Crossing repairs

Center of crossing is re-

paired on North Bend Way.

It may be Halloween but things will no longer go bump in the night when using several newly-repaired crossings. 

The Northwest Railway Museum has 13 public crossings at grade or, more simply stated, 13 public roads that cross the tracks.  The Museum has certain statutory responsibilities to maintain portions of these crossings even though it is cars and trucks and not trains that wear them out.  Other portions of the crossing are generally the responsibility of the road authority.

Asphalt By George's crew compacts

new asphalt on Stone Quarry Road.

 Projects usually turn out better when groups and individuals work together, and road and railway projects often work the same way.   So the City of Snoqualmie and the Northwest Railway Museum hired Snoqualmie’s own Asphalt By George to perform repairs on Northern Street, Stone Quarry Road and North Bend Way and then split up the costs according to areas of responsibility.  These crossings were damaged by heavy use, snow plows, and just plain old age.  

George's crew poses at Northern Street

along with locomotive 4024.

Deteriorated wooden planks and broken asphalt were removed and replaced with new asphalt.  A spacer was used to ensure the slots to accommodate the car and locomotive wheels were inserted.  And old asphalt was shipped to the asphalt plant to be recycled into new asphalt.  Kudos to the great workers at Asphalt By George, and to the City of Snoqualmie Public Works Department for working with the Museum!

Checkin' It Twice

Santa Claus checks his list while riding Santa Train (R).



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Imagine you and your family aboard a vintage train with the scenic Cascade foothills outside your antique coach window. As you journey from North Bend to Snoqualmie, you hear the wheels on the train clickety-clack beneath you. The train pulls into the station and you see Santa Claus, Ms. Claus and Zoe the Elf waving from the platform. As you alight from the train, the aroma of fresh-baked cookies greets you. You hurry into the railway kitchen car for hot cocoa and coffee to go with your cookies. Santa is waiting to see your family in the depot and he has a small gift for each of your children.

Is this a dream? No, it’s Santa Train®, the more than four decades old tradition at the Northwest Railway Museum. You and your family can be part of it. Purchase your Santa Train tickets online or in person now, or by phone beginning October 29.

Santa and the cookies will be waiting for you!

Bad to beautiful conclusion

Thanks to dozens of donors and local corporate sponsors, the Bad to Beautiful initiative has been successfully completed! 

Workers from Queen Anne

Upholstery unpack and

unload the reupholstered

seats.

The Museum participated in the Seattle Foundation’s Give BIG event last May.  Give BIG 2012 was the second annual day of giving hosted by the Seattle Foundation with participation from hundreds of local charities.  Individual donations were partially matched by a stretch pool funded by local companies including Seattle Sounders FC, Microsoft and JP Morgan Chase.  Donors made contributions through the Museum's page at the Seattle Foundation.

The Museum pledged support from the event for new seat upholstery on the interpretive railway.  Seats in car 1590 were selected - they were last reupholstered during the Roosevelt administration.  That 1913-built car’s seats actually came from an early 20^th Century first class coach because the 1590’s original café and parlor chairs were removed during WW II.

Completed seat cushions in car 1590.

Twenty two seats in the car 1590 have now been reupholstered with commercial fabric, a product several orders of magnitude more durable (and costly!) than fabric used on home furniture.  The dark green mohair-like material is very similar to the original fabric used on these seats nearly 100 years ago.  Work was performed by Seattle's Queen Anne Upholstery and the results are spectacular!  So come and check out the new seats – train departs weekends through the end of October and again for Santa Train. 

Thank you to everyone who supported Give BIG 2012, corporate donors who matched those donations, and to the Seattle Foundation for hosting it!