Robert Mitchell of Orange knows every inch of the old, long-abandoned Southern Pacific Depot on Green Avenue. When he was 18, back in 1945, he got a job as the day porter there. He and former ticket window clerk Juanita Timberlake, also of Orange, are the last living railroad employees who worked at the local depot, which closed to trains more than 40 years ago. Both did video recordings Monday for a project by the Friends of the Orange Depot. The non-profit group is raising money to restore the century-old depot. Their interviews will be part of a museum exhibit when the restored depot opens to the public.
Mitchell, who is now 89, said that in the past few years, before the restoration group bought the depot, he hated to see the lawn overgrown. Mowing was part of his job as a porter. “I wanted to go get my lawnmower and mow it myself, but I didn’t know who owned it,” he said. He’s glad now that a restoration effort is under way.
Mrs. Timberlake was 19-years-old when she came to work at the Orange depot in August 1946. At that time, she had already worked two years for the Southern Pacific Railroad at smaller stations in Cleveland, Corrigan, Woodville and Liberty. “They told me when I went to Orange that I would be busy all the time,” she said.
Part of her job included using Morse code to telegraph messages and ticket reservations to other stations. She can still do the code. Some of the messages would be instructions for Orange to change railroad cars. One of her accomplishments included reserving a trip for a conductor who went eastward, then north, then south and then back eastward. She reserved his complete trip through messages in Morse.
Mitchell recalled that he was working at the Orange Rice Mill for 35 cents an hour when he heard about the railroad job. He got the job. Though he can’t recall the salary now, he knows it was more than at the rice mill. Plus he got tips. His jobs included carrying and unloading passengers’ luggage. He also took the mail off the train and loaded new mail sacks onto the train. The local post office had a contractor who came and made round-trips from the depot to the post office. Mitchell also cleaned the station all the way from the restrooms to washing the windows and doing the yard work. “I know every inch of the building,” he said.
Mitchell said the railroad job kept him out of military service for about six months during those war years because the government considered it essential. Orange was a shipbuilding center. Sailors came into town to pick up new ships and soldiers came through in transport trains. He ended up in the Army. When he was discharged, he returned to his railroad job and worked for Southern Pacific until 1958. He saw the decline of rail travel during those years. In 1963, he got a job at DuPont Sabine River works in the days when a black man could work at the plant only as a janitor. He can remember his first time going to get a drink at a water fountain in the plant. Someone yelled that he couldn’t drink there. “I thought there were chemicals coming out,” he said. Instead, it was a ‘Whites Only’ fountain. Times changed and when he retired in 1988, he was a process operator.
Mrs. Timberlake and Mitchell recall the days when Orange was safe and no one worried at night. She recalls having to go to the depot in the middle of the night and never worrying about anything. In her first years at the Orange depot, she lived nearby so she could go to the station in the middle of the night if she was called.
They are both pleased that the community is working to restore the depot. The plans are for the depot to have museum-style displays about railroads and local industries. In addition, part of the old train station will be a reception area that can be used by the public for gatherings.
The Friends of the Orange Depot is selling memorial bricks and accepting donations. “Boogie Woogie Train” is the theme from the group’s second-annual fund-raising gala set for November 12 at the Orange County Convention and Expo Center. More information is available through the website orangetxdepot.org.
-Margaret Toal, KOGT-
Social Media