Calera had a major history event which took place and that was the arrival of the first railroad chartered in 1848. By 1854 the first set of tracks were laid in Calera. The first trains between Louisville and Montgomery ran through here in 1872. Now today this depot and its trains are a museum. One can get on board the 1910-1950 engine towing its caboose as it takes passengers on a forest journey.

Calera was a lime distributor after the civil war and it became an important commodity. With all the lime kilns in 1882 operating it was just as necessary to export the lime and the only way to do that during this time was by train. Right across from the tracks were many business like a drug store, dry goods store, family grocery, hardware store, boarding house, a bakery, watch maker, blacksmith, wagon maker, a tinsmith, shoe maker and even a barber. The area was also home to many Scandinavians and German pioneers. The town had grown to about 207 inhabitants and the railroad was just starting to boom.

There is two depots in the area both across from one another. One is called the Woodlawn Depot which is now the William A. Boone Memorial Railroad Library. The other one is the old Calera Depot which both were built in the 1880s. Today the Calera depot houses a large collection of railroad relics, equipment, and history. The most well known event to the area is the annual Thomas The Tank Engine and the Polar express which draws in over 18000 people. There is also many types of trains on site one of them takes you 22 miles round trip to the town of Shelby.

I noticed upon walking around all the different train cars. There was a caboose, some rail cars from Montana, Louisville Kentucky, even US Airforce Train Cars. There was old cabooses and various freight engines. There was even a US post office car. Out of all the train museums I been to this one had more variety then any other one I been to as far as engines and train cars go. 

The train yard across the street from the Calera Depot is named Clark yard named after its builder Wayne Clark. He was the first president and member of the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum. Over the years his crew and Clark laid out the tracks for the entire yard so that many old trains could be transferred here and restored. In this yard sits a few old steam engines and quite a few passenger cars. I remember seeing a few passenger cars that had to be over 100 feet perhaps the longest ones in the country. Some of the cars are in poor shape as we went into a caboose. Honestly the only regret I have is that I wish I went into more of the train cars but the sun was almost about to come up and I got a late start because an incident happened at our hotel room and I had to make a statement. 

There is a really creepy feeling walking in the yard you just feel watched as you walk between the trains and aisles. Many of the windows are missing on some cars while there are other cars that are just plain odd. My son and I had alot of fun climbing on the old steam engines and cars. I also remember seeing one of the tallest freight engines I ever seen not even sure this thing could fit into a train tunnel.

But there is one thing that makes this place unique its the fact that one of the first generation diesel electric locomotives runs on these standard and narrow gauge tracks. As a boy I always been fascinated with trains. My father and I would go to this one spot late at night near an old abandoned far park the car bring snacks and watch train after train go by. So whether I seen a ghost or none at all honestly I came here to be a big kid and its so nice I can share it with my fans on our site here. 

The heart of Dixie was a non profit group started in 1963 as a chapter of the National Railway Historical Society and was located in Birmingham till about 1990 when they moved the museum to Calera. Where they could run its own trains and freight railroads for excursions in the area. Each car on site serves as something different one of the cars you can rent out for parties so its really a cool place to take the kids for the day not just paranormal investigating.

I also did some research and found that there was a train wreck in Calera in 1952 I have no idea if deaths occurred but it happened very close to the depots. So there is alot of history and with history comes Haunting's. Despite how timid the area is there is always this feeling of what lurks around each turn you take as you journey threw train cars and walk down the dark tracks.

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Rick-LordOfThyNight