September, 2022
This blog post has more photos than any other blog post I’ve ever posted. I couldn’t help myself! For one thing, I really liked the day today and found all manner of ideas and gadgets and tools and historic things and other objects that fascinated me. And for another thing, there are a number of readers here who love trains, so I’m sharing more of what I might share ordinarily, so you folks can see more of what might interest you.
Let’s go!
Today I visited the Northern Pacific Railway Museum in Toppenish, WA. Yes, the same town where the American Hop Museum is located. In fact, the two museums are right across the street from each other. Before I came here, I knew about the hop museum but I didn’t know about the railroad museum. After I left the hop museum and stood on the sidewalk a few moments, I looked across the street and discovered … the railroad museum! I knew where I’d be headed the next day for sure. Right here!
Note: I might comment here and there above or below the photos and videos below, but mostly I’ll let the photos tell the story. Please ask questions in the comments if you wish, and I’ll answer as best as I can. Keep in mind that I don’t know a great deal about trains, so maybe readers here who do know about trains can fill in lots of information. Please do!
Ok, now … let’s go!
Let’s go inside. I’ll tell you how I got inside even though the place was supposed to be closed and locked. It’s a great story. 🙂
Want to hear one of these chimes? HERE is a great video with information about why these were used, their history, and how they sound. 🙂 Dinner time!
And then I went outside the train station building, out into the yard. Today, unfortunately, the paid crew and the volunteers were working on specific things in the yard, so no one was there to talk with visitors, or monitor visitors, etc. At first, I was told I couldn’t be out in the yard, or even in the building since there were no staff or volunteers available. I sure didn’t argue with them. But I HAD made a really great first impression.
When I first walked into the building (way above at the beginning of this blog post), when I first walked into the building, there were four men (most in their 70’s, one in his early 80’s) standing around the counters just inside the front door (which they had forgotten to lock). The sign outside the door said “Come on in and see some great old equipment … trains and all things about them.” Well, I walked in the door, saw these four guys, who were shocked to see me because they thought the door was locked. And then without thinking, I blurted out (but with a smile on my face) … “Well, the sign said come in and see some old equipment, but I didn’t think that meant you old geezers!” They roared with laughter. They loved that. So I’d made points. 🙂 And so they let me stay inside the building by myself, and then they let me come out into the yard too. I promised not to get run over by a train, and so they let me wander around the yard outside too.
The sign below describes the very tall semaphore signal above.
No information posted about the obviously old box car below.
The steps up to a very old passenger car (below).
And some of the mechanics underneath that passenger car (below).
Below … locomotive 2152, built in 1909. What a beauty, what a powerhouse.
And then on to more “modern” rail cars ….
An old caboose above, built in the early 1950s, used here on the west coast of the USA all its life.
Then there was this huge shed (below) where they were restoring an OLD steam engine. The signs said “stay out”, but no one was around. I even hollered and walked all around outside the shed. So, what could I do? Look at those wrenches all lined up so neatly and professionally on the left. It just seemed a place I should be. [In fact, I realized that if I lived in Toppenish, I’d be volunteering here.]
So, I walked in and took these two photos.
The stuff (above) that makes everything tick fascinated me. Diagnosing, repairing, finding original parts to install, all of that … how things work fascinates me, whether it’s math or mechanics. It was obvious that the people who were working on this engine were doing excellent work. Yes, still a work in progress, but I loved it.
Then back again outside …
And right about then, I heard a diesel train engine start up … rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble. So I looked around and found that the fellow in the yellow vest (in the video below) was standing on the gravel and looking for me. They didn’t want to run over me! He had already talked with the older guys, so he knew I was out there, and he was very willing to let me stay in the yard while they moved a couple of cars out, then move another car back over to another yard, and then eventually they would bring in a nice green passenger car back into the yard near the railway station building. Here are four videos that I’ve pieced together into one video. Notice that the fellow in the yellow vest knows when to lean over and plug his ears because of the train whistle!
I thanked that fellow profusely. He said the guys are still talking about my comment about “old equipment”. They loved it.
After a couple of hours out in the yard, it was time to head back into the building for a few more photos.
I would have thought that the RED light meant “do not move”, but not so.
There was SO MUCH to see inside this building. I can’t begin to show all of it. But here are some more highlights.
And then it was time to leave. I walked outside the Northern Pacific station museum onto the very large, covered wood platform between that building and the railroad tracks (railroad tracks still being used today). I stood out there a bit. Then that fellow in the yellow vest came by and said the southbound empty grain train from Tacoma, WA, was due to come by in a few minutes. It was headed south to load grain in Gibbon or Pasco (or other towns) further south and east of Toppenish, and then head back north, past Toppenish again, and then west to Tacoma, where it would unload the grain into grain silos, where the the grain would then be loaded into huge grain ships to be taken out to countries all around the Pacific Rim, to countries and islands all over, all around, the Pacific Ocean. I remember seeing that train arriving in Tacoma, when I was on my boat out on Commencement Bay in Tacoma, years ago. But I had no idea where that train came from. Now I know.
And so, today here in Toppenish, at the railroad museum, on that platform, that fellow in the yellow vest stayed and chatted with me for awhile. But no train came by for 15 minutes or so … so he left to do other chores, and I walked back to the parking lot and jumped in the big white truck and headed north through the town of Toppenish … towards Yakima and my campsite.
But I wanted to see that train. So I found a spot on a small side street still in Toppenish and just pulled over and waited.
Not two minutes later! I heard her coming. Turn your sound up!
4 engines in front … 152 grain cars … 1 engine behind. each grain car is 60′ long with a little space in between them. Which means this train was almost two miles long.
I saved this one photo (below) for last. It was inside the train museum. It seems so charming to me, with such history behind it. The people who made the North Coast run happen, and who made all of this history happen, are terrific.
I don’t know if the “North Coast Limited” is still running, but whether there’s a train still running across the northern parts of Washington and Idaho and Montana, or whether there’s one still up in Canada just north of the southern border of Canada, I’m thinking I’d love to take a trip like this, and just sit and look out the window and watch the gorgeous scenery go by … and wait for that dinner chime to ring! 🙂