POWERGRAMS

36 RAILROAD MUSEUM DELIGHTS YOUNG AND OLD ALIKE by Chuck Chandler • Photos by Meg McKinney Walking over four sets of steel tracks just off the main drag of downtown Calera, it's easy to imagine the Wabash Cannonball rolling by, that Casey Jones or John Henry will give a nod from a passing locomotive. Is that the Rock Island Line, the Dixie Flyer, the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe? These trains that were bound for glory seem to have found it here. The Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum (HDRM) is heaven for old train cars of every variety. It's a haven for enthusiasts of cabooses, coal-burning engines and collectibles going back more than a century. It gives children a chance to say they've been working on the railroad. It may be 129 miles from the U.S. Space Rocket Center but on first glance it couldn't be farther from that popular Alabama museum. "The first time I get out of that business, I go to obsolete technology," says Jim Garnett, who spent 40 years in the realm of the rocket scientist. "But I began to realize that all the people before us didn't have all the electronic engineering equipment we had, that they developed eloquent solutions to their problems with their hands and minds. I continue to be amazed." Garnett is an engineer whose career was spent with Boeing in the NASA program that sent men to the moon, and with Lockheed- Martin helping develop the Space Shuttle fuel tank and Space Station. When their Slidell home was wiped out by Hurricane Katrina, he and his wife, Linda, retired and moved near their daughter, Dana, in Alabaster. Garnett was intrigued by the differences and similarities between rockets and railroads. Despite no experience in nonprofit, volunteer organizations, in 2010 he climbed on board as the president and CEO of the Heart of Dixie Railroad. In Garnett's care is millions of dollars' worth of railroad equipment and artifacts that rank among the best collections in the country. With that privilege comes the responsibility of upkeep that is difficult financially for a nonprofit organization off the beaten path in a small Alabama town: It would be a daunting task in midtown Manhattan. Yet, there are so many positives that Garnett and HDRM members remain excited about the future of their vast, varied, vintage holdings. From the gift shop filled with items that attract collector interest nationwide, to the museum and library, to the actual railroad cars, their facility is unique. Years ago, Garnett walked the walk. Despite having a master's degree in engineering from the University of New Orleans, he couldn't drive a train. He learned to operate the massive locomotives now under his physical control and earned certification as a train engineer and brakeman. "I'm one of those guys who believes you can't run something without doing it," he says. While a visitor can breeze through if needed, there's ALL ABOARD! Father helps child aboard Calera & Shelby locomotive.

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