Dioramas installed at Aiken depot

Without the creation of the railroad, there would likely be no Aiken, which got its name from William Aiken, founder and president of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Co.

Along with several other towns, life in Aiken in June 1916 is depicted in nine dioramas that will be displayed on the second floor of the Aiken Railroad Depot.

The models were designed by Custom Model Railroad, based in Baltimore, Md. Officials with the company spent Monday morning and afternoon installing the dioramas at the depot, which is under construction. Workers will continue the installation until Wednesday. The dioramas depict life in Hamburg, Aiken, Blackville, Denmark, Branchville, St. George, Summerville and Charleston.

They will stretch along the walls of the entire second floor of the Railroad Depot.

Don Barnes, the railroad technical adviser with the All Aboard! committee, said the dioramas are historically accurate to replicate life in the towns.

Research for the designs took about two years to complete, he said.

He said the models are about 90 percent accurate down to the number of windows and doors on a house, to the number of posts on a fence and the slope and color of a roof.

Photographs were used to aid the research committee with the replicas.

Barnes said information was also compiled from the National Archives and Records Administration, the Library of Congress, Sanborn Insurance company and all historical groups along the routes of the railroad.

Barnes said interviews with people who were around during the time were also beneficial with creating the models.

"There was a pretty high degree of accuracy used to recreate these towns," he said.

Jeff Springer, owner of Custom Model Railroad, said most of the dioramas were built from scratch. He said historical drawings and photos were used as a guide for each town model, and each diorama took about two months to complete.

The goal of the project is to show how the railroad impacted the country, Barnes said.

He said once the models are installed, officials with The History Workshop, based in Charleston, will design interactive, video and sound displays that will be placed between the dioramas. Barnes said the exhibits will be suitable for people of all ages.

"It's a history lesson for young people and school kids that come through our area," he said.

Contact April Bailey at abailey@aikenstandard.com.