Inland Northwest Rail Museum Opens

I’ve been roaming through eastern Washington a few times this summer and my most recent trip included a visit to the newly opened Inland Northwest Rail Museum outside of Reardon, about 25 miles west of downtown Spokane. This new museum grew out of a local chapter of the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) that originally formed almost 50 years ago. In 2002 they started looking for a new site for their extensive collection of rail cars and decided on a 30 acre parcel outside of Reardon along U.S. Highway 2. They built a spur off an active rail line that was originally Northern Pacific’s Central Washington branch, built in 1888-89, and today operated by a short line called Eastern Washington Gateway Railroad.

View of the museum site from the south

Looking east from the the upper level of the shop building. You can see the spur from the main track crossing the road, and Reardon is in the distance.

The museum aims to preserve the history of all of the railroads that operated throughout the Inland Empire and has a great master plan to develop the site over time as they are financially able to. An extensive amount of work has occurred just to get to where they are today, including a spur line and highway crossing to access the site, a few thousand feet of track to store the museum’s collection, installation of a turntable, not to mention less glamorous but necessary things such as a water well, fire hydrants, septic system and security fencing. The key feature that allowed the museum to open last week was finishing the 12,000 sq. ft. restoration and maintenance shop, which will also house the museum and gift shop until another structure is built in a future phase.

Railroads were incredibly important in the history of Spokane and it is exciting that the Inland Empire will have a first class museum to share that story. I can’t wait to see how this museum grows in the future. Do visit them if you have a chance -- for now, they plan to be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through the end of October.

A key piece of the collection is this Brill street car built in 1906 for the Washington Water Power Company, the only remaining street car from Spokane's once extensive street car system. It has been extensively and lovingly restored.

The turntable is in place and balanced on its pivot. Eventually a round house will be built around this turntable.

An EMD F9 originally built for the Northern Pacific in 1956.

A 40-foot box car with Spokane, Portland & Seattle livery. I definitely need to get one of these for my railroad.

A Great Northern baggage car that also included space for Railway Express Agency.

A view of the shop with a Great Northern caboose in front.

A diner car built for Union Pacific in 1914.

I'm not sure what this portable steam engine was designed or used for, but it sure looks nice!

What would a trip to a train museum be without a ride on a train? The museum has installed a 3/4-mile long 2-foot gauge track and has a small diesel locomotive pulling a few passenger cars. The track work is still in progress but it is usable—just hold on tight!

Just for fun, here is a map likely from 1890 or 1891 showing railroad lines in the area south and west of Spokane. I've highlighted Reardon, Palouse and Elberton so you can see their relative locations.