By Howard Greninger/Tribune-Star
A depot of the former Vandalia/Pennsylvania railroads soon will be preserved in history in a unique Terre Haute museum.
The Turner Depot, estimated to have been built in the late 1850s, currently rests near the intersection of Voorhees and Jefferson streets in the Clay County town of Turner. It has been used as a storage shed, but once served as a place where passengers and freight were loaded onto trains of the former Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad.
"There was a depot in Brazil that was nearly identical to this on the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad," said Bill Foster, president of the Haley Tower Historical & Technical Society. "That depot is now gone, so this is really a unique find. It's like finding a diamond in the rough."
The wooden depot is about 12 feet wide and 30 feet long. A wall divides it into two small rooms, each with a sliding door.
Cast-iron pipes extending out of the roof once connected to pot-bellied stoves for heat. Those pipes were removed this past Thursday in preparation for its move to Terre Haute.
Preparations to move the depot will start Wednesday, with the actual moving on Thursday. The building will be set in place at the Wabash Valley Railroaders Museum at 1316 Plum St. on Friday.
The depot will travel at least 14 miles, going west on U.S. 40 to Indiana 46 and then south to Poplar Street. It will turn north on Plum Street to the museum property from Poplar Street.
"It will give us a place to house displays and exhibits telling the story of the Vandalia/Pennsylvania railroads," Foster said.
The move will cost about $8,500 and will give the museum its third major building of historical significance. The Haley and Springhill towers were located on the museum grounds in 1999 and 2001, respectively. The museum, open on weekends May through October, also has two smaller railroad storage buildings.
"[The depot] will need painting and the floor is soft on one side. The windows will need to be replaced. The roofing will need to be replaced too, which now is just heavy tar paper and that is not authentic," said Jim Rhodes, treasurer for the Haley Tower Historical & Technical Society. "Overall, it's in good shape, with no moisture in the building."
The Turner Depot's original location on the railroad was not known as Turner, but as Newberg, which had a population of 200, Foster said. The railroad later became part of the former Pennsylvania Railroad that operated the Vandalia Railroad Co. as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Calvin Callahan, a resident of Reelsville, recalls seeing the depot at its current location when the property belonged to his late brother, Denver Callahan.
"My brother lived there in Turner and he moved it onto his property in the 1940s," Callahan said. "I think they used that depot for the coal miners coming out of Brazil. That's an old building."
In 1944, Calvin Callahan started work as a railroad clerk for the Pennsylvania Railroad, which later combined with the New York Central Railroad to form the Penn-Central Railroad. When he retired on Dec. 31, 1988, the railroad's name had been changed to Conrail.
The Turner Depot was located at least one-half mile northwest of its present site. Its use probably diminished after the main line of the Terre Haute & Indianapolis Railroad was moved in the 1908, Foster said. The main line passed through Staunton and Turner, just west of Brazil, but the right of way was narrow and full of curves, Foster said.
The Vandalia Railroad in 1906 had started a double tracking project from Knightsville to Terre Haute and found it necessary to relocate around Staunton and Turner, Foster said. By the 1940s, the tracks in front of the depot were used to store rail cars not in use, Foster said.
Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.