Dejected McComb Railroad Depot Museum volunteers and city officials met Monday to discuss the possibility of ramping up security after vandals caused extensive damage to the downtown McComb train display over the weekend.
Detective Sid Boyte said someone damaged the train cars sometime Saturday night. He said investigators didn’t learn of the incident until the next morning.
Volunteer Bobby Bellipanni said when he received word of the vandalism, he didn’t expect the damage to be so severe.
Train cars are often a target for graffiti, but the vandals entered the cars — some more than a century old — and broke windows and destroyed irreplaceable fixtures and furniture.
“I never want to go through this again for as long as I live,” Bellipanni said. “I’m not a happy camper about this.”
Similar feelings were felt around the room at the McComb depot Monday, when the museum’s board of directors, Mayor Whitney Rawlings, interim city administrator Joseph Parker, deputy city administrator Kelvin Butler and recreation department director Josh Bass discussed security concerns.
Rawlings said the city approved installing a cross-tie fence to be placed on the south side of the display to keep people off the tracks.
Rawlings said the fence would cost between $28,000 to $29,000.
After the meeting, Bellipanni took an Enterprise-Journal reporter to see the damage, which was mostly confined to an office car, postal car and caboose.
Facing Railroad Boulevard, the trains appeared to be unharmed, with the postal car primed for painting and the recently painted red caboose and the dark green office car both shining in the sun.
But facing the tracks, the damage was noticeable.
The office car, built in 1882, received the most damage, with Bellipanni likening the carnage as if “a tornado ran through it.”
A busted chair was surrounded by shattered glass and an antique fan also broken. “I didn’t even see they broke the fan at first,” Bellipanni said.
The damage got worse, with glass shards lining a narrow hallway running the length of the car.
Bellipanni said the trains are a popular attraction.
“They just destroyed it,” Bellipanni said.
Sadness rippled through the depot as Bellipanni and other museum supporters, including railroad retirees, recalled years of work to acquire and refurbish the cars.
“I just can’t understand why someone would do this,” he said. “It’s just meanness, that’s all it is.”
Damage permeated throughout the office car — broken mirrors, shards of glass, two chunks of cinder blocks, broken light fixtures and destroyed tables and chairs — with some estimating as much as $100,000 would be needed to repair the damage.
“I’m just guessing but it’s going to take a lot,” Bellipanni said.
The damage in the postal car wasn’t as bad as the office car, which had recently been painted and accented with gold leaf lettering.
“The glass has a safety plate on it, so it wasn’t broken that bad,” Bellipanni said.
Museum director Winnie Len Howell was at a loss at how to recover from the mess.
“Who pays for this?” she asked. “Do we have to pay for this or does the city pay for this?”
Rawlings said the city has insurance on the cars.
“We just completed the paperwork and we have to make sure that it’s all covered,” Parker said.
He said the city’s insurance agent had reviewed the damage.
“I think about the work that Bobby, Delton (Moak) and James Earl (White) put in and it’s just heartbreaking,” said museum supporter Ralph Price.
Rawlings said he would ask city selectmen tonight to consider working with the museum to help offset the cost of buying a security system.
Price said one system would cost $37,000 and the board has $21,000 to contribute to it.
Museum officials also are setting up a GoFundMe account to help with the costs.
Anyone wants to contribute may make donations to the McComb Railroad Depot Museum, P.O. Box 7220, McComb MS 39649. Checks should be made payable to the McComb Railroad Museum and should be earmarked for the security system or for repairs.
