Atlanta New York Depot. "the real story"

For some 12 years now I have owned the Atlanta, New York D L&W Railroad depot. Over the years the depot may have changed a bit but my plans for it remain the same.
     I have surfed the web over and over for information relating to the depot. I have been on the lookout for pictures, stories, postcards or other artifacts. Those who know I own the depot, have given me gifts that have a railroad theme or relate to the depot.The time is getting closer for me to embrace my plans for the depot and I have renewed my interest in finding more information about the depot and it's history. During this renewed search of the Internet-world wide web, I came across a number of web sites, posts and threads about the Atlanta depot, as well as it's sister depots along the path of the DL&W railroad. In a number of these "posts" there were those that pondered:

Who? Who owns this depot? Well, let us answer that right now. Tim Schiefen. I am the owner of the Atlanta New York, DL&W Train Station.
The sarcastic side of me would like to add, There has been a business card or two of mine taped to the inside windows since the day the Title was recorded in my name. If anyone had taken one minute to look and read, the mystery could have been solved years ago!

Why? Why is the building looking so sad?  Boy, that is a question with more facets than can be answered in one tiny post. Let me just say:  I am sad about the situation of the Depot as well.
Let me provide a bit of history about that, but I need to start at the beginning.
                The Wilkins family were the previous owners. The "late" Max Wilkins was a car dealer in Wayland. I am told, his wife was in a nursing home and their son was in charge and decided the depot would be auctioned off.

I came across the add in the local penny saver and was immediately intrigued.As a boy, I remember visiting another Lackawanna depot that had been moved not too far from my home, the memory of that propelled my curiosity and made me want to go see this depot in person. I would be happy to share the details of the auction with everyone at a later date, so for now let us jump ahead a bit...

During the Auction the auctioneer as well as Terry Wilkins both went on and on about the nice little hamlet of Atlanta and how the station fared so well there and in the 15 years or so that their family owner the depot they never had so much as a broken window!

Well, maybe the tide had turned and we were soon to be on the downward side of  prosperous and happy times?  Why? well because just a few years later I was blessed with a phone call from the chief of the Cohocton Police who called to inform me some one had broken a number of windows at the old station.

He and I spoke and planned to meet there a week or so later, I took time that evening to drive down to Atlanta ( about 20 minutes from home) and surmise the damage. 54 broken panes of glass! As well as about 125 #2 ballast stones inside.

 The large number of rocks found inside made me think it had to be kids.

they probably threw one rock and did not break the entire piece of glass, so they continued to throw rocks until all the glass was  broken out of the frame. After a week or two, the police chief again called and informed me that he had determined who was responsible for the broken windows, it had been two 7 or 8 year old kids who lived nearby and had nothing better to do one Saturday morning. A meeting was scheduled with the two culprits and their parents. I had some stern words for the two youths, the boys fathers both assured me that they would be sure to replace all the broken windows. I provided them with a key to get in and then patiently waited for the windows to be replaced. The fathers did replace a few panes of glass over the next summer or two however that is all that was replaced only a couple of panes of glass, and of those replaced, only three or four had been glazed.there were two or three others replaced but not glazed, i think I counted foru or five panes of class in total. A couple of years went by with the station all boarded up and one day I received a call from the Cohocton town supervisor Mr. Zigenfoos.

He called me one day to see what could be done to get the depot back in shape.He wanted to remove the blight in the neighborhood? Imagine his surprise when I asked him what happened to the restitution I had agreed to with the Chief of police and the boy's fathers?

Mr. Zigenfoos was unaware of the situation and was at a loss to answer my question as to who would be paying for all the glass repair?

I was sure, way back when this whole situation came to be, that I would be left holding the bag. 

That is usually how things work for me, the short end is the end I usually end up with.

It was not long after that phone call from the Town supervisor that I began the slow careful process of one by one removing the sash from each window, removing the old glazing compound, the broken shards of glass, fitting in pieces of old used antique glass and then re-glazing and refitting the sashes back into each window frame.I have paced myself and try to at least repair one complete sash each time I visit.

To date I have repaired at least 6 double hung large windows with weighted sashes each  with 4 panes of glass. Not just any glass either, it is the 19th century type of glass that looks wavy when you look through it.

As I have stated before I have decided to put up this blog because I am tired of all the speculation about what is to become of the Atlanta depot. Some have said " why would the community not take more pride in the appearance of this great old station?

 Well let me tell you, the town was at the auction the day I bought the depot, they stopped bidding at just under one half of what I paid for it.

 The community could not even follow through on the restitution agreement I worked out with the local police and parents of the boys.

Much like the state of the union, stuff is messed up.

Hats off to Mr. Zigenfoos, he does care about his community, however he is not tuned in well enough to have helped me with the situation at the Atlanta Depot.

Insurance? the only kind if insurance you can obtain for a structure like this is fire and liability insurance. they do not extend protection for broken windows or vandalism.

I have included some recent photos of my progress.too bad I cannot figure out how to get them right side up!

I will work on that.

Stay tuned in and watch for more stories and tons of photos!

All material unless otherwise stated is mine. if you want a copy just ask.