By Dan Peters

My personal thanks to everybody who provided feedback to the previous article about the “working steam engine” on the Snoqualmie Valley Railroad, at the Northwest Railway Museum. And especially to those whom I spoke with at the Snoqualmie Railroad Days festival over the weekend. Just my personal opinion, but we cannot have too many working steam engines here in Washington state. As modelers, preserving railroad history is what we do all the time.

Because of a scheduling conflict, there were too many authorized steam crew members on Saturday and not enough on Sunday. So there were no photo run-by’s on Sunday. But the good news is, those extra crew members have made themselves available for continued operation through the fall. Problems with the tender water tank have been fixed, but there is still work needed on the air brake system before Northern Pacific number 924 is certified for passenger train operation.

So, if you missed it this past weekend, you still can see our “working steam engine” in operation this fall. Plans are for the Northwest Railway Museum to continue brake testing, and photo run-by’s, on the first Saturday in October ( October 2nd ) and November ( November 6th ). As always, it’s smart to call the museum first at (425) 888-3030, or check the web site at https://trainmuseum.org.

If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to run a prototype steam engine, the museum is always looking for volunteers. Steam engine crew members must be certified to run the diesel train first, and then go through additional training on the steam engine. But heck, our grandpa’s and uncles did it, why can’t we? For more information, contact Emily Boersma, Volunteer & Program Coordinator, at Emily@TrainMuseum.org or 425-888-3030 x 7203 or 425-772-8870. You can tell your grand-kids you ran a steam train “back in the day”.

Before picture of the NP 924:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1264131

After picture:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5431490