SRM CELEBRATED 30th ANNIVERSARY

The Southeastern Railway Museum celebrated its 30th anniversary on July 15 and 16, 2000.

Special demonstrations and a cookout were among the activities during the two days.

The Buckingham Lining Bar Gang, headliners at SRM's 25th anniversary celebration, made a return visit to the museum.

The Lining Bar Gang demonstrated how track workers maintained rail lines by hand before the advent of modern machinery. The group performed the chants used to set a cadence for the tasks, a necessary function to allow 20-30 workers to act in concert to move a section of rail back into the proper gauge.

Members of the group talked to the audience about track maintenance work as part of the African-American employment experience, as track gang members in the eastern United States were predominantly black but supervised by a white foreman, a practice dating from the early days of the railroads and continuing until modern track repair machinery arrived on the scene in the 1960s.

Performances were at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Saturday and at 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. Sunday.

The cookout is a SRM anniversary tradition. Hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the "fixins" provided on-site meals for visitors from noon to 3 p.m. each day.