by Gordon Garnhart

34 people gathered at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility on Wednesday, September 19th for our first meeting of the season. Rich Blake opened the meeting by congratulating Tom Hawkins, long time participant in Skagit Valley and Whidbey Clinic activities, on winning third prize in Model Railroader magazine’s 2012 nationwide layout design contest for the best that would fit in a 200 sq ft space. The write-up appears on pages 64 – 66 of the October issue.

Rich also gave a report on the death of Gordon Jones, a member of the group who died Saturday, August 25th after an unsuccessful battle with a malignant brain tumor. Jack Tingstad offered his fine layout to be included on the tour circuit on the first day of the 32nd National Narrow Gauge Convention held in Bellevue, September 12-15. He only expected 4 or 5 individuals because Coupeville is so far away, so he declined offers for assistance. But to his surprise, he had an estimated 50 people come through at various times throughout the day.

Our featured speaker for the evening was Eric Erickson, a retired engineering manager for the Seattle Water Department since 1988. He has spent years doing research about Logging and Sawmilling in Washington State leading to a number of books about the subject as well as transportation histories. He has provided numerous interactive slide show histories on both subjects throughout Western Washington. His latest book, Mile Post: A History of the Arlington-Darrington Branch of The Northern Pacific Railway. 1899 to 2009, was available for sale at $40.00 each at the clinic.

Eric presented an interactive slide show about logging and sawmilling including logging railroads. He is Vice-President of the Anacortes Antique Machinery Show, which held its free annual show on Saturday, September 8th in Anacortes. Featured were antique fire apparatus, old tractors, engines and more. His other activities have included:

  • Life member and past Board member of the Issaquah Historical Society
  • Past Board member of the Association of King County Historical Organizations
  • Past Board member Black Mountain Forestry Center
  • Member of the International Order of Hoo-Hoo’s
  • Past Historian for the Pacific Northwest Section American Water Works Association (States of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho).

Our next meeting will be October 10th at 7:00 PM in the conference room at the Summer Hill Retirement Facility in Oak Harbor, which will return us to the second Wednesday of the month. It will feature a series of mini-clinics on a variety of subjects pertinent to model railroading. We hope to see you there.