By Barbara Miller, For The Patriot News, July 3, 1998By Barbara Miller, For The Patriot News, July 3, 1998
"All Aboard!" takes on a new meaning. as the old Annville Reading Railroad Station is being dismantled and packed on a flatbed tractor-trailer rig for its ride home from northern York County.
Workers from Brecknock Builders of Denver, Lancaster County. began disassembling the station Wednesday for its move to Annville, where it will be reassembled as a community museum and meeting place.
The station. built in 1895, was purchased by Friends of Old Annville last fall for $7,000, and a fund drive was begun to bring it home. The new location will be on North Moyer Street in Annville, a few blocks east of its original location on North Railroad Street.
Ronald Rabena. who purchased it from Lebanon Valley College in 1976, had moved it to his home along Lewisberry Road to be used as a railroad hobby shop. The station has to be moved now because the property, which includes a house and barn, has been sold.
The station was supposed to be moved by June 15, but owner Jane Sage has given the Friends a month's extension.
"It's nice to have this moving now," said Kathy Moe, president of Friends of Old Annville. "We are planning to restore it as close to original as possible."
Four workers began tearing off roof shingles Wednesday. They estimated they would need about five days to take down the building.
"We will be taking it apart piece by piece, and use basically the same procedure as the previous owner did. The building is very structurally sound," said Sam Brubaker, owner of Brecknock Builders.
The project, he said, "fit into our schedule, and I am a lover of trains. This appeared to me as a unique challenge."
The
tricky part will be getting the flat bed tractor trailer around the sharp bend
in the driveway leading to the station, Brubaker said.
Once it returns to Annville, it's anyone's guess when the building will be back In one piece.
I'd like to see it up by the end of the year, but who can tell," said Blanche Schaeffer, vice president of the Friends. The station will be stored in pieces until the reassembly begins. Schaeffer said members of the Friends have pored over old photo graphs "inch by Inch" to determine how the station should be restored.
Planned changes include adding a mall section that had been removed, as well as a full basement, a handicapped accessible bathroom and small kitchen.
Schaeffer hopes it will become home to historical artifacts, including a video of 1943 home movie of a large group of people seeing off men going to the service in World War IL It also could become home to audio tapes of former Annville resident Della Thomas who at age 96, recorded her remembrances the town.
The site for the station is being provided by Robert and Mae Jocham, owners of Eagle Graphics, who will lease one half acre to the Friends for a nominal sum with the lease to be renewed annually. They also have paid for survey and zoning costs associated with the project.
Friends of Old Annville raised about $17,100 toward $50,000 estimated cost of the project.
Proceeds from next fall's Rotary Club art auction at Fortna's auction are earmarked for the fund, and several local contractors have pledged donations of material.
"We've been fortunate," Schaeffer said.
Reprinted with permission of the Harrisburg Patriot News.