
                         THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
                 Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, June 13, 1994                    TAG: 9406130049 
SECTION: LOCAL                     PAGE: B3    EDITION: FINAL  
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: 940613                                 LENGTH: PULASKI

PULASKI RAILROAD DEPOT \

{LEAD} Twenty-three years after the last passenger train pulled out of Pulaski, residents gathered to celebrate the depot's rebirth as a visitors' and community center.

The festivities Saturday brought back fond memories for many residents who recalled leaving by train for college, military service, 4-H camps and other destinations.

{REST} About 100 people relived the train passenger experience, boarding Norfolk Southern Corp.'s special steam train for a joy ride to Glade Spring and back. Cheers went up as the train, hissing clouds of black smoke and blowing its whistle, pulled away from the native-stone depot.

Civic leader Virginia Kelly MacNeal and Mayor Gary Hancock persuaded Norfolk Southern to donate the abandoned train station to the town six years ago. Since then, thanks to a $60,000 state grant, a $120,000 loan, $10,000 in donations and thousands of volunteer hours of work, the depot has been refurbished.

Del. Tommy Baker, R-Dublin, who helped secure state funds for the project in 1990 and arranged to have New River Trail State Park extended into the town to the depot, recalled his first depot departure.

``Back in 1966, I, along with about 20 other 4-Hers, had our first experience riding a train'' to camp, he said. Others attending the town's ``Depot Day'' celebration shared similar recollections.

Pulaski became a rail route in 1854, when the first wood-burning train came through. The presence of the rail line spurred development and, in 1888, the opening of a new depot that served until April 30, 1971.

by CNB