Oregon Trip - Post 5- Depot Rail Museum

In yesterday's post at The 123, I talked about why I found this little Oregon town so fascinating. More specifically -and something else in common with Grafton's red caboose (and other rail history)- this Depot Rail Museum caught my interest:

This little Depot-turned-museum sits at the far end of town, just about on the Sandy River.
"End of the Line Museum Store:"






Unfortunately, I was there too early in the morning to take the inside tour, but I couldn't help looking through the windows:




although the view from the front porch wasn't much:




This yellow car sits in the front yard:







I wanted to take pictures of this car like I did for our red caboose post, so I just walked around snapping away:











It's obvious that this car is much newer than our red caboose.



How much newer?



I googled this train car number:


And learned that this car was built in Ohio in 1975.



It was in service as recently as 1993, because the picture of it on the web page was taken in Washington State.






There was no information online or on-site that indicated when or why it was retired.












I tried to look in the window, but it was pretty blurry:


There was a boiler and a few cots, like a bunkhouse. Does that make it a caboose?



I have no idea.

What impressed me the most -and this wasn't the first time- was the age difference in our history.
Grafton, West Virginia's boom began in the 1850s when the railroad first came over the Allegheny Mountains. Troutdale, Oregon's boom was around 1900. It took time for our nation to move West.

I tried to find out when our red caboose was built, but I can't find a thing. I do know, however, that it has been sitting on Main Street for 30 years or so. That means it was retired around the same time that this yellow caboose was just a baby.

Oregon Trip - Post 3 - Beer Direction

In a home decor store, I found this sign:

I did not buy it, however, because I figured if I needed an arrow to get me there, then I already had too much.

Oregon Trip - Post 2

Okay, so I lied; I am not posting the bronze statue pictures right now.

I am posting this Cigar shop photo:


Cigar store, complete with:

A cigar store Indian!

I think they must bring him in at night, because he wasn't there the first time I walked past early in the morning. I bet he weighs quite a bit, but I suppose they figure he's not too heavy for a couple of motivated thieves to throw him in the back of their pick-up truck in the middle of the night.

Oregon Trip - Post 1

I have no idea how many Oregon posts there will be, but I'll start here.

I flew into Portland and stayed in Troutdale, about 10 miles east. I stayed in a box motel: brand-name, clean, basic, suburban.
Fine, but definitely nothing exciting.

The main street tourist business district, however, was pretty cool. It's a perfect example of what Grafton is heading towards, so I found it particularly interesting.

The first thing I took an interest in was this bronze casting gallery:


I would have stopped in for myself, but because my friend, Debbie, is starting to cast some of her creations in bronze, I was excited to see that they had tours of the foundry (is that the proper name for art casting?). Unfortunately, the tours were closed for remodeling, so I had to settle for the display Gallery.
The Gallery was hard to miss with this life-sized moose sitting on the sidewalk out front:





Inside there were more life-sized creatures:











Come to find out, Debbie has already been there. She even got the tour.

I have more pictures of bronze sculptures in the city park. I'll post those next....