Seattle Prototype

Here is but a small sample of standard and narrow-gauge prototype attractions in the Seattle area. We'll be adding more as we get closer to the convention date, so please come back.

Our part of the country says LOGGING! Heisler #91 is operational, and part of the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad collection. The region has a number of operating railroad museums, featuring Climax, Shay, and rod type logging locomotive and their rolling stock.
 		 Yes, this 12 tonner is three foot gauge! It's part of the DuPont Museum collection. The Pacific Northwest has a long narrow gauge tradition.
It's a double header fan trip behind the Climax at the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad. Dig the trestle, and know that this museum is just a few miles from Mt. Rainier National Park. One only needs to look up at the mountains facing Seattle on two sides to ignite your scenic building imagination. This is the Early Winters Spires in the North Cascades National Park. There are three national parks in Washington state, as well as the Mount St. Helens Volcano National Monument.
The Seattle area used to be a hotbed of narrow gauge activity. In fact, a number of the engines that went up to the three foot gauge White Pass and Yukon that ran out of Skagway, Alaska came from Seattle once standard gauging caught on.

Narrow gauge rails ran from what is now downtown Seattle, to lake Washington, where barges picked up coal and lumber floated over from the eastside of the lake near our convention headquarters. What is now Newcastle, just south of our Bellevue headquarters, was a major center for early coal mining. A number of logging railroads were also narrow gauge.  One narrow gauge logging line in the north central part of the state lasted until after WWII. There was even a book about it titled Reservation Narrow Gauge.

 At the Northwest Railway Museum this new restoration facility is now finished. The home of this museum is in the historic logging community of Snoqualmie, which is not very far from our convention headquarters. The museum has a large collection of wood and steel equipment, steam locomotives, diesels and even a rotary snow plow. It also runs trains between Snoqualmie and North Bend.