Manchester Railroad Days this Friday and Saturday

Join us for the 2026 edition of Manchester Railroad Days this Friday and Saturday, October 16-17, honoring the railroad’s importance to Manchester’s history and the railroaders who have made it possible. Activities begin Friday at 7:00 p.m. with a reception and program at the Manchester Development Authority office, 110 W. Main Street downtown. The featured speaker is Bernie Feltman of Headland, Ala., a frequent visitor to Manchester with family ties here and a historian of the Manchester-to-Birmingham railroad line. Bernie will tell the story of his grandfather, who was station agent for many years at Lineville, Ala.

Thanks to the Butcher Block Café, a light meal will be served; there is no charge for the reception, however, donations will be accepted to offset the costs. We hope you will make plans to join us for an evening of food, fellowship, and engaging railroad history discussion.

On Saturday, the train show will take place from 9:00 to 4:00 at the Manchester Mill, 117 Callaway Street, with dealers selling railroad history and modeling items. There will also be operating train layouts and displays – the Mill will be full this year with a record number of tables. And as always, there will be plenty of trainwatching from the Broad Street bridge and railfan platform! More details are at https://www.facebook.com/ManchesterRailroadDays/ or by email to Carla Stephens at manchesterrailroaddays@gmail.com.

The railroad has been central to Manchester since the Atlanta, Birmingham & Atlantic (its first name) got here from Waycross in 1907 and built the large freight yard and the junction with lines going to Atlanta and Birmingham. The railroad has changed names over the years, including Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast, Atlantic Coast Line, and Seaboard Coast Line. CSX operates the trains today, and Manchester remains a busy location for freight moving between Midwestern points and the South.

The idea for Railroad Days was proposed by the late Tyron Elliott, a Manchester attorney who practiced here for many years. Larry Goolsby, a native of Woodland, contributed information on Manchester’s railroad history, and the first Railroad Days event was held in 1998. Tyron is honored by the “Elliott Station” shelter at the Manchester Mill, which houses the historic Atlanta Birmingham & Coast wood caboose that was built in 1925 and is the type used on trains through Manchester up until the mid-1950s. It is the only one of its kind known to exist.

Cabooses were once used on the end of every freight train to house the rear-end crew and to enable inspection of any train defects; very few are left in service anywhere today. The AB&C name existed from 1927 to 1946, the year Atlantic Coast Line took over the line, and AB&C was the company that bought the Manchester caboose and six more like it in 1941 from the Florida East Coast RR. All seven were rebuilt and repainted at AB&C’s Fitzgerald (Ga.) shops and placed into service between Waycross and Atlanta and between Manchester and Birmingham. This caboose was given number B-55 (changed to 0737 when ACL bought the AB&C in 1946). 

In the late 1950s this caboose was taken out of regular service and parked at Palmdale, Fla., where crews stayed in it since there were no suitable motels nearby. In 2000, Larry Goolsby spotted it still sitting at Palmdale but in bad condition. The City of Manchester decided to purchase and restore it, and the B-55/0737 was trucked to Manchester in April 2002. It needed a new cupola, new siding, and other work, which was done in the following months. In 2017 it needed new siding and paint again, and Lee Pearson and his father and grandfather contributed the labor for Lee’s Eagle Scout project. It still proudly stands today as a reminder of a bygone railroad era and of the railroad crews who rode many hours and miles in it.