Hot riveting

Traditional methods and materials are essential to good collections care at a railway museum. So over the last nine months, Volunteers and full time staff at the Northwest Railway Museum have been learning to hot rivet. Hot riveting was (is) used to attach two or more metal parts and was widely used in car and locomotive construction prior to the widespread introduction of electric welding. It is labor intensive and is almost a lost art.

The riveting crew recently had an opportunity to try out their skills. The Museum has contracted to perform some rehabilitation work on Issaquah Historical Society’s former Weyerhaeuser caboose. A damaged section of side sheet needed to be reattached to the side sill. So approximately 36 replacement rivets were required.

A gas-fired forge was moved from the Conservation and Restoration Center to the Issaquah Depot. An air compressor, a rivet gun, and some hand tools also made the trip. And on a cool September morning, all the tools were set up to begin riveting.

The replacement section of side sheet was welded to the existing car side a few days prior. Holes were predrilled and aligned with the side sill. The gas forge was lit and rivets were set inside to begin heating. Meanwhile, the rivet gun was oiled and connected to the air supply. Allan W. volunteered to do the honors and climbed under the caboose to operate the gun.

When the rivets were orange, Roger S. picked up a rivet with the tongs and inserted it into a hole in the caboose side. Clark M. alternating with Bill W. “bucked” the rivet with a second unpowered rivet gun while Allan W. operated the powered rivet gun. The die in Allan’s gun shaped the now red hot end of the rivet into an oval head to secure it on the inside of the caboose frame. As the rivet cooled, it shrank and pulled the side sheet very tightly against the side sill.

Check out this video showing the process:

Chapel car's travels

{Please remember to vote for the chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace today and every day until May 12 at http://www.PartnersInPreservation.org/}

Chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace traveled the country for 50 years. Beginning in 1898 with its dedication at Rochester, New York, car 5 brought hope, enlightenment, and religion to hundreds of communities. Some visits were short and others were longer but by length of service the greatest impact was in the Pacific Northwest. From the first visit to Pasco, WA in August 1915 to retirement at south Everett in the summer of 1948, the chapel car spent nearly 33 years in Washington and Oregon. It also made brief visits to Idaho and California.

The Messenger of Peace’s early years in Washington were widespread and interesting. From research conducted by Norman and Wilma Taylor, we have learned a few colorful details about early visits to a variety of communities:

Car 5 visited Spokane in April 1916 where Pastor Thomas R. Gale described the church as “nearly dead, a hard proposition.”

A month long visit to Deer Park began on May 21, 1916 where the Reverend Gale provided evangelistic services and helped build a church building. This community on the Great Northern Railway was home to more than a dozen saw mills and was on what was Daniel Corbin's Spokane Falls and Northern Railway.

The remote logging communities of Wilburton and Mid Lakes received three weeks of attention from the Messenger of Peace in November and December 1916. These communities were on the Northern Pacific Railway’s belt line along the west shore of Lake Washington that until recently carried the Spirit of Washington dinner train, and fuselage sections for 737-900 aircraft unable to clear close clearances in Renton. Today, both settlements are a part of Bellevue and are anything but remote.

The bustling metropolis of Renton was another stop for car 5 in late 1916 where Reverend Gale described, “a mining camp [with] deplorable religious conditions.” Coal mines were the core of Renton’s economy in that era and churches were not plentiful.

In January 1917 the chapel car visited Issaquah for 6 weeks during a dreadfully difficult time for the community. The alien property custodians had also just arrived in town to seize what was left of a German-backed chemical plant. Adding to that was a layoff at the local Superior Coal mine. Messenger of Peace soldiered on to revive not only the Baptist church but the Methodists as well.

By March the car moved on to North Bend to help the First Baptist Church of North Bend, which continues today at the North Bend Community Church. Hear what Pastor Pete Battjes had to say on a recent visit to the Snoqualmie Depot:



The Messenger of Peace went on to visit hundreds of communities throughout the Northwest. It touched the lives of thousands of people yet its stories are nearly forgotten. The rehabilitation and restoration of chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace will help preserve and revive this exciting history. Please help support the effort by voting for the Messenger of Peace today and every day until May 12 at www.partnersinpreservation.org