Shelton railroad author signs books Saturday

Growing up in Shelton's Hillcrest neighborhood in in the 1940s, Pete Replinger at age 3 began venturing over to the vacant lot to watch the trains in the Simpson Lumber switching yards. The next year, he started drawing pictures of trains, sketches he still owns. At 10, he rode a steam locomotive for the first time.

Replinger's love of trains, trestles and tracks has produced a slew of books and magazine articles. He'll talk about his work and signs copies of his new book "Atlas of South Puget Sound Logging Railroads" from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Mason County Historical Museum, 427 W. Railroad Ave., downtown Shelton.

Replinger owns a caboose parked in his front yard of his wooded Cloquallum Road property, inhabited by a renter. He's active with the Peninsular Railway and Lumberman's Museum and has boxes and file cabinets filled with slides and information.

"Pete has the best collection of railroad-associated everything," said his friend and fellow author Mike Fredson. He added, "You feel the history of Mason County by following the railroad." After the presentation, Fredson will lead a walking tour.

Replinger was born in Shelton in 1942. His father worked as an accountant for Simpson. Replinger started working for Simpson in 1963 as an engineer. He recalls that in 1985, Simpson stopped logging in the high country and focused on the low country. That year, he said he hauled the last logs out of Camp Grisdale.

"They couldn't compete anymore," he said. He retired from Simpson in 2000.

Replinger began writing magazine articles about trains in the 1960s. In 1990, Replinger released his first book, "Logging to the Salt Chuck 1885-1989." He contributed to the books "Rayonier," "The Locomotive Portrait" and "The Schafer Brothers - Pioneer Loggers of the Satsop Valley."

His new book shows how Mason County was logged over the past century. Aerial photography that penetrates the earth has discovered former tracks. Replinger discovered old trestles submerged only two miles from his house.

"The only reason it's still there is because it's in the water," he said.