Northern Pacific Railway Museum

In conjunction with the

Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association

Present

Work/History Weekends

 
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2010 Schedule:  April 10-11, June 12-13, September 18-19, October 9-10

The next work/history weekend for 2010 will be held on September 18-19.   Chuck Soule will present his program, "Northern Pacific Railroad: Early Tacoma Facilities, 1873-1908".  Chuck has an excellent program on early NP history in Tacoma and has consented to share it with us.

The weekend schedule tends to go as follows:

  • out of town guests begin to arrive Friday night and friendships are renewed

  • work begins around 8:30 on Saturday morning as more guests arrive

  • most workers take lunch around 11:30-12:00

  • local museum members produce a dinner potluck about 6 PM.  This occurs under the east portico of the depot

  • the history portion of the weekend follows after dinner with an Northern Pacific relevant history program.

  • Many out of town volunteers are put up at museum members residences.  RV parking with electrical and water hookup is available for those that bring their RV's.

  • Sunday work usually begins at 8:30 to 9:00 AM and continues as long as people want to work on the various projects

Previous work projects have included the stenciling NP 50409 (drop bottom gondola), work on new spur lines into the depot yard, painting of NP 1238 wooden caboose and stenciling of the letterboard, prep work on NP 588 passenger car, lowering of the old REA room door, stenciling SCCX 715 (Shell Oil tank car) and cataloguing of the Joe Caron slide collection.  Journal boxes have been repacked and speeders have been cleaned and repainted.  The decking was applied to the tender of NP 1364.  Various signs have been sandblasted and repainted.  A semaphore signal was made operable.  work has been done on new museum displays.  The gift shop has been improved.  There has been a wide variety of projects so that members and guests have been able to select projects that fit their interests.

There have been a variety of history programs.  These have included the following:

  • April 14, 2007: Dave Sprau, retired NP dispatcher, presented his talk on the railroad's "Crossing the Cascades".  

  • June 9, 2007: Gary Tarbox, president of the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association,  presented "Steam Power on the North Coast Limited" including our steam engine NP 2152

  • September 8, 2007: Gary Tarbox presented "Steam across Montana" with photos of the SPS 700 steam trip traversing the old NP mainline

  • October 6, 2007: Jim Frederickson, retired NP dispatcher. photographer, and author of "Railroad Shutterbug", "Steam to Diesel" and "Railscapes" presented his program on Stampede Pass

  • April 12, 2008: Doug Shearer presented a slide show on the history of the Northern Pacific Railroad Museum

  • June 14, 2008: Fred Fisher presented his program, "Roslyn, Coal Mines and the NP".  Fred was born in Ronald in 1929 and moved to Roslyn at age 3.  He worked in the NP's Northwestern Improvement Company store for a year and contracted with the NWI to cut and supply mine timbers. 

  • September 13, 2008: Jack Christensen, retired NP/BN engineer told many tales of Stampede Pass including stories of pushing our Mann-McCann spreader with a W-3

  • October 11, 2008:  Rick Leach presented a potpourri of slides covering various NP topics.

  • May 16, 2009 Jack Christensen presented his program on the Northern Pacific's transition from steam to diesel.

  • June 13, 2009 Doug Shearer presented the program on "A Pictorial History of the Northern Pacific in Toppenish", featuring a number of recently acquired photos of the railroad in the community.

  • October 10, 2009 Bruce Butler presented a potpourri of slides of the Central Washington Branch of the Northern Pacific where he currently functions as an engineer.  He had old slides of the Milwaukee as well as stories of his time as a telegrapher for the Northern Pacific.

  • April 11, 2010 Ken Sullivan presented his program on the Snoqualmie Branch of the Northern Pacific.

 

Phil Edminster's webpage has many photos that give an idea of an earlier workday.  If you have questions or wish to participate please RSVP to workday@nprymuseum.org or telephone Doug Shearer at (509) 865-5019 evenings.

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