Scott Barrett
Work Experience:
Scott Barrett worked on the Weyerhaeuser logging railroad at the Vail logging camp near Rainier, Washington and Pe Ell, Washington and later the Chehalis Western Railroad from November 1972 to September 1989. Track maintenance 1972 to 1974; Brakeman and Conductor on Weyerhaeuser log trains running from Pe Ell, Washington to the South Bay Log Dump near Olympia, Washington 1974 to 1975 running over the Burlington Northern and Milwaukee Road. From 1976 to 1984: worked on log trains from Vail to South Bay. From 1981 to 1989: worked on log trains from Western Jct. to Tacoma, Washington, Chehalis, Washington, and Curtis including work trains spreading gravel, distributing track materials, and picking up logs and wrecked log flats along the right of way with a locomotive crane.
Scott lived at the Vail camp with his three brothers from 1958 until 1969 when his family bought the company house and a local company moved the entire house in one day to a new location near Rainier, Washington on State Route 507 near the Burlington Northern interchange at Wetico in November 1969.
Burlington Northern Railroad: 1989-1991 Switchman, Brakeman
Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission: Railroad Safety Inspector 1997 – 2003
State of Washington: 1991 to 2003. State of Washington 1991 to 1996.
Federal Railroad Administration: Safety Inspector 2003- 2012. Chief Inspector: 2012 to 2023 retired in December 2023.
Dr. Frank Telewski
Work Experience:
In January 1993, Dr. Telewski went to work at Michigan State University in Lansing, Michigan as Curator of the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden and Campus Arboretum, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Botany and Plant Pathology. Dr. Telewski previously worked as an Assistant Professor in the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research at the University of Arizona from 1983 to 1990. In 1990 he moved to Buffalo, NY to take over the duties of Director of the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens and Associate Professor of Biology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Frank is a retired Professor Emeritus of Plant Biology from Michigan State University and is working on his logging railroad layout of Weyerhaeuser’s Vail operation. Frank won model of the month in Model Railroader magazine in February 1997 for his scratch-built model of WTCo #111 and a photo of his scratch-built model of Weyerhaeuser’s #99 which also worked at Vail appeared in a “Trackside Photos” section of Model Railroader about a decade later.
Dr. Telewski has published over 40 peer reviewed articles and book chapters on tree physiology, ecology, dendrochronology, and biomechanics. He is internationally recognized for his work in tree biomechanics and tree growth responses to wind. He has given numerous talks nationally and internationally to chapters of the International Society of Arboriculture, and nursery and landscape associations, with an emphasis on tree growth in response to wind, tree biomechanics and hazard trees, proper planting practices, girdling roots, tree protection during construction, and the influence of root damage due to trenching on tree growth.
Logging Railroad publications:
Co-author: Logging Railroads of Weyerhaeuser’s Vail-McDonald Operation: Frank W. Telewski and Scott D. Barrett.
Oso Publishing Company, 2005. ISBN: 1-931064-05-9
Frank and Scott are revising the book.
Tall Timber Short Lines: Published Articles
TTSL Number 47, August-October 1996: Diesel Locomotives Operations at South Bay
TTSL Number 49, January-March 1997: Weyerhaeuser’s Vaunted Vail Operation
TTSL Number 52, August-September 1997: A Look Back at Vail – Steam at South Bay
TTSL Number 54, December 97-January 1998: Weyerhaeuser Speeder #30
TTSL Number 61, Spring 2000, Weyerhaeuser’s Camp McDonald
TTSL Number 62, Summer 2000, Camp McDonald Part 2
TTSL Number 73 Fall Winter 2003 Weyerhaeuser’s Versatile 10 x 20 Camp Building
Presentations:
Frank Telewski and Scott Barrett:
Co-presenters at the Northwest Logging Modeling Conference Convention, Mineral, WA 2009
Co-presenters at the National Model Railroad (NMRA) Convention in Detroit, MI 2007
Co-presenters at the Pacific Northwest Modeling Conference, Elsie, OR, 2007
Co-presenters at the Northwest Logging Modeling Conference Convention, Chehalis, WA 2007
Co-presenters at the Lewis County Historical Museum, Chehalis, WA 2006
Co-presenters at the NW Logging Modeling Conference Convention, Camp Elkanah, OR 1999
Scott Barrett presented at the Pacific Northwest Modeling Conference, Elsie, OR, 2009
Scott Barrett was the featured speaker at the Chehalis-Centralia Tourist Steam Railroad annual meeting, Chehalis, WA, December, 2008