The Centralia-Chehalis Railroad and Museum (CCRM) acknowledged longtime volunteer Tina Nixon and donor Larry Shaw at its annual meeting on Saturday, Jan. 25.

The meeting was an opportunity for the railroad’s board of directors and community members to reflect on the work done in 2024 and plan ahead for the upcoming year.

The railroad’s board of directors presented Nixon with the Harold and Alberta Borovec Volunteer of the Year Award on Saturday, celebrating her years of volunteering with CCRM.

The award’s namesakes, Harold and Alberta Borovec, were volunteers and founders of the Chehalis Centralia Railroad in 1986 and devoted countless hours to restoring the Cowlitz Chehalis & Cascade 1916 locomotive No. 15, according to CCRM. Following a successful restoration project that took over two years, the locomotive began pulling the Chehalis-Centralia Steam Train over former Milwaukee Railroad tracks west out of Chehalis in 1989 and was in service until about 2019, following an in-depth inspection five years prior that showed there was deferred and much-needed maintenance required on its structural integrity, according to previous Chronicle reporting.

Alberta Borovec died on April 22, 2013, at the age of 83. Harold Borovec died on June 10, 2023, at the age of 96.

Nixon began volunteering with CCRM in 2014, taking the helm of the popular Polar Express Train Ride in 2019, according to CCRM President Mary Kay Nelson.

“Tina is one of those volunteers that just gets in there and gets it done,” Nelson said Saturday. “... Our events have surpassed anything they’ve ever been before. They (volunteers) are part of what makes it good.”

In addition to recognizing Nixon, the CCRM Board of Directors presented a specialty No. 15 plaque, signifying CCRM’s historic No. 15 steam locomotive, to Shaw, who, with the Lockerby Foundation, donated $65,000 to CCRM in 2024 for the purpose of restoring the No. 15 steam locomotive and bringing it back into service by 2027.

“Very few of them have been made,” Nelson said of the No. 15 plaque, adding that they’re given to those who have demonstrated above-and-beyond hard work and dedication to the railroad.

“My dad and my mom had such a passion for this community, and it means a lot to me that I can do something to give back a little bit,” Shaw said Saturday.

CCRM aims to raise $65,000 this year to match Shaw’s donation for the No. 15 steam engine.

Donations to the No. 15 engine can be made online at https://steamtrainride.com/. 

In 2024, CCRM brought over 13,000 visitors to Chehalis, 70% of whom were visitors from over 25 miles away, according to Nelson.

The upcoming “Valentine’s Sweetheart Dinner Train Ride,” which could accommodate 100 passengers, sold out within two days, according to Nelson.

CCRM’s train rides are “a popular activity throughout the year, and with the support of our local community, brings thousands to our area to enjoy not only a train excursion, but also to enjoy other businesses and activities in Lewis County,” Nelson said in an email to The Chronicle.