RAILROAD AUCTION OF A LIFETIME TO BEGIN

CHAFFEE -- Inside the scaled-down replica of a train depot his late father, Lee, helped build and erect in his backyard, Jim Chronister taps out "Frisco" on the telegraph key and talks about the smell old-time depots always had. He loves that smell and everything about railroads.

Chronister, a fifth-generation railroad man, and his father collected railroad memorabilia as a hobby for most of their adult lives. So did his uncle J.A. Chronister, a deceased railroad assistant superintendent.

Now combined, their cache of railroad memorabilia consists of more than 12,000 items and is believed to be one of the largest private railroad collections in the country.

A retired sales and marketing manager who worked in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston and Wichita, Chronister and his father lived across the street from each other until Lee died three years ago.

Since his mother also has died, Chronister and his wife, Irmgard, are selling the houses and have decided to let the collection go. In the future they intend to spend half their years at Lake Wappapello and the other half at Gulf Shores, Ala.

Chronister has been busy organizing the sale for the past three months. Now that it is imminent he admits that parting with the collection is difficult."It's kind of traumatic," he said. "But there comes a time you have to let go."The massive accumulation will be auctioned off today and Sunday in Chaffee. The sale, managed by Gordonville antique dealer Harlan Smothers and auctioned by Mike Clum Inc. of Rushville, Ohio, will begin at 9:30 a.m. each day.

A large, neon, Frisco sign from Joplin and a fire wagon from Wichita sit outside the depot, which has on its roof another Frisco sign salvaged from a Cape Girardeau depot. Lee Chronister declined requests from newspapers and TV stations wanting to chronicle the collection, but anyone who stopped by wanting a tour of the depot got one."He had the feeling if people were interested in it they would find it," Chronister said.

The depot building itself will be auctioned off. In the waiting room is a pot-bellied stove along with a scale ("correct weight one cent") and a gum dispenser, artifacts invariably found in real old-time depot waiting rooms.

One of the most unusual items to be auctioned off is an 1800s Velocipede, a manually-operated machine which transported a single person over a single rail. It originally was displayed at the Frisco museum in St. Louis.

Among names on an old train dispatcher's sheet from the Illinois Central Railroad is that of the legendary Casey Jones. Another item is a plush ladder used to help passengers climb into upper berths in a Pullman car.

There are lanterns, watches, tickets, pens, lighters, fire extinguishers, Frisco locks and a steam-engine bell.

More than 60 percent of the items are from the Frisco Railroad, which was bought by Burlington-Northern in 1980.

Smothers says inquiries about the auction have come from 30 different states and he expects "quite a crowd."