Giving thanks for the chapel car

The Halloween Storytelling Train is an engaging family outing, but it also represents an annual gathering for the Hodgins Family to visit chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace and remember their father, Arthur Halleck Hodgins, 1910 - 2005.  

The chapel car had served the elder Hodgins as a cabana adjacent to the family home, first in Snohomish, and later near Grayland.  His son Hal recently recounted, 'one day back in 1971, dad was out walking and noticed the signs indicating that highway 2 was going to be widened.  He asked what was going to happen to the old rail car that had served as a roadside diner, and was told it would be demolished.  He asked if he could have it and was told that he could buy it for a $1. Very soon after it was in our backyard in Snohomish.  

Arthur lovingly cared for the chapel car, maintaining its unique Terne metal roof, and keeping fresh paint on the car's exposed exterior.  The car was a part of family gatherings and events for more than 30 years, and became important to them, too.  Sadly, Mr. Hodgins passed away in October 2005 at the age of 95.  

In 2007 the Hodgins Family donated the chapel car to the Northwest Railway Museum.  It was moved from near the town of Grayland on the Pacific coast to Snoqualmie that same year.  It was successfully nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, and secured a Save America's Treasures grant later that year.  Major rehabilitation work began in 2011 and the substantially complete car is now on exhibit in the Train Shed exhibit building in Snoqualmie.  

On 27 October 2019 the Hodgins Family traveled to Snoqualmie for their annual gathering in the  chapel car.  As part of this year's gathering, the Museum was delighted to unveil a plaque in the car recognizing the importance of Arthur H. Hodgins in preserving the chapel car.  Sons Art and Hal were on hand to acknowledge and pose for a photo.

The Trustees and Staff of the Northwest Railway Museum gratefully acknowledge the tireless dedication of

Arthur H. Hodgins

(24 June1910 – 15 October 2005)

preserving

Chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace

His foresight is allowing new generations to appreciate its magnificence as a mobile church, understand its role in community development, and view it as a grand example of the lost art of wooden railway car construction.

_______________________

          With gratitude, the Northwest Railway Museum, 27 October 2019

The Grand Tour - see it all!

The Grand Tour Package is the premier tour offered at the Northwest Railway Museum.  It is a docent-led experience that begins at the Snoqualmie Depot in historic downtown Snoqualmie. 

Your docent will give a brief tour of the Depot before you board the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad for a short ride to the Train Shed Exhibit Building. There, you will detrain and enjoy a 30 minute tour of the 25,000 sq. ft. hall that includes large and small artifacts, and several exhibits including the award-winning Wellington Remembered exhibit. 

Your docent will escort you through chapel car 5: Messenger of Peace and the 001 caboose! Next you will walk over to the Conservation and Restoration Center for a first hand look at current restoration projects, including steam locomotive 924. Both of these experiences are unique to the Grand Tour - this is the only opportunity to see inside the chapel car, and is a very rare opportunity to visit inside the Conservation and Restoration Center.

Next, you board the train again and travel west to the top of Snoqualmie Falls where you will view water cascading over the top of Snoqualmie Falls, and a beautiful view of the valley and river below the Falls. Your docent will accompany you during your trip to the Falls, interpreting the scenery and providing both historic and contemporary context. The Package ends when the train returns to Snoqualmie Depot. This round-trip experience lasts approximately 2.5 hours.

Dates and Times: Saturdays @ 12:30pm, on August 3, September 7 and 14, 2019.  Visit Shop.TrainMuseum.org to purchase your tickets in advance.

Additional dates: you may reserve a Tour on any other operating day for groups of 10-20 people by emailing the Museum. 

Cost: Adults $24, Seniors (62+) $20, Children* (2-12) $12, under 2 no charge. *The Tour Package is not recommended for children under the age of 5.

Finishing a pew

Last week Spike's blog post highlighted the completed pews being installed in chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace.  This project included the process of thoroughly documenting the original railroad car pew design and making 10 replicas for exhibit in the Messenger of Peace. This week we are illustrating a little more detail about what was involved in finishing the pews.

First of all, OB Williams did an awesome job of fabricating the pews.  They arrived sanded and all ready to accept finish.  There was some minor sanding involved to catch a few imperfections, and then a thorough vacuuming and wiping to remove wood dust and any other contaminates.  The first of seven to nine coats of shellac was applied using a bristle brush.  (The Museum has experimented with air application of shellac, and the results have not been consistent.  So most finish work is done with a brush.)

One of the most obvious changes that occurred in making the replicas was the color and apparent texture transformation from unfinished wood to finished wood.  Just one coat of shellac deepens the color of the wood and begins the process of sealing.  Initially, the surface feels rough.  Light sanding with 400 grit sandpaper - and more sanding with 220 grit if flaws are found - renders the surface smooth.  However, a unique characteristic of shellac is that is can be redissolved in alcohol.  So any subsequent coats are bonded to the earlier coats.  And subsequent coats can benefit from presanding, but it is not required.

Each pew component was finished separately.  When 7 coats had been applied, the finish was evaluated for consistency.  If any flaws were detected, they were corrected with sandpaper - or, sometimes even 0000 steel wool - and another coat of shellac was applied.  The process was repeated again if necessary. 

A beneficial characteristic of shellac is that it dries very quickly.  However, particularly after several coats have been applied, it must sit for a day or more to fully harden.  If subsequent coats are applied too soon, the surface will wrinkle and it is difficult to correct.  Notwithstanding, the pew project is now nearly complete and the results can be viewed through the chapel car's sanctuary door during regular hours of the Train Shed.

There is a pew in the chapel car

The odor of the day was . . . ethanol, which was used to dissolve shellac flake.  Specifically, a 2.5 pound cut, which is 2.5 pounds gossamer shellac flake per gallon of ethanol.  This was the finish that historically was applied to the white oak surfaces in chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace, and this year was mixed and applied to new pews for the sanctuary.

Shellac is an ancient technology that has been used for hundreds of years, and was widely used until the 1930s when it was replaced by nitrocellulose lacquers. Today, even the lacquers have been supplanted by newer and more forgiving finishes.  However, shellac is easy to mix, straight-forward to apply, and it dries very quickly.  To mix workable amounts of shellac, Spike began with 22 ounces of thin flake shellac.  The flake was place in a jar and mixed with 99% ethanol to bring the total volume to 64 fluid ounces.  The resulting solution was filtered to remove contaminants and was applied to the pews with a premium bristle brush.  A total of seven coats were applied to the new pews.

Chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace is a rare surviving example of a 19th Century Barney and Smith all-wood passenger car, and a fine example of a mobile church built for the American Baptist Publication Society. It was donated to the Northwest Railway Museum by the Hodgins Family in 2007, and by 2009 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a Nationally-significant property.  Much of the rehabilitation was conducted between 2011 and 2013 by a team of shipwrights and other artisans, but a selection of accurate replica pews could not be fully completed until now.  

Before the chapel car was adaptively reused as a road side diner, and then a cottage, the Messenger of Peace had special Barney and Smith-built railroad car pews. Unfortunately, they were removed and disposed of back in 1948, but an identical pew from a sister car made it into the collections of the American Baptist Historical Society. The fine staff of their archives allowed Spike to take measurements, make drawings, and create templates, which were used by a mill work firm to make accurate replicas.  In June, Spike gave you a glimpse of the pew components as they were completed in the shops of architectural mill work specialist OB Williams in Seattle.  Next week Spike will publish an inside look at the finishing project.

The project was made possible with the generous support of many partners including the Nysether Family Foundation, the American Baptist Home Missions Societies, the American Baptist Historical Society, The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Washington, and contributions from dozens of individuals.  The Northwest Railway Museum and its Volunteers, Trustees and Staff are exceptionally grateful for this support.

Chapel car pews

Chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace is a signature exhibit in the Museum's Train Shed exhibit hall. Constructed in 1898 by the Barney and Smith Car Company, the Messenger of Peace is a wooden railway car that functioned as a mobile church for the American Baptist Publication Society, and later for the American Baptist Home Missions Society too.  Major rehabilitation work on this National Register-listed object was completed in 2013, but the sanctuary has been lacking pews, at least until now.


Unfortunately the Museum has not had the capacity to produce replica pews while the Conservation and Restoration Center has been hosting rehabilitation of NP locomotive 924 and SP&S coach 213.  So beginning last winter, journeymen cabinetmakers at OB Williams in Seattle - and their very well-equipped shop - were contracted to produce pew components, which would later be finished and assembled at the Museum.  Construction is based on designs copied from an original two-seat pew held in the collection of the American Baptist Historical Society at Mercer University in Atlanta.  The pews were originally installed in a 3 & 2 configuration, and the replica components will allow five full rows.

Much work remains: the pew components need to be finished with at least seven coats of shellac, and then they need to be assembled.  And to keep costs down, the project (assembly and finishing) is being completed between tasks on NP locomotive 924 and SP&S coach 213.  However, work is expected to wrap up early this summer.


The Northwest Railway Museum is grateful for the support that is making this project possible, including contributions from the Nysether Family Foundation, American Baptist Home Missions Society, American Baptist Historical Society, and dozens of generous individuals.  Thank you also to Ms. Terry Wick at OB Williams for agreeing to take on this surprisingly complicated fabrication, especially with the attention to detail that is making each replica almost distinguishable from the original.

New exhibit panels installed in Train Shed

Sign on the Northern Pacific bunk car.

New exhibit panels have been installed on or near eight objects in the Train Shed Exhibit Building. The panels were developed and purchased with a 2017 4Culture Heritage Special Projects grant and are now on display for the visiting public. Fossil Industries fabricated the panels. The Museum has used Fossil, based in New England, for several projects – the company is a leader in High Pressure Laminate (HPL) signage. HPL is a popular exhibit material because it is fade resistant and anti-graffiti.

Eight artifacts now sport a new panel that will help interpret the type of railroad car (general history) as well as the individual history of the car. The panels also include information on northern transcontinental lines including the Northern Pacific (NP), the Great Northern (GN), and Canadian Pacific (CP). Included are the GN X-101 and NP 1203 cabooses, the chapel car Messenger of Peace, the NP bunk car, the NP refrigerator car, a NP box car, a Polson Logging side dump car, and the CP 25 (formerly known as "Earnscliffe"). Four signs are 32” x 32” and are displayed on a sign stand next to their object. The other four panels are 24” x 24” and are affixed directly to the object in some way.

With these eight new signs added to the four signs already in the building, it means most of the large objects on display have their own interpretive sign. This is a major milestone for the education/exhibit department!

A 4Culture Heritage Special Projects Grant funded this exhibit. 4Culture is the cultural funding agency for King County, Washington. Using Lodging Tax and 1% for Art funds, 4Culture has four program areas to serve the county: arts, heritage, historic preservation, and public art. For more info on 4Culture, visit their website at www.4Culture.org. 

A big thank you to 4Culture for continuing to support exhibits at the Northwest Railway Museum.

Sign on one of the NP box cars in the Train Shed.

Large sign for the dump car - sign is affixed to
sign stands donated by Washington
State Historical Society.

Chapel car ABCs

Chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace has continued to receive a variety of restorative efforts, and beginning last summer lettering was added.  Original lettering was gold leaf applied in a gilding process but most of the restored lettering has been applied with a gold paint.  Unfortunately, it is a slow a deliberate process that involved more than 150 letters.  However the letterboard has been completed thanks to support from the American Baptist Home Mission Societies and the American Baptist Historical Society.

Original lettering was traced from the car during the rehabilitation process.  Those original tracings are now part of the car's permanent record, but were used to create digital images.  Steve at Issaquah Sign (he also did the lettering for the Weyerhaeuser locomotive 1) prepared the files and procured the letter mask.  He used a vinyl cutter to transfer the letters and a transfer tape to hold everything together.  The masking was applied to the car, lettering base exposed and sanded, the lettering applied with a gold paint, and then the final lettering was exposed.  Check out these sequential photos taken during the application process.

A Chapel Car Prayer

Chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace has been an exhibit in the Train Shed for several years now. However only with this year's opening of the Railway Education Center has it been possible to have expanded programming.  One such recent opportunity was recognition of the First Baptist Church of Everett's Anniversary.

Formed in 1893 as a direct result of the good work done by Chapel Car 1 Evangel, the First Baptist Church of Everett just celebrated their 125th Anniversary! Lead Pastor Brian Harpell accompanied his Senior Ministry to the Northwest Railway Museum.  They rode the train, got a tour of the Train Shed, learned about the history of the chapel car, and then gathered for the first organized prayer in the car since 1946.  The melodic sounds of a Baptist hymn filled the car and spilled into the gallery, and while the venue has not been consecrated, it was a remarkable experience seeing the car used as it was originally intended.

Congratulations to the First Baptist Church of Everett on 125 years of service to our region, and thank you for making Messenger of Peace a part of your celebration!

Painting Chapel Car 5

The Messenger of Peace is the fifth chapel car built for the American Baptist Publication Society, and is now the centerpiece exhibit inside the Train Shed exhibit building at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie, Washington.  Delivered in May 1898, car 5 had a colorful career that saw service throughout the Pacific Northwest, two years of service with the Railroad YMCA, six months on exhibit at the St Louis World's Fair, and even carried the ailing Reverend Dwight L. Moody on his final trip home.  The Messenger of Peace is well-traveled!

The Messenger of Peace was the subject of an extensive rehabilitation and restoration that was substantially complete in 2013, but "minor" work has continued as it slowly regains all the distinguishing features of its former self.  The latest effort was a repainting performed by Redmond, Washington-based RC Painting and Sons.

Some minor car body repairs, additional fairing of the surfaces, a coat of primer, and two coats of chapel car green have now been applied.  Work was supported in part with grants from the American Baptist Home Missions Societies, The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Washington, and individuals.  This "final" coat of paint is now allowing the chapel car to be lettered for its period of significance when it served both the American Baptist Publication Society and Home Mission Society.  And the car is now regularly accessible as part of regularly-scheduled weekend train excursions at the Northwest Railway Museum. 

Let there be light

The rehabilitation and restoration of chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace was substantially complete in 2013, but a number of restorative details have been ongoing, long-term projects.  Often it is the search for additional evidence supporting the alteration that takes the greatest effort, and it can be very time-consuming. Interior lighting was one of those projects. 

It is known that the chapel car was built with pendant light fixtures fueled with kerosene; those fixtures appear in a widely-circulated builder's photo taken in May 1898.  However, this lighting was never very bright and was reportedly replaced sometime in the early 20th Century.  When work began on the chapel car, Museum staff discovered the chimneys for the kerosene lighting covered with sheet metal confirming that a change had occurred while the car was in the service of the Baptist Church.  So what lighting did the chapel car get, and when? 

The chapel car is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Snoqualmie and King County Landmark Register.  Those important listings - and funding they have helped leverage - do not allow for speculative efforts, and require use of the Secretary of the Interior Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties.  These standards encourage - even mandate - careful, methodical research and record keeping. So during the course of the chapel car project, more than 2,000 pages of research were collected or created as a record of work performed.

While reviewing research into the Messenger of Peace and its service to the American Baptist Publication Society, references to "gasoline" lighting and the purchase of gasoline were found throughout chapel car expense reports.  A letter discovered by chapel car researchers and authors Wilma and Norman Taylor in the collection of the American Baptist Historical Society detailed what had been installed in the Messenger of Peace.  (Click on the image to see a full size version of the letter.)  The Taylor's research also discovered that Messenger of Peace spent two weeks in a Missouri railroad shop in June 1912. Evidently, the chapel car received a new "Coleman Lighting System," manufactured by the Hydro Carbon Company of Wichita, Kansas, most likely in June 1912.  (In 1913 the manufacturer reincorporated as the Coleman Lamp Company.)

Coleman maintains an archive of old prints and catalogs.  Through their good graces, the Museum obtained catalog cuts of similar lighting.  Then, by chance, a light fixture from the same model line appeared on Ebay and was purchased.  Using the model 27 lamp, the Museum's curators were able to match the mounting hardware to the ceiling heat shields that remained in the car until rehabilitation began in 2011.  In addition, iron pipes discovered in the car's walls were consistent with those used for institutional installation of gasoline lighting so that a centralized fuel supply could be used for all the lamps.  So with substantial evidence, a plan to replicate the lighting from the period of significance (1917, when the chapel car traveled through Snoqualmie) was developed. 

The chapel car is a predominantly wood structure.  So it was no surprise to have discovered oversize metal heat shields on the interior ceilings.  These metal pans were fabricated from light gauge sheet metal, were badly corroded, and were also designed to cover the old kerosene lighting chimney ports.  New metal heat shields were fabricated by SkilFab in Snoqualmie using the one completely intact original as a pattern.  Meanwhile, instead of iron fuel pipes, the car was wired with car and locomotive wire (fine wire strands inside extra thick insulation) and a new breaker box.  Modern electrical boxes capable of supporting light fixtures were installed in place of the gasoline light bases.  

The shades and decorative bonnet are unlike any lamp components manufactured today.  So the plan included making new parts using a process called metal spinning, and performed in Auburn at Pacific Wire.  Next, the decorative ridge on the bonnet (Coleman actually called it a crown!) was copied and cutout using a laser.  CEL Manufacturing in Woodinville performed that work by producing a series of 60 inch sections that could be cut and spot welded to the bonnet. The entire bonnet was sent to Art Brass Plating in Seattle to be nickel plated. Back in the Conservation and Restoration Center, the shade portion of the fixture was enameled white on the inside and green on the outside.  A metal conical heat dispersion feature often mounted right above the chimney was made and installed too, as evidence supports its use in applications where the fixture was mounted close to the ceiling.  For the glass globe, Rejuvenation Lighting in Portland supplied hand blown glass globes.  The electrical components were supplied by Antique Lamp Supply.  Then, and finally, 1,600 lumen LED bulbs were installed with a dimmer to allow the light intensity to be varied just as it was when it was  provided by a gasoline burner.


The chapel car lighting project was more complex that originally envisioned, but has met the objective of helping faithfully restore the car to its 1917 splendor.  The Museum is grateful for the support of King County 4Culture who funded most of the effort through the Landmarks Capital program.  Support for this project was also received from the American Baptist Home Mission Societies, the American Baptist Historical Society, National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in Washington, and the Northwest Railway Museum general fund.  Volunteer Arnie L. wired the car, and Arnie and staff member (shipwright) Gary James performed the installation.  In all, a diverse collection of resources and skills were brought together to further the efforts in historic preservation of this unique cultural resource!