The largest surviving building in the complex, the new coach shop and paint shop were constructed at its southwest corner concurrent with the introduction of electricity. The paired buildings were farthest from the line shaft system, and thus required electrical power, employing an electrical transfer table to the north of the buildings (now largely hidden from view by lawns and trees) that moved rolling stock laterally on short sections of track for access into the shops. Both buildings were destroyed by fire in 1923 and rebuilt on the same foundations with updated fireproof technology, including automatic, self-closing fire doors and a sprinkler system. The coach shop, with some forty-five-thousand square feet per floor, comprises a reinforced concrete basement level that included testing laboratories, storage, and latrines, and a main floor with built-in tracks corresponding to the twelve bays accessed from the transfer table outside the building’s north elevation. The sawtooth roof provided abundant natural lighting. Today both shops are under renovation for a second phase of the Savannah Children’s Museum.
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Coach Shop and Paint Shop (Central of Georgia Railroad)
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