Flood recovery continues

It has been an interesting winter for the Northwest Railway Museum. Our first January flood (historically, most flooding occurs in November) has created a variety of challenges but also a few opportunities.

To recover quickly, a rail contractor is performing the track repairs. For the Museum, this means that the track being repaired will get new ballast and a surface, line and dress. While we all would have preferred to avoid flood damages, it is comforting to know that the track will be at least as good as it was prior to the flood event.

It is an interesting period of contrasts too. Consider these two photos taken just two months apart at Fir Street in downtown Snoqualmie. One shows track being rendered unusable and the other shows it being rendered useful.

Here at the Northwest Railway Museum we are grateful for the broad-based community support that is allowing timely repairs. Without public support, the museum would not have been able to begin the flood repairs. An event such as this reminds some of us that many arts and heritage organizations can be just one major disaster away from permanent closure.