Chapel car becomes a landmark
April 3, 2009
The Messenger of Peace chapel car doesn’t look like a church on rails.
The 100-plus year old train car sits in the Northwest Railway Museum’s preservation center, with tape on its windows and plywood over some sections. Inside the train car, the pews and altar are missing. Like many trains in the museum’s collection, the state of the chapel car can only be described as dilapidated, but one day the Messenger of Peace will be the most significant train car at the museum.
On March 26, the King County Landmarks Commission unanimously approved adding the Messenger of Peace to the county’s list of landmarks. The train car has already been added to the National Register of Historic Sites.
The King County Landmarks Commission and others meet in the preservation center of the Northwest Railway Museum to approve the nomination of the Messenger of Peace chapel car, pictured in the background, to the list of county landmarks.
Recovery could be lengthy for Railway Museum
February 4, 2009
Railroad tracks are, in fact, uninsurable — a fact that threatens to put the Northwest Railway Museum in a financial bind.
When the Snoqualmie River crested in the Jan. 7 flood, it covered about two miles of railroad tracks and two railroad bridges in downtown Snoqualmie. The damage caused by the flood to the museum is estimated at about $100,000.
An antique train sits in water during last month’s flood.
Designs finished for railway exhibit hall
January 3, 2009
Construction on the Northwest Railway Museum’s exhibit hall is tentatively scheduled to start this spring.
The 25,000-square-foot building project will offer space for the railway museum to preserve its train collection.
“Initially, this project offers us a way to get critically endangered objects, such as the 1898-built railway chapel car inside and protected from the outdoor environment,” said Richard Anderson, the museum’s executive director.
A glimpse of what the Railway History Museum could look like.
