Top left: A rare coffin cart located amongst train memorabilia in the freight house of the historic Milton train depot. Top Right: George Wilson and Peggy Humbert, members and volunteers of the West Florida Railroad Museum Bottom right: Dean Motis, a mobile welder begins restoration work on the L&N Dining Car 2722 to prepare the train cars to be repainted.
haul nuclear material for atomic and hydrogen weapons. Housed within the depot walls are the original ticket counters, baggage room, waiting room and the Railway Express Agency, where museum guests can learn about telecommunications, train routes and the significant impact the railroad had on the local timber industry and population growth across the West Florida region. Historical remnants of the segregated South still remain such as the depot’s original triple entrances that were marked for men, women and “colored” before the Civil Rights Act. In the adjoining freight house, visitors can see train memorabilia like a coal burning steam engine, coffin cart, luggage scale and 100-year-old train car seats. 24 | DECEMBER 2021
Across from the depot, is the Bridge Tenders House, which once stood by the swing bridge in the middle of the old Escambia Bay trestle before it was replaced in 1989. The prior two houses were destroyed by hurricanes in 1906 and 1926, claiming the lives of the bridge tender’s family in 1906 that tried to ride out the storm. Now it houses the miniature train diorama of 1950s-era Northwest Florida complete with the Milton depot and stretching all the way to the Pensacola depot that is now the lobby of the Pensacola Grand Hotel. Fellow train enthusiast and Club Treasurer Peggy Humbert first discovered the West Florida Railroad Museum in 2015 when she joined the Emerald Coast Garden Railway Club, located
at the back of the property. Members of the club help maintain the tracks, pull weeds, trim plants and, in exchange, can bring their own trains to run on the track system. The garden G-scale train layout attracts children, families and train enthusiasts alike to marvel at the immaculately landscaped garden with small plants and detailed figurines. Children, ages 3 to 12, are also invited to take a ride on the gondola-style train cars which surround the entire garden. “We have about 35 members, and the trains are owned by the members. So, what you see running today in the garden could be totally different tomorrow or next week” Humbert explained. “In addition to having a fixed layout
here that we operate every week, we take layouts to various national train shows. It gives exposure to the museum as well as the City of Milton, because we carry a display board that has some information about Milton and the museum.” When they aren’t giving tours or maintaining the Garden Railway, museum volunteers and staff are busy working on preservation, repairs and fundraising to continue sharing the legacy of this historic local landmark. “We have projects going on constantly,” Wilson explained. There is always something being repaired—be it the plumbing in the restroom or fixing shingles that blew off the roof. It’s just like anybody
