Historical Society to hear presentation on railroads and history of Sopchoppy Depot
By ARLENE VAUSE
Wakulla Historical Society
The Wakulla County Historical Society invites you to our program on the GF&A Railroad to be held on Tuesday, May 14, at 4:30 p.m. at the Sopchoppy Depot located on Rose Street in Sopchoppy.
A tour of the Sopchoppy Depot Museum will be provided by Nelson Martin followed by a presentation on the railroad by Neal Meadows, Ed.D.
Dr. Neal Meadows, Principal at Meadows Consulting, holds an Educational Doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of West Florida and has over 36 years of experience conducting project evaluations, guiding program improvement, providing professional development, and developing products in a broad scope of education and human services programs.
He has many hobbies but the one in the forefront these days is model railroading. He first started in 1977 with an HO-Scale layout. He traveled to many model-railroad shows with friends and enjoyed the hobby. In 1985 Hurricane Kate blew a large oak tree on his garage and demolished it and everything inside, including all the trains, buildings, and layout. After that, he decided to change to N-Scale and move onward. After moving to Tallahassee, he joined the Big Bend Model Railroad Association in 2006. The N-Scale group has been very active building their traveling layout and now the T-Trak modules. The HO-Scale and O-Scale guys now have T-Trak modules as well.
Neal has been really interested in the history of the hobby as well as railroad history. He co-writes the club newsletter “The Lantern” each month adding articles about a variety of railroad history. He also serves as club treasurer.
The presentation will focus on the Georgia, Florida, and Alabama Railroad (GF&A) which ran from Richland, Georgia to Carrabelle, Florida. It was founded in 1895 as a logging railroad, the Georgia Pine Railway.
The northern and southern ends of the railroad have been abandoned, but the section from Cuthbert, Georgia, to Tallahassee remains in use by various railroads.
The content will describe the tumultuous happenings between the ends of the railroad over the years.
Nelson Martin moved to Sopchoppy in 1972. His father was teaching at FSU in 1970 and they went exploring and fishing and discovered Sopchoppy. Nelson graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in anthropology and an interest in history.
In Sopchoppy, the old-timers on the loafer’s bench were a wealth of stories of the roaring ‘20s and the railroad era. Nelson says it was hard to believe that the dilapidated old building downtown had been a railroad station.
In 1993, it was about to be bulldozed and Nelson led an effort to purchase and restore it. A federal grant paid for the purchase and restoration and it was given to the City of Sopchoppy.
The restored depot is now a museum of local history focusing on the railroad history and the ways people made a living in Sopchoppy in the past.
