A few weeks ago we visited the Northwest Railway Museum in
Snoqualmie. It happened to be the one day this summer that the Seattle area received
any measurable precipitation, but the rain was so light and refreshing we
hardly noticed it.
The museum operates trains on the weekends that originate at the historic Snoqualmie Depot, originally built in 1890 by the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway. The building had been heavily modified since then and used by the railroad up until the line was abandoned in 1975. At that time the depot and several miles of track were donated to the Northwest Railway Museum, which restored the depot in 1981 to better reflect its original appearance in 1890.
Snoqualmie Valley Railroad #4024, idling in front of the historic Snoqualmie Depot, is warmed up and ready for another day of passenger service. |
The SLS&E was chartered in 1885 with the ambitious plan
of crossing the Cascades to connect Seattle with Spokane. A line was
constructed east from Seattle in 1887-88 as far as Sallal Prairie, about seven
miles further east from Snoqualmie. And in 1888-89 a line was constructed west from
Spokane which made it as far as Davenport. Those two lines never went any
further.
A third line was constructed in 1889-91 from a
junction in Woodinville north to Sumas on the Canada border where it met the
Canadian Pacific. It was clear this was the most important line and the
Northern Pacific took a strong interest in the railroad, viewing the Sumas
branch as a route into the Vancouver area. After falling into receivership
during the recession of 1893, the railroad was reorganized as the Seattle &
International Railway Company in 1896, and was fully merged into Northern
Pacific in 1901.
The day we visited the museum was operating a diesel
switcher pulling three passenger cars. We rode in the back car, ex-Spokane, Portland & Seattle car 272, a combination baggage/coach car built in 1915 by the Barney & Smith Car Company of Dayton, Ohio. We sat in the baggage area as the baggage doors were open so we had an unobstructed view.
Locomotive 4024 is a Baldwin RS-4-TC built in 1954 for the U.S. Army. |
SP&S 272 is the car we rode in next to the open baggage door. |
The third passenger car on the train was completely empty as the crowd wasn't very big for this run, and everyone apparently preferred the other cars. |
The train travels along a section of the preserved SLS&E
track between Snoqualmie Falls and North Bend. This is an orphan stretch of
track -- it no longer is connected to the outside world. Much of the former
line out to Snoqualmie has been converted to the Burke-Gilman multi-use trail.
The train excursion includes a stop at the museum’s Railway
History Center, which includes a the Conservation and Restoration Center, a
Railway Education Center, and the Train Shed Exhibit Building which houses
several locomotives and pieces of rolling stock in various states of
restoration. Some of the pieces have been meticulously restored to like-new
condition, while other pieces are waiting for their turn. Unfortunately the
train was behind schedule that day so we didn’t have as long at the exhibit
building as we would have liked. We’ll just have to go back again sometime
soon!
For additional information:
- Northwest Railway Museum
- Wikipedia article on the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway. It's relatively brief and not entirely accurate, but it provides a nice overview.
It was the middle of summer so the river was running quite low, but the falls were still beautiful. |
The train passes right next to Twede's Cafe in North Bend, which I still refer to as the Mar-T Cafe, and is known by the residents of Twin Peaks as the Double-R Diner. |