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Chamber takes a trip to Aiken of the past
6/25/2008 12:12 AM   0 comment(s) on this story E-mail this story to a friend



By APRIL BAILEY

Staff writer

To visit the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce Tuesday afternoon, you would have sworn that Old Aiken had been resurrected from the past as representatives with Custom Model Railroads, worked to set up dioramas of Aiken, as well as Blackville and Branchville, to resemble life almost a century ago.

The miniature towns were replicated down to the slightest detail, according to Aiken Railroad Committee member Don Barnes, who said the dioramas were designed to represent the towns in June 1916, otherwise known as the "heyday," of the modern-day railroad, he said.

"In 1918, 2 million people were employed on the railroad," said Barnes, adding that during that time, the railroad was the primary source of land travel, with the exception of horses and travel by foot. The Aiken Depot was the first to operate a steam-powered railroad in America, said Barnes.

The four models, designed by Jeff Springer and his team at Custom Model Railroads, CMR, based in Baltimore, were delivered and assembled at the Chamber, and a fourth at the Aiken County Museum. They are a part of nine total dioramas which will be displayed on the second floor of the Aiken Railroad Depot as a part of an interactive model once the building is complete.

The remaining five models, which depict, St. George, Hamburg, Charleston, Summerville and Denmark, are expected to arrive in Aiken this October, also designed by CMR. Barnes said the overall goal of the $3 million project is to educate people on the Aiken Depot as a pioneer in railroad history.

In turn, Barnes anticipates that the project will boost revenue in the City with the increased tourism the Aiken Railroad Depot is expected to bring to Aiken.

The images in the dioramas are based on over a year of research which included the study of Sanborn maps, research at the National Archives and Records in Washington, local historical archives, website research and interviews with residents along the route, which extends from the former town of Hamburg to Charleston, according to Barnes.

He said the amount of research put in to create the models was more time consuming than designing the dioramas themselves.

The result, he says, are models that detail the very fabric of the towns from the types of roofs and the color of the homes to the kinds of trees and telephone poles that surround them. However, he says, some areas of the models are more detailed than others.

"We tried to find out everything about the towns that we could," said Barnes. "Every effort was made with existing known information."

Each of the models cost $20,000, and are about 7 feet long and 3 feet wide in size.

Once the Depot is complete, Barnes says the dioramas will play a big role in helping to educate kids and adults with its interactive features.

Future plans for the railroad museum include displays of past newspaper articles related to the Depot, deeds and other artifacts.

"It's going to be a complete railroad museum dedicated to the local areas from Blackville to Charleston," said Barnes.



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