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.

Enhancing Train Shed Programs

The Northwest Railway Museum recently completed and installed the Train Shed Tour Package Enhancement. This project, installed in time for the regular train season to kick off on April 2, was funded by a 4Culture Heritage Special Projects grant.

The grant funded improvements to the Tour Package program, but is actually benefiting everyone who rides the train since ~ new this season ~ almost all trains now stop and let passengers off for a visit to the Train Shed. Improvements include purchase and large format printing of historic images used to illustrate various pieces of rolling stock on display in the Train Shed. Curator Jessie Cunningham found images that showed the inside of freight and passenger cars to better illustrate the use of such cars. The grant also purchased easels for displaying the images as well as two voice boosters to help docents project their voices during the Tour Package.

The large format images have received a great response since the beginning of the season. The Tour Package is available on the 1^st and 3^rd Saturdays of each month, April thru October, at 12:30pm at the Snoqualmie Depot. The Tour Package includes a short Depot tour, train ride to the Train Shed (ahead of the general public riding the train), Docent tour of the Train Shed, and new this year, the Tour Package also includes a trip to the CRC to view the ongoing restoration projects! After re-boarding the train, participants enjoy a train ride to Snoqualmie Falls and back to Snoqualmie. The round trip program is 2.5 hours long and is great for train and history enthusiasts that are looking for a more educational or informative experience. Reservations can be made in the Depot Bookstore or by phone at 425/888-3030 x 7202.

For those who cannot take a train ride or the Tour Package, the images will be on display in the Snoqualmie Depot freight room within the next week. The Depot is open 10am to 5pm daily.

The Museum is grateful to 4Culture for supporting our programming with this Special Projects grant! 4Culture, the cultural services agency for King County, Washington is committed to making our region stronger by supporting citizens and groups who preserve our shared heritage, and create arts and cultural opportunities for residents and visitors. The Northwest Railway Museum has received a great deal of support and funding, both large and small, from 4Culture over the years.

Stock car unloading cows.

Crew relax inside their caboose.

 

New exhibit installed in Train Shed

The Northwest Railway Museum recently completed the much anticipated Phase 1 exhibit in the Train Shed Exhibit Building. The railroad changed everything is the guiding interpretive theme for the building and the Tour Package program. The exhibit is stationed in the foyer of the building and consists of four double-sided panels and four exhibit cases showcasing small objects.

The exhibit was curated by Deputy Director Jessie Cunningham. In her role as Deputy Director, Cunningham is responsible for all programming including exhibits and education programs such as School Train. The Phase 1 exhibit has been a long time in the making and Cunningham is please to have it installed. After completing the content and lay-out, the panels went thru several reviews by lead docents. It was important to Cunningham that the exhibit work with the docents and the Tour Package, rather than work against them. At this time, the only public access to the Train Shed is during the Tour Package which has a tight time frame. Cunningham limited the amount of text, allowing the images to be the focus of the panels as well as help illustrate and interpret the history taught to the public during the Tour Package.

The Tour Package is available in Snoqualmie on Saturdays at 12:30pm and includes a short depot tour, train ride to the Train Shed, tour of the train shed, and a train ride to the top of Snoqualmie Falls and back. Reservations can be made by calling the Bookstore between 10am and 5pm daily.

The Museum received a grant from 4Culture to complete the exhibit. 4Culture is a huge supporter of projects at the Northwest Railway Museum as well as countless other organizations in King County. For more info on 4Culture, visit their website at 4Culture.org.

The Phase 1 exhibit will also have a companion website that will be available shortly at TrainMuseum.org.

Small artifacts include a selection of tools of the Trainman's trade as well as items passenger might encounter during a train ride.