Northwest Railway Museum Blog: Celebrating Snoqualmie since 1939
Snoqualmie Days (formerly known as Snoqualmie Railroad Days and Snoqualmie Firemen’s Festival) is the annual celebration of the Snoqualmie Valley, its people, and its culture!, but the original Snoqualmie Days celebrated a specific and important event – the arrival of the town’s first fire truck. The festival was originally organized by volunteer firefighters to celebrate […]
Braille 200 – National Railway Museum blog
PhD researcher Tilly Guthrie highlights that this year marks not only 200 years of the railways, but also of the invention of Braille. In 1825, when crowds were watching the first passenger locomotive pull away from the station in Stockton, a blind teenage boy in France was perfecting another technology that would improve communications for […]
Northwest Railway Museum Blog: Pettibone Speedswing
(Click image to see larger version) Pettibone invented the “do it all” rail crane. The Northwest Railway Museum first adopted a Pettibone Speedswing in 1994. With Hyrail gear and more than 30,000 pounds it has been used to deliver railroad ties, clean up minor incidents, perform rail exchanges, and reconstruct and demolish track up and […]
Pride 2025 – National Railway Museum blog
To mark the extension of the People, Pride and Progress display at the National Railway Museum, we are looking back to June, when the museum joined the celebrations at York Pride. On Saturday 7 June, colleagues came together to take part in York Pride in celebration and support of our LGBTQIA+ colleagues and community. Railway […]
Pueblo Express Train has five dates in December! – Pueblo Railway Museum
Join the Pueblo Railway Museum for our “Pueblo Express” public Christmas Train Ride event on Friday and Saturday, December 12 and 13, Friday and Saturday, December 19 and 20, and Wednesday December 24. Train rides will be available from 4PM to 8PM behind the Pueblo Union Depot. Train ride tickets are $15 for a ride […]
Rotary Snowplow on Snoqualmie Pass
Steam rotary snowplow crew, C.M. & St. Paul Rwy, 1916, Northwest Railway Museum collection. The Cascades are noteworthy for heavy snow. The term “Cascade Concrete” was coined by the earliest railroad workers charged with keeping mountain passes clear of snow. So it was little wonder that railroads in Washington were early adopters of mechanized snow […]
Station Hall: Countdown to Reopening
Behind the scenes, there’s a hive of activity. Everyone’s working hard to get Station Hall ready for its grand reopening during our fiftieth birthday celebrations. Station Hall Sneak peeks We are celebrating stations in all their complexity: the big and small journeys we take, the railway workers who make travel possible, the goods moved around […]
Paul’s Blog – December 12-13, 2025 – Pueblo Railway Museum
On Friday, December 12, and Saturday, December 13, volunteers Dwight, Colin, Bruce, Chris P, Ben, Jerod, Chris T, Dannis, Polly, Nick, Henry, Kendall, Reid, Justin, Chris F, Ron, John, Michael, Diana, Demetris, Teia and Paul worked very hard to give over 380 guests a delightful train ride and a merry experience to welcome the Christmas […]
Amtrak Cascades Talgo series VI trains
In 1996, the Washington State Legislature appropriated $20 million for the lease-purchase of two trainsets by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). The trains were intended for use in the Pacific Northwest Rail Corridor, a federally designated high-speed train corridor. After a rigorous Request for Proposals process, Talgo was selected to construct the trainsets. […]
Rail Reinvention in Liverpool Part 1: Merseyrail Electrics
As part of the Railway 200 celebrations, PhD researcher, Wendy O’Neill, examines staff magazines held in our collection to explore the reuse of abandoned railways across Merseyside. Rail closures did not start with the BR Modernisation Plan and Dr. Beeching in the 1960s. Even before nationalisation, rail companies had been closing stations in response to […]