TOPPENISH, Wash.- A couple times every year, a group of volunteers and locomotive enthusiasts take over the Northern Pacific Railway Museum. Not only to take in the history and stories of the museum, but to restore some of the engines and cars.
“This is an idea that came up about 15 years ago,” says Doug Shearer, a volunteer and museum board member. “We have a lot of people that come from out of town that like to come and volunteer. We try to get a regularly scheduled thing, so they’d be more apt to come.”
The volunteers this year came from as far as Sedro Woolley and Auburn, even past participants coming from Boise, Idaho.
When they come to Toppenish, they’re put to work. Multiple projects over the three-to-four-day event include restoring train car interiors, but the main focus has been getting a full locomotive engine running again.
The engine was near completion a couple years ago. But when the Federal Railroad Administration came for inspections, it caused major setbacks.
“We had it at the point that FRA inspector was here and said, ‘Great, we’ll do the final test on it to make sure that it’s structurally sound,'” says Shearer.
Shearer says the issues found were considered “life-threatening.”
“We had to replace a portion of it, which is a major, major undertaking for a group of volunteers especially,” says the Shearer.
This year, volunteers continued the work on the engine, replacing 84 rivets off the smoke dome to replace the part.
There’s still a group who lives in the Yakima Valley to work on the repairs throughout the years. For people like Shearer, they consider their retirement project.
He says his joy in the project comes from the stories being told in the trains.
“The more you around it, the more interesting they get,” he says. “Your imaginations able to go understand those stories more and kind of see things. That’s just that’s been really fun. I have really enjoyed it and it’s been a terrific retirement project.”
When volunteers come for the Work History Weekend, they’re well taken care of. With some sleeper cars in the yard, they’re able to fully immerse themselves in the train life. And with dining cars recently secured, food is also being provided.
“We have one of our member’s parents have done some commercial cooking,” says Shearer. “They ended up cooking breakfast lunch and dinner on Saturday.”
The next weekend of repairs and community is scheduled for October 11-13. Shearer says anyone interested should give him a call at 509-854-4159
