Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad is returning to operation. Western Forest Industries Museum Executive Director Bethan Maher shares her vision of reopening the railroad, how it can represent the history of the Pacific Northwest, and why it’s important to so many people.
Learn more about the relaunch on their new website.
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Saving the Last Logging Railroad
Question of the Day
If you’ve been to Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad, what was your experience like?
If not, what is your favorite logging locomotive?
Let me know and I will respond to your comments in our next episode.
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I wonder if there’s any chance of the line between Eatonville and Elbe opening? I know that the line between Mineral and Morton is probably too far gone to restore but I’m wondering about it as well. Thank you for bringing back something that is so important to so many people. My hat’s off to everyone involved!
I have not been to the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad, but my favorite steam locomotive there has to be the Hillcrest Logging 3 truck Climax #10. For years it operated over on Vancouver Island in British Columbia where I’m from. It spent years hauling logs around Mesachie Lake bringing cars to and from the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway and then had a short career for the ill fated Victoria Central. I believe it was the very first engine to go to the Mount Rainier Scenic and get their operations going. So that’s why I think it’s my favorite, cause it’s from BC and it’s a 3 truck climax which are rare these days. She also has a sister engine, #9 a 2 truck at the BC Forest Discovery Center in Duncan BC.
Thank you for doing this episode about the Mt. Rainier Scenic RR! Western WA doesn’t have any scenic RR left. I am so happy to have this returned to service.
Has anyone considered the NOISE?!!!
Trains can be heard for MILES, many miles.
In 2014 when they did an exhibition run in to Tacoma…the train could be heard for 30 minutes after it left Eatonville…Imagine that multiple times a day every weekend and all summer! …or even once a day..
The old Elbe train was a quaint little tourist attraction. Rather quiet, actually.The old owners were good neighbors, in my area anyway, near Eatonville. They only ran a very limited schedule and rarely used the train horn…..
The new owners are …from the city. They don’t even know how to be considerate, much less want to be. They don’t care if they disturb others. They won’t avoid anything that brings a profit. They will be making money at the expense of others. They are evil! They are going to destroy the entire area for their own profit! Because it’s their “right”…they are entitled so the will create a legacy of destruction.
Leavenworth was a small rural area…If they expand this train the area residents will only see what the owners call “progress’…more traffic, more noise, more people…nothing good.
People don’t live in rural areas because they want to listen to a train every day! Or even every weekend! Our weekends will forever be ruined…no more sitting outside enjoying the silence or listening to song birds, now we will hear the constant rumble of a train, traffic and train horns…
Soon they will add cross streets on Alder Cutoff and housing developments on Alder Lake. Haven’t you noticed how many new houses have been built already, property logged and sold because people are trying to find a quiet rural area. I know three properties that were sold because the three different owners said the idea of expanding the train was too much for them. Those properties were divided and now have five owners, houses. More people, more neighbors, more noise.
Our taxes will go up to pay for all the “improvements”…sewer, lights, buses… which will just destroy the area.
It will be like the towns outside of Yellowstone!
We all may as well move back to the city…
5 years from now they’ll put a Walmart in Eatonville….
I think you have been hearing false rumors about the railroad. Its owners are based in Washington, with the President of the Board also being the Mayor of Eatonville. The trains used to travel to Eatonville in the past, and I’m not sure where you’re getting information about taxes being raised. I would suggest avoiding the fear mongering and embracing an economic driver that is coming to the region.