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
She looks great today. I remember seeing her about 10 years ago when she was looking like junk with little hope for being restored. You folks have pulled off a miracle. A job well done. Thank you for all you’ve done.
All it takes is lots of time, and lots of money.
Hi Folks –
Always appreciate a nice shout out for the great work the volunteers and staff at the Northwest Railway Museum are performing on NPR 924 – thanks!
NPR 924 passed federal inspection in fall of 2020 and on 1 November 2020 pulled its first passenger train in more than 40 years. It headed up passenger trains again on Mother’s and Father’s Day weekends in 2021, but on Railroad Days weekend in August we decided to run it without cars over a distance of just a few thousand feet in historic downtown Snoqualmie. This allowed guests to see it operating at low speed while up close and personal, and provided some important training opportunities for several new steam locomotive engineers. It was well-received by the public and is something we will do again in the future.
NPR 924 will pull trains again on 2 & 3 October 2021 and tickets are available at https://shop.TrainMuseum.org/
Thanks for your interest!
Richard R. Anderson
Executive Director
Northwest Railway Museum