Piece of history returns to Havelock train depot

The old tin sign was painted with white letters reading A&E.C. Freight Station.

When Havelock train enthusiast Andrew Kollarik saw it, he knew exactly what it was and exactly where it belonged.

It was on a table of fellow train buff Jerry Hyatt at the recent Train Show in New Bern.

"I offered him $75," Kollarik said, "but when he found out I was a member of the Havelock Historical Society and the Atlantic and East Carolina Railroad Museum, he gave it to me for $50 and added four letters and a picture to go along with it."

The society moved the depot from its old location in 2006 and intends to someday create a museum inside it at its new location behind the Trader Store on Miller Boulevard.

In the late 1990s, Hyatt had climbed a ladder and sawed through two bolts holding the sign to a utility pole adjacent to the old freight depot at the intersection of the railway and Lake Road. Hyatt had made a picture of the sign while it was still up and he gave it to Kollarik.

Hyatt had taken the sign because he saw it as a piece of railroad history.

"If it had stayed up there, it probably would have rotted off," said Jim Muse, a society member.

"I do remember that sign now," said Howard Rawls, president of the society. "I don't remember how far back, but I do remember it being there."

Rawls, Kollarik and Muse aren't sure who put the sign up originally, but suspect it might have been Graham Rouse, who used to be the freight agent at the station beginning in the 1940s.

The railway, which ran the 90 miles from Goldsboro to Morehead City, was referred to by many as the Tobacco Belt Railway and The Mullet Route.

Kollarik said it was the main source of deliveries to Havelock for many years, and that the air station was built at Cherry Point because of the railway's presence.

Rawls said the sign is an important piece of history that has finally come home where it belongs.

Kollarik is to be credited with making it happen.

"Anytime I go to a model train show, I always look for anything I think might be good for the museum, like I did this," Kollarik said.