Annual Banquet & Volunteer Recognition

This year the Annual Banquet and Volunteer Recognition was held on Saturday February 19th at the Hilton Garden Inn in Issaquah. Acting Board President Dennis S. addressed the crowd before we enjoyed a lovely plated lunch, followed by brownies donated by George’s Bakery of North Bend. Participants enjoyed a slide show of Museum activities and programs in 2010, as well as a gift raffle. After lunch there was the State of the Museum address by Executive Director Richard R. Anderson followed by our awards ceremony. This year’s awards were as follows:

The Legacy Award recognizes volunteers who have made exceptional long-term contributions and commitments towards the success of the Northwest Railway Museum. This year’s Legacy Award winner was Jason P.. While involved for a number of years in various capacities, Jason received the Legacy award for his dedication to sound at Day Out With Thomas and RR Days and for his recent leadership in the kitchen car during Santa Train. Jason is always upbeat and seems to easily maintain composure during stressful or adverse conditions. He is a pleasure to work with – thank you Jason!

Hugh H. is this year’s Cliff Sharpe Award winner. The Cliff Sharpe Award is given to a train crew volunteer who makes outstanding contributions towards the operation of the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad. Unless he is out of town, Hugh usually spends a day a weekend on train crew, mostly as fireman or rear brakeman. This is a significant commitment towards train operations, done with a friendly demeanor and a great attitude – thank you Hugh!

The Conservation and Restoration Award is presented in recognition of outstanding service in the care of our collection of historic railway transportation artifacts. Typically the award is given upon completion of a restoration or rehabilitation project. This year, however, we chose to honor an individual’s body of work on a currently incomplete project. Marty B., a travelling volunteer, put in 550 hours in three months on the coach 218 project before heading south to warmer weather. Marty primarily worked on windows and was able to complete a significant amount of work. We will always think of Marty when we see coach 218’s windows!

This year’s Community Partner Award goes to Phil S. and Lisa M. of Finaghty’s Irish Pub & Restaurant. Phil has volunteered to manage the main stage during Snoqualmie Railroad Days, including finding and hiring bands, hiring the sound engineer and getting the stage donated. As music is a very important component of the event – having someone volunteer to take care of the whole thing has been greatly appreciated. A big thank you to Phil and Lisa for their community support of our RR Days event!

All in all it was another great day! Thank you to all the volunteers and special guests who attended the banquet - we thoroughly enjoyed the event and hope you did too.

"The scenes of the last few days haunt me"

I don’t know about you, but I grew up thinking history was all dates, wars and Important Names. But the word story is in there for a reason.

In college, my American Westward Movement professor radically transformed my tinder-dry concept of history. He sat back, put his feet on his desk and filled the hour with stories. The voices of nameless, lonely women going crazy on the Great Plains where the wind never ceased, and of countless families mournfully giving up their most cherished objects to lighten their load as they rolled west, have never left me.

So it’s pretty cool when a museum finds just the right object to ignite interest and, better yet, insight into the lives of those who came before us. Chapel Car 5 Messenger of Peace is one such object. It’s not that Important Names weren’t associated with this railway car. They were. Thomas Edison provided phonographs for most of the chapel cars - attracting even the non-religious. And W.C. Coleman (an Important Name to the campers among us) installed his new lighting system free of charge when he saw for himself the need for brighter, more reliable light.

But they’re not what make Chapel Car 5 Messenger of Peace nationally significant. The car’s uncelebrated role in “taming the West” - the number of ordinary lives touched and townscapes altered - infuse it with enduring meaning.

“The scenes of the last few days haunt me,” wrote Reverend Neil in 1900. Rev. Neil, accompanied by his wife Nellie, was the first pastor aboard Chapel Car 5. He was in Missouri, stunned by the superstition, drunknenness and lack of education prevalent there. Rev. and Mrs. Neil’s work not only resulted in the establishment of Sunday Schools and churches. Secular schools were erected in at least two Missouri communities as well.

Further west, the chapel car attracted people who as a rule never set foot inside a church. One pastor said, “...this is the story everywhere. The compactness, the dignity, the simple beauty of the car wins the people."

Well, maybe dignity wasn’t always what drew people. "I've been to a good many circuses, and I've seen all the grandest exhibitions that have come west,” said one man, “but this is the biggest show yet."

Chapel Car 5 has carried many things. Now it’s carrying stories into the 21st Century. You’ll have an unprecedented opportunity to hear stories of Rev. Neil and those whose lives the chapel car touched, during a theatrical presentation Friday, March 4, at the Salish Lodge & Spa. Hosted by the Northwest Railway Museum, “Working on the Railroad” includes chapel car stories, a delicious dinner and a small silent auction, all near the famous Snoqualmie Falls, from 6:00-9:00 PM. Tickets must be purchased in advance; proceeds benefit Chapel Car 5.


Illustration above of Thomas Edison speaking into phonograph courtesy FCIT

Chapel car rehab begins

The chapel car 5 Messenger of Peace’s rehabilitation has begun in earnest. The Museum has been fundraising for this long-planned project for over three years. On January 31, 2011 a crew consisting of a project manager, lead restoration woodworker and restoration woodworker began working fulltime. Clark M., Kevin P., and Meghan G. work on the chapel car 5 days a week. Already, progress is apparent on this 1898-built National treasure.

All the original wood siding – or cladding - has been carefully removed and stored for repair and reinstallation after structural repairs are completed. (Watch the video at the end of this post to see cladding removal using a slide hammer.) Some sections of cladding are being set aside for preservation, specifically those pieces that that carry the faded but discernible lettering: "Entrance" on the kitchen stove (right) side and "Messenger of Peac" (sic) on the Baker heater (left) side. Both lettering examples date from circa 1924 and have survived because at that time the car was “modernized” with light sheet metal. These pieces of car siding are extremely delicate and have been treated with ‘Smith’s Penetrating Epoxy’ to stabilize them; they will become permanent objects in the Museum’s reference collection and will not be reinstalled on the car.

It has been over 60 years since the Messenger of Peace was deconsecrated but it continues to reveal rich heritage. Some newly uncovered evidence suggests that the car cladding was made of catalpa wood, aka catawba wood, and not the yellow poplar commonly used in the construction of passenger cars during the wood era. Samples have been sent to a forest products lab for positive identification, but so far the evidence is pretty compelling. Catalpa speciosa is native to the upper Mississippi valley, was readily available, machines well and is decay resistant. In 1906, the Messenger’s builders, Barney & Smith Car Company of Dayton, Ohio built two entire sections of a railroad passenger car out of catalpa wood, including the furniture.

The chapel car rehabilitation will continue for the next 18 months, but on Friday, March 4, 2011 at 6 PM you have an opportunity to learn more about life on the rails in chapel car service as well as an update of the rehabilitation process. Please join us Friday evening March 4, 2011 for a Working On The Railroad benefit dinner theatre for the Messenger of Peace at the Salish Lodge and Spa. Tickets are $75 and are available here.

Thank you to chapel car project manager Clark M. for writing content for this post and providing photos.

Old project, new project

Fall 2010 was an eventful season inside the Museum’s Conservation and Restoration Center. The center of attention has been a first generation diesel-electric locomotive with ties to the local forest industry and the results are spectacular! Funded with a grant from the National Railroad Historical Society, private donors and a Boeing Company matching grant, the project is wrapping up this month.

Earlier this year, the Museum began rehabilitation work in earnest on locomotive 1, a Fairbanks-Morse model H12-44 from Enumclaw’s White River Lumber division of Weyerhaeuser. Built in 1951, the locomotive has an opposed piston diesel common in the marine sector, but unique in the railroad industry. When built, the locomotive was remarkable for delivering an incredible 1,200 horsepower with just a six cylinder/twelve piston diesel.

Rehabilitation work has included car body repairs, new piston rings, new electric traction motor brushes, auxiliary generator repairs, surface preparation, new windows as required, and painting. Over 1,800 hours of effort has been invested in the project and the locomotive was moved out of the CRC last week. The lettering has not yet been applied; warmer weather will facilitate that final visual aspect of the project. Some of the work has been highlighted in Museum blog posts here and here.

Substantial completion of locomotive 1 also leads to a new beginning: chapel car 5 “Messenger of Peace” was moved into the CRC to begin an extensive rehabilitation. Earlier this year, many museum supporters participating in the Partners in Preservation initiative of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express by voting for their favorite project. Those efforts resulted in a $50,000 award in support of chapel car 5. Other support includes the Save America’s Treasures award, the Capital Projects Fund for Washington’s Heritage, 4Culture and individual and corporate donors.

Chapel car 5 is listed on the National Register of Historic Places under National criteria acknowledging it as one of the most historically significant artifacts in the Museum’s collection. Rehabilitation work will include repairs to the car’s frame, especially to deteriorated sections of side sill. Work will also include rehabilitation of the exterior cladding, reconstruction of the interior living quarters, restoration of the sanctuary, and restoration of the end platforms. Project completion is expected in two years.

So the end of one project is the beginning of another.



Photos:

Top - Locomotive 1 on the CRC lead after repainting.

Second - Locomotive 1 and just a few of the dozens of people involved in its rehabilitation. Top, left to right, Allan W., Bob M., Clark Mc., Hugh H., Jon B., Roger S., & Russ S.

Third - Pettibone Speedswing moves the chapel car into the CRC.

Bottom - Project manager Clark Mc. begins assessing chapel car 5 shortly after it arrived in the CRC.

Video - images of the locomotive 1 moving out of the CRC and the chapel car moving in.

Rock photographer Jini Dellaccio does photo shoot at the Museum

It’s not often that rock photographers show up on the other side of the camera. But breaking with tradition is nothing new for Jini Dellaccio.

A pioneering rock photographer in the Pacific Northwest in the 1960s, Jini Dellaccio and her remarkable life and work are the subject of an upcoming documentary, now in the final stages of production, by Karen J. Whitehead, Producer/Director, Five Star Films, Inc.

Dellaccio’s adventurous, varied, unplanned career took her from Indiana to Chicago to California to Washington State – from musician to graphic designer to fashion photographer to rock photographer. Her images have received international acclaim. Neil Young, The Who and Jim Valley of Paul Revere and the Raiders are among the musicians she has captured on film. Or maybe “freed” on film is what really happened to musicians when Dellaccio got behind a camera. She once told Neil Young to climb up on the roof of a garage and “fly like a bird.”

Dellaccio’s art and life story captivated Whitehead, who contacted the Northwest Railway Museum earlier this year for permission to film some scenes here for her documentary. “As part of the filming,” wrote Whitehead, “Jini, who still always has a camera in her hand, wants to do a photo shoot with an up and coming Seattle band. We were interested in having the wonderful scenery around your railroad and a train ride as a backdrop for this.”

In turn, Hasselblad became fascinated with Dellaccio’s story when Whitehead approached them in hopes of providing Dellaccio with the experience of shooting with Hasselblad’s new H4D-40. Hasselblad brought their new model to the photo shoot at the Museum.

And the band lucky enough to be photographed by Jini Dellaccio in her 93rd year? That was the Moondoggies, who recently returned to Seattle from a California tour. The Snoqualmie Depot, the interior of Coach 213 and the corridor between the train set and the Silver Bullet all gave Dellaccio rich material to work with. How much do you recognize in this brief video, filmed during last April’s photo shoot?

The non-profit Northwest Film Forum is providing a fiscal sponsorship for the Jini Dellaccio documentary, which allows supporters to make tax-free donations to the independent film through the Forum. For information about this and other opportunities to get involved, or for more information about the documentary, please contact filmmaker Karen Whitehead.

All photos copyright Five Star Films Inc 2010


(My thanks to Butch Leitz for providing helpful perspective for this post.)

Old green, new green: Part II

This is a continuation of yesterday’s post, which outlined the Train Shed building’s sustainable and environmentally-friendly features. Today we take a stroll around the outside of the exhibit building.

Part II

The site's railroad ties are made of Douglas-fir. Indoor ties are untreated. The Museum chose copper naphthenate-treated ties for outdoor use. Preferable to waterborne treatments for its low level of leaching, copper naphthenate (unlike creosote) is not listed as a restricted use product by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The railroad track, built with open graded ballast, is not an impermeable surface. Also, pervious pavers outside the building, and a raingarden to be planted next spring with redflowering currant, cattails and other suitable plants, will enable rainwater to soak into the soil. Stormwater is captured and directed to the raingarden in front of the Train Shed and a detention pond behind the Train Shed so that all water is retained on site except during a major event such as a flood.

The sidewalk alongside the building dips and curves instead of conforming to the original straight, level design in order to avoid removing existing trees. Nevertheless, for every tree cut down, the Museum plants a new tree. Topsoil was harvested from the site and stockpiled prior to construction. The topsoil was then reused after construction was completed.

All vegetation being planted on the grounds is native to western Washington. Doug-fir and western redcedar saplings, to be planted at the edge of the surrounding forest, were dedicated during the Train Shed celebration October 2, 2010. Mulch, made from organic material cut from the site during clearing and grading, will help protect against invasives.

When the Train Shed opens to the public, we hope you’ll enjoy the special features of the building and grounds as well as the historic treasures contained inside.

Old green, new green: the best of three centuries

PART I

In one sense, forestry was the Northwest’s “green” industry of the last two centuries. The Train Shed will convey part of that story while simultaneously embodying today’s green industries, such as energy efficiency, local and recycled materials, and stormwater management.

Climate control is highly important to a museum collection. But the Train Shed is not air conditioned. To regulate temperature, the building relies on automatic louvers, large ceiling fans (which also prevent pockets of moist air from settling) and heavy insulation. The US Department of Energy recommends an R-value of R-16 to R-21 for home wall insulation in King County. The higher the R-value, the greater the ability to resist heat flow. The Train Shed’s wall insulation is R-38.

The building’s design utilizes natural lighting. Thermopane windows (which open) are made of special glass that lets in light while blocking 95% of the sun’s damaging ultraviolet radiation. Typical window glass keeps out about 30%. Where natural light needs to be supplemented, metal halide fixtures provide bright, energy-efficient lighting. Exit lights are LEDs.

The project incorporates a number of recycled and locally produced materials. Steel columns and beams were fabricated in Arlington, about 90 minutes north of the Museum, at BlueScope Buildings North America, Inc. Interior and exterior cladding is recycled steel, manufactured by AEP (owned by BlueScope) and rolled in Washington.

CalPortland provided concrete and crushed rock from its facility across the Snoqualmie River next to the former Weyerhaeuser mill site. The exhibit building’s low-maintenance polished concrete floor is longlasting and easy to vacuum. The Mt. Si Quarry, just up the road from the Train Shed, produced crushed rock for the sub-ballast.

Tomorrow we’ll tell you about permeable surfaces, native soils and vegetation, and our preferred alternative to creosote ties in Old green, new green: Part II.