SIMI VALLEY : Renovation Is Ready to Begin on Train Depot

The weathered paint on the worn wooden slats of the old Santa Susana Train Station in Simi Valley will be sanded down and covered with a shiny new coat when contractors begin refurbishing later this month.

The Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District on Thursday awarded a $341,407 contract to Santa Monica-based Alpine Construction to restore the exterior of the 92-year-old station and landscape its now dusty grounds.

The interior of the depot, where a model of the rail line running from Port Hueneme to Burbank is on display, is being gradually restored by a group of railroad buff volunteers. The Rancho Simi Foundation will lead tours inside the building from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

“This depot used to be the center of community and commerce,” said Rick Johnson, a spokesman for the park district. “People would chat when they came to pick up their packages or wait for a train. I guess the malls are the centers of commerce now.”

Funds to restore the exterior were provided in a $200,000 federal transportation grant, $100,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $20,000 from federal block grant money. The park district will pay the $21,000 balance.

Alpine Construction and Electric Corp. submitted the lowest of three bids for the contract, Johnson said.

The depot will be painted the same gold color as it was when built in 1903 at its original location along the railroad tracks near Los Angeles Avenue and Tapo Street. The depot was moved to Santa Susana Park in 1975.

The exterior restoration--which will include planting trees, shrubs and construction of a lighted concrete walkway from a parking lot to the station--is expected to be completed by mid September.

The interior could take a little longer.

“We do the work as the money comes in,” said Bill Rehart, secretary of the Rancho Simi Foundation.

For now, the model takes up most of the old waiting room and part of the baggage room. The model, which took 10 years to build, eventually will be torn down and replaced with a new one to be built in a refurbished room upstairs.

“This area will be a museum,” Rehart said of the waiting room, where wooden benches, rounded with wear, line the walls.

District board Chairman James Meredith called the volunteer work a “labor of love.”

“We couldn’t afford to do this without them.”