I finally worked up enough courage to take my scale model down to show the folks at Hull-Oakes. Last time I was down for a tour, I told them I was working on a model, and they had asked that I show them when I finished.
They seem genuinely interested (or politely humoring). Left to right were the owner, Todd Nystrom (a Hull grandson), and his son Nathan, who has just graduated from OSU, Don Wagoneer (timber buyer and current tour guide), Bill Oakes (retired saw filer and previous tour guide), and Dave Rainey from sales. I told them that the picture would be my "certificate of authenticity", and that I could now claim the layout was "endorsed" by Hull-Oakes.
They asked quite a few question, and I learned a couple of interesting bits. Between them there was over a hundred years of Hull-Oakes experience in the room. It was a bit humbling. They seemed amused by all the graffiti on the cars, and when I had a derailment at one point in the demonstration, they exclaimed, "just like the real thing!" (It was derailing weekly at the end).
Here are a couple of other interesting photos from the trip:
End of the road! Marker just north of Dawson Road indicates the start of the embargo.
They are storing centerbeam cars on the line down to this point.
Caboose for sale. Hull-Oakes is storing this for now (there is more to the story).
For $6K it can be yours! Oh, and it will cause about as much in shipping!
The tracks and switches are still there, just not used in the same way any more.
We also checked out the old hospital smoke stack which is nearby. It has a nice layer of railcar-style graffiti on the inside now. We were trying to estimate the height with the park host, and I went back and got my bottle rocket altitude gear. It is 100 feet high (+/- 10ft).
