THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, April 9, 1995                  TAG: 9504090048
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: PLYMOUTH                           LENGTH: Medium:   54 lines

HISTORY CROSSING: OLD CABOOSE CHUGS ALONG AS A NEW MUSEUM OFFICE PORT O'PLYMOUTH MUSEUM MAKES THE MOST OF THE RICH HISTORY OF THE ALBEMARLE REGION AS A JUNCTION FOR RAILROADS AND SHIPPING THROUGH ITS MANY DISPLAYS AND ITS VERY OFFICES

By land and water, commerce has historically flowed in and out of Plymouth, and there was a time when three railroad stations were needed to handle the freight that moved through this town at the western end of Albemarle Sound.

So when Patricia Jane Monte, 31, curator of the Port O'Plymouth Museum on the southern bank of the Roanoke River, needed an office, an old caboose seemed like an appropriate place. The museum itself is housed in a former Atlantic Coast Line depot.

``We designed much of the museum landscaping around the former track right-of-way around the station, and now we have rest rooms in a box car and the office in the red Southern Railroad caboose,'' said Monte recently.

Railroad buffs will recognize the caboose as a rare ``baywindow'' car with two observation stations on each side of the caboose instead of in the familiar trainman's cupola on top.

A flatcar provides a foundation for a stage used to present a historical pageant about Plymouth. The museum includes a recreational park area and a Roanoke River gazebo and dock not far from where the famed Confederate ironclad ram Albemarle returned in triumph after a 1964 battle in Albemarle Sound near Edenton.

The Confederate ram was built far upriver from Plymouth to escape Union forces then invading the Outer Banks and Albemarle Sound. After the ram was completed at a Scotland Neck cornfield-``shipyard,'' it steamed down past Plymouth and took on seven Union warships in an Albemarle Sound naval melee.

After inflicting heavy damage on the Union fleet, the Albemarle returned to Plymouth, where it was eventually captured and towed to Norfolk.

Monte has acquired and cataloged many artifacts from the Albemarle and other memorabilia of early Plymouth and all are on display in the depot-museum. The development was boosted by a recent $93,000 grant from the state.

The railroad station that houses the museum was once a busy terminus for the Atlantic Coast Line. The ACL railroad once came down from Williamston to connect to the old Norfolk & Southern and Southern railroads at Plymouth. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by DREW C. WILSON, Staff

Patricia Monte of Plymouth uses an old railroad caboose as her

curator's office at the Port O'Plymouth Museum. And not just any

caboose, but a rare ``baywindow'' car with two observation stations

on each side.

by CNB