FOLEY — A boxcar full of fun and freebies, as well as a local author signing his new book, are in store for those planning to help celebrate Railroad Heritage Day on Saturday, Sept. 26 in downtown Foley.

The Foley Centennial event for the public commemorates the Louisville and Nashville Railroad’s impact on the city’s development from the early 1900s.

The event is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Historic L&N Railroad Depot Museum & Archives, located in John B. Foley/Heritage Park across from the post office on U.S. 98 East.

Depot Museum director Bonnie Donaldson says the plan for Saturday includes:

-- free train rides for young and old alike around the park aboard the four-car Charles J. Ebert Jr. kiddie train.

-- Free popcorn.

-- Free lemonade.

-- Free admission to the depot museum for a great look at implements, tools, photos and other items of local interest from the past 100 years.

-- Free children’s activities, such as filling in the shapes of a drawing to identify historic items big and little, a scavenger hunt and coloring sheets.

-- Free viewing of the Depot Museum’s O-gauge, indoor model-train exhibit, featuring multiple trains traveling more than 1,300 feet of track through a rural-and-urban setting.

-- Free walk-through of the caboose on the life-size train exhibit sitting on the tracks on the west side of the Depot Museum.

-- Free attendance at a 15-minute skit performed by the Foley High School Theatre Company. The skit will reflect construction of the L&N branch line from Bay Minette to Foley, and the crucial role the railroad played  in the area's economic recovery from the 1906 hurricane.

In addition, retired newspaper editor Kent W. Cockson, of Foley, will be on hand inside the depot to sign copies of his new 192-page book, “Foley at 100,” written to coincide with the centennial celebration.

Two signing sessions are scheduled -- from 11 a.m. to noon, and from 1:30 p.m. until 2:30 p.m. Copies of “Foley at 100” will be available for purchase at the Depot Museum.

“Foley at 100” also is available at the Foley Book Exchange in the Wright Drugs building uptown; at the Baldwin County Heritage Museum in Elberta, and at Page & Palette in downtown Fairhope.

While you’re at the park, walk just north of the Depot Museum and view the new Centennial Clock Tower, and take time to listen to the tower's chimes ring out beautiful songs.