MARIETTA - The former owner of the Pullman dining car off the Marietta Square was fined $1,000 in Marietta Municipal Court on Wednesday for failing to correct the train's dilapidated condition.

Arva Lumpkin-White, a dentist, pleaded no contest to violating city property maintenance code. Municipal Court Judge Roger Rozen also issued a six-month jail sentence that was suspended.

She could have faced a maximum sentence of 42 months in jail and $7,000 in fines, Rozen said.

After the hearing, Lumpkin-White said she had wanted to fix the railcar up herself.

"I wanted to get the train restored. The city would not allow it. I had to sell it to save it," she said.

She said visitors to the Square would not enjoy the bare side of her building, at 31 Mill Street, once the rail car is moved.

The railcar was brought to the city in the 1970s and was used as a dining room for the Depot Restaurant, at 31 Mill Street, for many years. Lumpkin-White bought the property, which included the railcar, in 1991, for about $255,000, real estate records indicate.

The city slapped her with a code violation in July after Councilman Van Pearlberg complained about the state of the railcar, prompting Lumpkin-White to place the vehicle in an LLC managed by her husband, Randal White.

The couple sold the car at auction on Oct. 29 for $425 to Michael Thomas, an executive with New York-based Genesee Valley Transportation Company Inc.

According to the auction listing at www.purplewave.com: "Pickup arrangements are the buyer's responsibility. Item must be relocated" within 14 days.

Last week, Thomas told the Journal he was trying to make arrangements for the car to be moved.

Solicitor Robert Donovan said if the new owner didn't move the rail car or fix it up, the city would be responsible for it.

But he didn't give a deadline, saying the matter was now back in the city's code department.

Brian Binzer, the city's development services director, wouldn't give a deadline, either, simply saying, "we will be working with the new owner and are hopeful on a positive resolution."

When Pearlberg initially complained about the rail car, city manager Bill Bruton said a recreational trail that is proposed to run through the city next to the rail car would force the car's removal. But city leaders said later that CSX railroad will not allow the trail to be built near the railroad.

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