Removal of Saugus railroad sign causes concern, DPW to replace it

SAUGUS – The removal of an old railroad crossing sign has caused a minor stir among historians, but town officials said it will be replaced once they can figure out how to rehang it.When what looked like an old wooden “X” style railroad crossing sign in front of the old Cliftondale train station on Eustis Street began to hang precariously, Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato had his men remove it. That’s when the phone calls began.Nancy D’Anna, who runs D’Anna Imaging out of the old depot, said she actually asked DPW workers if they could fix the sign and was saddened to come to work one day and find it gone.She said she felt the sign marked the significance of the building that dates back to 1853 and she missed it.Attubato said callers seemed concerned about the historical importance of the sign but said he is not sure how much significance there is to that particular sign.”I think people thought it was a wooden sign – it looks like it’s made of wood but it’s not,” Attubato said. “It’s aluminum.”Attubato said since signs made in in 1853 were not formed out of pressed aluminum the sign he removed is clearly not the original and he has no idea where the old sign might be. The building is privately owned and D’Anna said she has maintained a good amount of memorabilia in it to give it that historic feel. She said the aluminum sign has also been out front for the six years she has been there and probably much longer.Attubato said it would remain there as well. He said he planned to rehang the sign as soon as he figured out how to do it safely.”It’s not like it was hanging from something,” he said.Instead, Attubato said the sign was stuck onto a rail, like a railroad track rail, which had been stuck into the ground.Historical Society President Fred Brooks said he had no idea what might have happened to the original Cliftondale sign, but he does have the original Pleasant Hill’s train station sign and it is made of wood.Selectman Peter Rossetti said he certainly remembered the sign and the station from his childhood.Rossetti said the depot was once a long simple room with benches, akin to a waiting room. He wasn’t sure when the trains stopped running, but Rossetti said he does remember at one point trains ran from Saugus to Revere to Malden and into North Station.”So you could hop on and go to work,” he said. “My father and others used to tell stories about selling newspapers for a penny or shining shoes at the station.”The station is listed on the Historical Commission’s inventory of historical buildings but President Stephen Carlson could not be reached for comment.”We’ll return it as soon as possible,” Attubato said. “We’ll tighten it up so it won’t fall off the rail and hurt someone.”