All aboard: Getting a train rolling at the Northwest Railway Museum
October 15, 2010
NEW — 1:40 p.m. Oct. 15, 2010
[Click to enlarge]
Richard Anderson, the Northwest Railway Museum’s executive director, sends showers of sparks onto the floor while repairing a locomotive engine formerly owned by Weyerhaeuser. The museum is rehabilitating the car, which has a cast-steel frame, at its workshop. After being restored, the engine will likely be displayed with the museum’s wooden caboose, Anderson said. The two operated together in the early 1950s. (Photo by Dan Catchpole)
Northwest Railway Museum dedicates new exhibition building
October 12, 2010
NEW — 6:00 a.m. Oct. 13, 2010
The sparkling interior of the Northwest Railway Museum’s new Train Shed will house the as many as 24 train cars on public exhibition. The building is a one-mile train ride from the Snoqualmie Depot. (Photo contributed)
Supporters of the Northwest Railway Museum gathered Oct. 2 to dedicate the Train Shed at the museum’s Railway Historic Center.
About 180 people climbed onto the museum’s restored train for the one-mile trip from the Snoqualmie Depot to the center’s campus to the south.
Museum Director Richard Anderson directed the celebration that followed months of work and delays.
Two trees were planted at the event, to signify the importance of the forest industry to the region. At the turn of the century, Fred Weyerhaeuser bought 900,000 acres from James J. Hill, owner of the Great Northern Railway, and then created his timber company.
A Douglas fir was dedicated and planted by dignitaries attending the event. A Western red cedar was dedicated by the children in the group as a symbol of the future.
Snoqualmie Valley’s Northwest Railway Museum in running for $70,000 grant for Chapel Car
April 15, 2010
Northwest Railway Museum officials are reaching out to the public to help win a $70,000 grant to restore its Chapel Car. The registered historic landmark was used for 50 years by the American Baptist Church around Puget Sound, including a week in North Bend in 1917. (Photo by Dan Catchpole)
NEW — 10:35 a.m. April 15, 2010
The Northwest Railway Museum’s Chapel Car is among 25 projects that could receive part of $1 million for Puget Sound-area historic restoration work. The money is part of Partners in Preservation, a program run by American Express and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
American Express has pledged $5.5 million over a five year period toward preserving historic places throughout the United States.
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.
