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Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad, Elbe, WA (2026)

05/29/2026

It's about to get wet around here. 💦

[ICYMI - Polson 70 has been undergoing her “1472,” which is the FRA-mandated major boiler inspection where we take the locomotive apart, inspect all the important bits, fix everything that needs fixing, and then hopefully remember how to put it all back together again.]

Good news!

As of today(ish), the tubes are in, rolled, beaded, and seal-welded. We’re wrapping up the Form 4 paperwork and preparing to hydro the boiler.

[For the non-steam nerds, a hydro test is where we completely fill the boiler with water and pressure test it to make sure everything is sealed up tight and not interested in certain historical reenactments. Steam engines run on water, pressure, superstition, and federal paperwork.]

Once that’s done, we wait for the FRA to emerge from the mist, bless this locomotive, consult the Sacred CFR, and bless us to “go forth and chugg.” ✝️

🌽🪿🐖

Because we are railroaders (and therefore deeply and "irrationally" superstitious) we are taking every precaution necessary for a successful outcome. We’ve begun stockpiling canned corn. The Lucky Porch Goose has been outfitted appropriately for the occasion. Offerings of sand, sun, and water are being prepared because our piggy/hog/steam locomotive/chuggchief likes all three, and frankly, it’s about to be very steamy around here.

🌽🪿🐖

At this point, all that remains is paperwork, pressure, federal oversight, and finishing touches.

Stay tuned.

05/25/2026

On Memorial Day, we pause to remember the people who gave the ultimate sacrifice, not as distant names in history books, but as real people with families, hopes, fears, and futures they never got to live.

In 1944, our Executive Director’s grandfather, Gordon, wrote a letter to his wife before his first mission, to be mailed only if he did not return.

He came back from that first mission. On his second, he and the rest of his plane crew went missing after ditching somewhere in the Pacific. He was 26.

Sharing this letter has become something of a Memorial Day tradition, because few words capture the meaning of this day with more clarity:

“Teach the children to love good music and books, and teach them tolerance, and to love and enjoy the people in the world.”
_ _
22 Dec. 1944

Dearest Muriel,

I've just finished writing a letter to you, and did not mention that I'm going on a raid tomorrow. It will be our first and I was sitting here when I realized that on one of these raids I may not come back, so I'm going to write this letter, and not seal it, but will put it in an envelope and just leave it here to be mailed if I don't return.

I don't know whether I'm frightened or not but down deep I feel excited, and to be truthful, a little scared. The flights have not been too bad as far as fighters + flak are concerned, but they are there, and it's a very long flight. In fact, most of our losses + casualties have been caused by planes running out of gas, or having a failure of some kind, + then having to ditch before they can get back. So even if I'm reported missing, don't worry too much at first, because the percentage of rescues are high.

This is the letter than will discuss what we have always avoided talking about, and will never be sent unless the worst has happened, I'll talk freely and honestly.

First, I want you to know I loved you above everything else, and that I was so proud and glad to have you be the mother of my children, as I was of the wonderful kids they are. I know I don't leave you much in the way of material things, but there's enough to care for you with. And I flatter myself to think that you have some memories to keep always. I know I always have had.
Perhaps this is not the letter I would like to have written, but it's hard to really say what I mean. But don't bury yourself after I'm gone. Or now that I'm gone. You're a lovely and desirable woman, and it's your nature to love and be loved. Time will probably resolve this problem for you. All I want to do is say that I want you to marry again, and you have all my blessing and love. What we had is something that belonged to us alone and always, and it can never be changed or lost now. And Mu, try to see my mother after, and make as much as you can, the rest of her life a little better. I know that you'll do this anyway but want to mention it. I won't write separately to her, but if I come back tomorrow, I will then. If I don't, tell her I love her dearly, and that she was everything to me a mother could have been. I only wish that I had been a better son to her, and more of a comfort and aid. For that matter, I only wish too, that I had been a better husband to you, and had cared for you + sheltered you, better than I did.
I'll say nothing about what I think I'm fighting for. The truth is quite simple, I suppose just that we're in a war, and it's my duty to be in it , too. If I die doing, I'll have died for a good cause, which is our good country.

Teach the children to love good music and books, and teach them tolerance, and to love and enjoy the people in the world. Tell them sometimes that their father wasn't a bad guy, and that I would have loved to see them, and help them, grow up. Little Deedee + Tommy will be a great comfort to you, but also a burden as well. I wish you luck with them, and happiness too, and as always, say hello to all, and give Dede her due, and Tommy the same.

I loved you more than I could ever tell you, dearest, and if there is a life thereafter, which I believe, I'll talk God into letting me watch over and care for you in this one. Be happy, my love, and stay as good as you are, and think sometimes of your Gordon. ###

05/21/2026

🚨 This is not a drill.

For the first time in 2½ YEARS, we have last-minute openings on our Whiskey Tasting Train this Saturday.

A group had to rebook, which means there are currently 16 tickets available. Frankly, we assume this situation will correct itself quickly.

So if you’ve ever said: “That sounds cool…”

This is it.

🥃 Whiskey tastings from Heritage Distilling, Sandstone, Westland Distillery, and Old Soldier
🎶 Live music from Latitude 47
🍴 Munchies at the museum
🚂 An evening train ride through the woods through the foothills of Mt. Rainier

We fully expect these seats to disappear in short order, so time to panic and mobilize.

Buy tickets at https://MtRainierRailroad.com/Whiskey

05/18/2026

OPERATION: RESTORE THE CHUGG
FIELD REPORT // POLSON 70 RESTORATION DIVISION
STATUS: CREW FATIGUED // MORALE CONCERNINGLY HIGH

⚙️⚙️⚙️

They’ve finally lost it. Sanity is at an all-time low. The crew has officially reached the stage of the project where they’re deliriously happy, running on fumes, and giggling far too often.

So, what’s the latest?

🔥

The smokebox patch turned out to be rotten, ugly, and home to one truly horrifying old repair weld. Naturally, Nate fully hyperfocused on restoring the thing back to factory settings. During this process, our Superintendent suggested an alternative repair that was immediately vetoed by the crew.

Also, while attempting to lift the smokebox off the welding table for a solid 10 minutes, nobody bothered telling Nate it was still clamped down.

🔧

Chris, our machinist, finished machining the valve rockers and got them back on the engine. He’s now working on the eccentric straps. Don’t know what those are? They’re the parts that contain the eccentrics…which is fitting, because the eccentrics themselves have clearly gone off the deep end.

🎧⚡

Meanwhile, Rowdy has been listening to a retelling of Audie Murphy’s Sicily campaign while finishing seal welding.

💧🚂

And perhaps most importantly:

Polson 70 is getting dangerously (and very safely) close to being filled with water and squeezed.

“But you said they’re absolutely losing it?”

Correct.

🪖🛠️

After work, they’ve apparently been spending 4–5 hours a night researching what it would take to conduct a fully realistic WWII campaign recreation involving airsoft pew pews, tanks, jeeps, planes, and enough logistics to concern everyone around them.

It’s gotten serious enough that several crew members have started fitness programs so they look less like middle-aged men playing dress-up and more like the real deal.

🥦

Rumor has it a broccoli was spotted near the breakroom.

“I don’t understand anything you just said.”

Well, in short: Polson 70, our beloved steam locomotive, is approaching the end of her rebuild and will soon officially become a pressure vessel again. The crew has been working at a completely self-imposed and mildly unhinged pace for months, and the resulting exhaustion has driven them into a strange world of historical escapism.

📋 FINAL STATUS REPORT:
Morale remains alarmingly high.

05/15/2026

📍OREGON TRAIL STATUS UPDATE📍

In late spring, three brave covered wagons departed Spencer, North Carolina, beginning the long and dangerous journey westward in search of a better life at the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad.

(“Covered wagons” in this case being three historic 1920s ex-Reading passenger cars acquired from the NCTM, wrapped to protect them, and plunked atop TTX flatcars.)

The wagon party passed successfully through Linwood, Charlotte, Greenville, SC, and Doraville, GA. The travelers endured difficult conditions, long delays, and several encounters with Norfolk Southern equipment inspectors, but morale remained high.

Then tragedy struck in Atlanta. 💥

One member of the wagon party suffered a BAD ORDER and was forced to remain behind for repairs while the remaining travelers pressed onward toward Chattanooga and Citico Junction. The party now hopes to reunite before attempting to ford the Mississippi.

There have also been reports of minor dysentery after one car was supposedly laden with Waffle House at the request of West Coast frontiersmen.🤢

Scouts report the stranded traveler is attempting to rejoin the wagon party before the final push west. If successful, the trail ahead will pass through Chattanooga, Danville, Louisville, Princeton, Madison, Galesburg, Savanna, La Crosse, Minneapolis, Fargo, Minot, Havre, Whitefish, Spokane, Pasco, Tacoma, and Centralia before finally reaching the RNIR, where the travelers will be unloaded and allowed to graze peacefully.

The cost of this dangerous migration has been substantial.

Current trail expenses include:
• Purchasing the wagons: $15,000
• Clearances & routing permits: $2,650
• Cranes & loading: $64,500
• BNSF “safe passage” fees: $86,000
• Norfolk Southern tribute payments: $33,000
• Future crane sacrifices upon arrival: TBD

Current supplies include walkover seats, 100-year-old toilets, iron oxide, and, unfortunately, some rotten Waffle House.

🫡 Godspeed, brave pioneers.

05/06/2026

🚂 What’s happening on the railroad this week?

🛠️ In the Shop…
Work continues on steam locomotive Polson #70. The new boiler tubes are officially in place, and on the firebox end, they’ve been rolled, beaded, and are ready for seal welding. On the smokebox tube sheet end, Nate has been grinding the tube ends flush, so they’re even and properly prepped for beading.

The tubes have been rolled tight into the tube sheets to create the seal, then beaded and seal-welded to strengthen the joint, improve heat transfer, and reduce stress that can cause cracking over time.

Seal welding officially starts tomorrow, which is a pretty major milestone in the rebuild process.

Chris has been cleaning valve gear components and has started rebuilding the crossheads to make sure the remaining running gear work is complete before #70 rolls out of the shop. When he needs a break from tube life, Nate has also been putting the locomotive cab back together piece by piece. Anything to save time later!

🛤️ On the track…
Our Maintenance of Way crew is known for many things. “Gentle on equipment” is not one of them. They had managed a pretty good streak lately, but apparently became concerned that our confidence in them was getting too high, so they conspired with the mini excavator’s thumb cylinder to “experience an impressive system failure.”

With the excavator’s thumb cylinder out for repair, the crew has temporarily shifted away from tie installation and is focusing on brush cutting along our exempted track before our “new” passenger cars arrive.

Cutting back brush does a few important things: it allows more sunlight onto the railroad, helping the track structure dry out and prolonging the life of the ties, and it also helps keep ditches clear so water can properly drain away from the track. Less glamorous than driving spikes, but just as important, and way more fun for Aric, Jackson, and Cory.

🍺 Elsewhere…
Eric, our Hospitality Manager, has had the truly grueling assignment of visiting distilleries, cideries, and breweries to put the finishing touches on our new 21+ Tasting Train series. The first event, our Cider Tasting Train, launches this Saturday.

He’s been running all over creation between Seattle and eastern Lewis County, picking up event supplies and conducting very serious quality-control operations. Very serious. Extremely professional.

Meanwhile, those “new” mid-1920s ex-Reading passenger cars we purchased from the North Carolina Transportation Museum are finally rolling westward. We keep spotting them here and there on railfan cams, they’re in the metro Atlanta area as they slowly begin their journey west to a new life. Hopefully, they’ll successfully ford the Mississippi and avoid dysentery.

📋 On the admin side…
Don’t ask.

We’re currently chugging through FIVE major grant applications and processes that are all due next month. The admin team is surviving almost entirely on Red Bull, mutual suffering, and WWII documentaries “to set the mood.”

05/05/2026

🚂 Before there were labor laws, there were logging camps, where unions took root.

For us, preserving railroad history is really about preserving people’s stories.

Over the last couple of years, most of our focus has been on getting trains running again - putting our “living history museum” in motion. While the museum in Mineral has only been open on a limited basis, we’ve been working behind the scenes on a plan to fully reopen it as a space that truly tells the stories of the people who lived and worked along this railroad.

👀 Those stories? They’re anything but boring.

🌲 In the early 1900s, men who were often young, transient, immigrants - unmarried or separated from families - comprised the labor force of remote logging camps. As the lumber industry rapidly expanded across the PNW (think the 1900’s version of Amazon.com), men lived in crowded bunkhouses, working long days, doing dangerous work.

💸 Their wages were docked for food, lodging, and even oil to fight the bedbugs.

Conditions varied widely - some camps were “respectable,” family-oriented, and dry; others were rough, at best.

Out of those conditions grew one of the most influential (and controversial) labor movements in the country.

✊ Enter early union activity - Industrial Workers of the World, or the “Wobblies.” Their idea was simple and radical: organize everyone in the industry, not just skilled trades. At a time when loggers moved constantly from camp to camp, that vision of “One Big Union” spread fast. Union members organized strikes to champion better living conditions, 8-hour work days, clean lodging, and safer conditions.

⚠️ It also came at a cost.

Organizers were run out of camps, arrested, blacklisted, and sometimes met with violence. Federal troops and local authorities raided IWW halls, destroyed meeting spaces, and used criminal syndicalism laws to target union members and their publications.

🪖 During WWI, logging camp workers were exempt from the draft, but many still enslisted, creating labor shortages. Spruce was deemed critical for war production, and the U.S. Army formed the Spruce Division. To combat the ‘threat’ of union activity that might harm production, they worked with the Loyal Legion of Loggers and Lumbermen, a government-backed company union whose members pledged not to strike.

Ironically, this intervention weakened the IWW while also validating many of their demands. The eight-hour day, long fought for by timber workers, was instituted during the war to stabilize production.

🏛️ Our museum will tell these stories - stories of union raids, the Finnish immigrants inspired by Bolshevism, and the 10,000-calorie-a-day menus served in logging camps.

That’s the kind of history we want to bring back to life in Mineral, not just locomotives and logging equipment, but the people, conflicts, and communities that shaped this region.

🥾 If you’ve ever hiked in Western Washington and stumbled across an old logging road, you’ve already walked through the remains of this story.

What parts of Pacific Northwest history would you want to see us highlight when the museum reopens?

Photo credit to Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI), Industrial Workers of the World, Washington State History Museum

05/04/2026

What are your weekend plans?
We’ve got a few ideas 🚂✨

Our 21+ events are kicking off for the season!

This Saturday is our first Cider Tasting Train of the year. 🍎
Board at 6:00pm in Elbe and ride out to our museum grounds, where you’ll enjoy a curated selection of ciders, live music, and some tasty snacks.

Part history, part party, it’s definitely a unique night out 🍻🎶
👉Book at https://MtRainierRailroad.com

Looking for family fun?

The weather’s looking good, and it’s starting to feel like summer around here! ☀️

Hop aboard one of our scenic train rides this Saturday and Sunday at 11:00, 1:15, or 3:30, departing from Elbe, WA.

Bonus: kids 5 and under ride free!

05/01/2026

One Year Later: Rebuilding After the Trestle Arson

It’s been one year since the largest historic trestle on our railroad was deliberately set on fire. It’s been one of the hardest years we’ve faced, but also one of the most transformative. We’ve made real progress: clearing half the site, removing debris from waterways, and building a path forward. But rebuilding the trestle alone is still a $10 million challenge.

We’ve also made a major shift behind the scenes, transitioning from a tourist-only railroad to a Class III shortline freight line. That change allows us to pursue federal infrastructure funding and support local industry again. We’re now working toward a $30 million project to fully restore the line between Eatonville and Morton, resume freight service, expand our operations, and take up to 6,000 trucks off rural roads each year.

We’ve raised $222,000 so far and put it straight into cleanup, access, legal work, and preparing the line for reconstruction—but there’s still a long way to go.

If you want to see where things stand and what comes next, we’ve shared a video update here:
👉 https://youtu.be/ZRGUL8KAkVc

If you’d like to help us keep moving forward and read a longer update, you can support the rebuild here:
👉 https://gofund.me/1775268d6

And honestly, one of the best ways to support us is to come out and ride. Every ticket helps keep things running and supports the work to rebuild. You can plan your visit at:
👉https://MtRainierRailroad.com See less

Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad

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