If you remember the late Nolan Bland’s model of Rockdale in 1928 and wondered what happened to it. Don’t worry. It’s being well taken care of and looks better than ever.
Bland, who spent thousands of hours crafting, and researching, the model, pegged the date at 1928.
He built it in his garage as health permitted.
Old Rockdale was on display at homecomings and other Rockdale events a couple of decades ago. Bland died in 2008 and “Old Rockdale” sort of dropped off the radar.
REBORN—But it’s been reborn thanks to the hard-working volunteers of the Milam County Railroad Museum.
They have been working on the model and these photos show how clean and sparkling it looks now, after months of work.
The museum is located at 101 West Main in Cameron and contains John Johnson’s model of 1940s Cameron on the first floor.
Bland’s Rockdale model is upstairs. It looks better than ever and there are plans to expand.
Running trains have been added to the Cameron model and the same is planned for the Rockdale recreation.
In fact, the Marjorie switch yard five miles west of town will become part of the display.
It’s not clear where the model will end up on permanent display but the consensus is that it belongs back in Rockdale, perhaps at the Old City Hall, if restoration plans become a reality.
BACK IN TIME—In all, there are 118 named and numbered buildings in the model.
They are bound to bring back memories, not all of them happy.
The awnings on the Scarbrough & Hicks Building, for instance.
In 1933, during an era-ending fire the weight of one of those awnings pulled bricks down on top of two Rockdale volunteer firefighters, J. W. Hooper and Wilbur Williams, killing them.
They are the only two fatalities in the history of the Rockdale Volunteer Fire Department.
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