Now, Jacksonville officials are trying to change that. The depot is slated to be rehabilitated for use as a welcome center and museum in connection with the Ladiga Trail.

The railroad, built between 1860 and 1880, is part of the rails-to-trails project that leads bikers and walkers through the 33-mile Chief Ladiga Trail that crosses four cities in Calhoun and Cleburne counties.

The city of Jacksonville plans to renovate the Jacksonville train depot to welcome trail walkers and preserve the memory of the trains that helped build the United States.

Battered by decay and by vandals who painted their names on the handmade bricks and once started a fire that ruined much of the second floor's heart pine, the city will use federal and local funds to renovate the building.

The restored structure will provide restroom facilities and refreshments for Ladiga Trail walkers and a museum to display Jacksonville artifacts that are currently tucked away in corners, attics and chests, said Bo Batey, director of the Jacksonville Parks and Recreation department.

The building also will offer meeting rooms for local civic groups and offices for the Calhoun County Retired Senior Volunteer Program.

The rehabilitation work is expected to be completed in about three years, Batey said.

For Chaney, the renovated depot would be a place that immortalizes his own childhood memories and reminds the young of the historic importance of the railroad system, now largely replaced by interstate traffic.

To escape chores in his youth, Chaney and his friends used the depot as a playground, climbing, exploring and riding the cargo boxes that transported coal from the station.

"When we were boys we had to make do with what we had to play with," he recalls.

Cheney says the renovated depot would give locals a place to reminisce and to assist tourists such as the Georgia resident who stopped him as he rode his 18-speed bike Wednesday to ask about local geography.

Jacksonville Mayor Jerry Smith said he agrees that the welcome center is needed to serve the growing number of users of the Ladiga trail.

"I think it is always good when you can bring a historic property back to life, one that has a vital role in the past and we hope it will have a vital role in the future," Smith said.

Although Jacksonville has one small museum, the Dr. Francis museum, and exhibits in the library and at Jacksonville State University, the depot will serve as a needed community structure that records the history, Smith said.

"Railroads were the power houses that built the country and united the major cities," said Jack Plunk, a principal planner with the East Alabama Regional Planning Commission.

With the architect's plans not yet complete, Plunk roughly estimates that the rehabilitation will cost about $500,000.

A federal grant that is administered through the Alabama Department of Transportation will cover 80 percent of the project. The city will pay the rest.

While on the surface it might seem like a lot of money, Plunk said, when you consider it will preserve a building that is threaded in the historic fabric of Jacksonville, it is a deal.

The depot's history is somewhat unclear, with gaps in some of the information and conflicting reports in some of the rest, Plunk said.

"We are not sure when the station was constructed, but we think soldiers would have been carried up and down the line," Plunk said.

The Selma Rome and Dalton Railroad constructed the railroad between 1860 and 1880. Local historians say the depot was used to store materials and to hold some Union prisoners on their way to Confederate prison camps during the Civil War. But other sources report conflicting information.

"Obviously there is a mix up in there somewhere, but no one seems to know where it is," Batey said.

Former President of the Jacksonville Heritage Association Don Calvert said the welcome center in the rehabilitated depot will highlight the advantage of preserving old buildings through modern uses.

About 40 Jacksonville homes that were built in the 1830s need rehabilitation and could benefit from the philosophy of making historic structures economically viable, he said..

"We need to focus on ways to preserve what we have. The key is to revitalize in a way to make economic sense," Calvert said.