 18-19) is the last big event of a season that has seen Daffodil Days, motorcycle rallies, the RC & Moon Pie festival, the inaugural Shakespeare Festival and a barbecue cook-off bring hundreds of thousands of tourists -- and their pocket money -- to town.

"We need room for the Chamber of Commerce, for the events and things we do on a day-to-day basis," said Hunt, who then laughed. "We have grown it to a point right now -- it's like that giant plant (Audrey II) in 'Little Shop of Horrors.'

"We're ready to take the next step and hire somebody."

The chamber employee, she said, would be a part-timer who could answer the phones, work the special events and deal with the day-to-day issues. The problem is -- there's no place for this employee to go. There is no Chamber of Commerce office in town.

"Right now, everybody who helps with events has stuff in their garage," said Hunt. "When you get scattered like that, it's not a good thing. We lost all of our Daffodil Days containers when Jerry and Florence Hull's garage burned down.'

The caboose, if it could be renovated into the chamber office, would still not be large enough to store all of the event supplies, but it would provide a central base of operations.

"And a welcome center," said Billy Phillips, vice president of the chamber. "We really need a welcome center, where visitors can go for information."

The railroad car seemed to be the perfect solution. Besides being an eye-catching novelty, it recognizes the long-standing relationship the town has had with the railroad.

"Little kids love to come over and climb on it," said Phillips.

Messed up plans

But there are problems with the plan.

"It's a mess on the inside," said Hunt. "It looks like some of the windows may have been broken in the back and there's litter inside. It's locked up, but people unfortunately try to get into places they shouldn't get into."

Both Bell Buckle and Wartrace have experienced problems with vandalism when it comes to their little red cabooses.

"We had a Leadership Bedford class that was going to fix it up," said Gentry of the Wartrace caboose. "But it just kind of fizzled out. It was going to cost more than they thought."

One of the "fix-up" solutions was improved lighting at the site, "to deter vandalism." Other plans for the Wartrace caboose included fixing the leaks, creating a photo and voice-recorded exhibit, and landscaping.

Because of the leaks, the original photos that were being displayed in the caboose -- which opens for viewing on special occasions -- have been removed to protect and preserve them.

Hunt said Bell Buckle has had to paint over "some words you really don't want to see" spray-painted on the railroad car. Evidence of trespassers -- both two-legged and four -- can be seen through a broken window.

One of the many benefits of turning the Bell Buckle caboose into the Chamber of Commerce office was that a constant presence on the site would really cut down on vandalism, she said.

Shattered glass, torn seats, leaking ceilings and windows -- all can drastically reduce the lives of the cabooses if restoration gets put off too long. Bell Buckle wants to completely gut and rebuild its caboose and Wartrace wants its sandblasted down and painted with the authentic -- and very expensive -- paint.

"It would cost thousands of dollars," said Gentry.

Sidetracked funding

"We're still a poor chamber, even though we bring in a lot of tourists," said Hunt.

Because the chamber, an all-volunteer organization, funnels any funds it raises back into the community, it doesn't have the estimated $37,000 the caboose remodeling would cost. Hunt submitted a grant application to the state this year that would have paid for 80 percent of the work and was floored when the request was denied.

"One of the things I got so frustrated about when we didn't get the grant was that it was a real good grant (application) and the justification was strong. The chamber is vital to the community," she said.

She said she had to work closely with the Tennessee Department of Transportation and other agencies to fulfill requirements for the grant. One of those was the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which meant the project had to meet ADA compliance to qualify.

But how were they going to fit wheelchairs through the narrow door of an authentic caboose?

"I had to go back and forth with TDOT on this," said Hunt. "The doorway to the caboose is not ADA, but we didn't want to disturb the integrity of the caboose. We were going to build a deck and add a window so anything inside would be accessible."

The deck fronting the caboose would also serve as a display area and platform from which to make announcements during special events, she added.

Bandwagon

In old railroad terminology, the bandwagon was where you picked up your paycheck. Despite having been turned down for this year's grant, Hunt is going back to the bandwagon for another try. The Bell Buckle Board of Mayor and Alderman recently granted the chamber -- which pays for the application -- approval for another attempt.

"(State Rep.) Curt Cobb e-mailed this morning," said Hunt. "He was extraordinarily helpful with the first grant. He must have thought we were going to get it."

She said he is already finding her help for the next one.

In Wartrace, grants are probably the next step for their own restoration project.

"We get a lot of grants and you can only get so many," she said. "But we feel that's what we may have to do to get this going."