Train car gets a new home on U.S. 1

Just in time for Christmas, the Crane Point Museum and Nature Center in Marathon received a vintage gift Tuesday morning — a Pullman train car that sat on nearby Knights Key for decades.

Starting around 2 a.m., the 82-foot-long train car was moved three miles north to its new home on U.S. 1 near the museum at mile marker 50 bayside. At a speed of about 5 mph, it was driven on a dolly and pulled with a trailer when needed.

“We had a little trouble coming up the hill at Knights Key, but once we got up things went well,” said Charlotte Quinn, Crane Point’s chief operating officer.

The train car, which housed the Pigeon Key Visitor Center for more than two decades, needed a new home because a new 199-room resort is going up on Knights Key. The Singh family, building the resort, offered to hand over the car, Quinn said. For now, it will be her new office.

“Once we get things situated, we’ve got a grant coming for a bathroom and all the electrical work,” she said, adding in the future it may house a train museum and a meeting space.

There is little information about the Pullman train car and its use on Henry Flagler’s Overseas Railroad as a passenger car. According to former Pigeon Key Foundation board member George Neugent, it was brought to Marathon on a barge in the mid-1960s or early ’70s.

The Pigeon Key Visitor Center has moved to a new trailer at mile marker 48 bayside.

This story was originally published December 20, 2017 at 9:55 AM with the headline "Train car gets a new home on U.S. 1."