I'm looking for a photograph of the SAL depot at Limestone, Fla.,formerly the CH&N shortline. I've reviewed Don Hensley's collection of photographs and negatives without success. Were small, rural, SAL, depots uniform in design or was each depot unique in appearance?

-- rick walls (mehlej@hotmail.com), August 18, 1999

Answers

While I can't offer much info on the SAL in FL or the CH&N in particular, based on my limited observations of the SAL one could typically find a mixture of both standard and unique depot designs in rural locations. In areas where traffic levels no longer justified the need for a large depot of standard design, the SAL would replace the older depot with a smaller utilitarian structure of non-standard design. Not sure of the rationale for this but it may have been an attempt by the financially challenged railroad to cut costs (taxes) by replacing underutilized depots. That is purely speculation on my part. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable of the SAL can provide the information you have requested.

As a side note, the society is pursuing the production of a HO-scale kit for a SAL Std. No.2 wood depot. We are negotiating with the manufacturer to split the production run in two with the two runs being mirror images of each other. In addition, we are trying to design the kit to give the modeler the option of building either a short version (1 freight door/side) or long version (2 freight doors/side). The ultimate goal is to give the SAL modeler as many variations of this fine looking building as possible. Finally, we are currently collecting and analyzing paint chips from prototype SAL structures to determine correct color schemes and paint forumlas. Updates as they become available. BH

-- Buddy Hill (palmettoLTD@hotmail.com), August 24, 1999.