From the COVID-19 shutdown to a lawsuit to flooding, the Centralia-Chehalis Railroad & Museum (CCRM) has had to overcome more than its fair share of hurdles over the past five years.
With help from Goose Lake Railway in Oregon and generous local donors, the CCRM successfully completed track repairs, reobtained liability insurance and is now once again fully managing all of its own operations on the tracks.
According to CCRM President Mary Kay Nelson, the museum’s long-term goal is still to restore Cowlitz, Chehalis & Cascade No. 15 — a 1916 Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikado steam engine that the CCRM used to run on the tracks. Needing an estimated $1 million in specialized repairs and custom machined parts, No. 15 has been sidelined since 2019 when its boiler failed.
In order to generate more revenue to fund those repairs, the CCRM is moving to expand rider capacity for its annual Polar Express train rides.
The Chronicle met with Nelson on Tuesday, June 17, to talk about the short-term plans being carried out right now to reach the long-term goal and some of the hurdles CCRM has faced.
“We want to raise money to restore a 1950s passenger car,” Nelson said. “... The brake-work needs to be done and the interior needs to be cleaned up.”
The new 1950s passenger car is coming from the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. It isn’t costing the CCRM any money, as Northwest Railway and CCRM have agreed to a trade instead.
In return for the passenger car, the CCRM is giving Northwest Railway its railway turntable, which the Snoqualmie museum plans on installing inside a new building project.
“As much as we’d like to just keep it, we have no use for it. We’re in a flood zone. Building a pit to put a turntable in sounds like a lake and doesn't really fit our needs,” Nelson added.
Once the new passenger car is delivered, work will begin immediately to have it ready by November for the Polar Express rides.
“That money that we earn from additional income from the Polar Express will be set aside to restore the steam locomotive, which is the long game. That’s what people want us to do, is get that steam locomotive restored,” Nelson said. “But, right now, we aren’t making enough money beyond what our operations cost us. We’re making enough to pay the bills, but not enough to put enough money away to gain a million dollars.”
Currently, CCRM train cars are pulled by a 1940s General Electric Diesel locomotive known as Engine No. 6, which was rebuilt in 1965 and purchased from the Puget Sound Shipyard in Bremerton.
The CCRM does have another steam engine as well — the 1917 Baldwin 2-8-0 steam engine that once resided at Fort Borst Park in Centralia. Known as No. 25, this engine needs even more repairs than No. 15, though the CCRM still hopes to one day restore it as well.
Nelson added that not only is it becoming more difficult to find parts for steam engines over a century old, but finding mechanics with knowledge of how to carry out the needed repairs is challenging.
“Most of them have aged out of the ability to do that kind of work. So we’re working with companies that are not as nimble as the old-timers who like to just get down and make it happen,” Nelson said.
As for CCRM’s survival over the past five years, Nelson thanked Goose Lake Railway owner Toby Van Altvorst for their assistance beginning in 2022 when CCRM lost its insurance due to a lawsuit. The railroad was also reeling still from flood damage, which saw around a mile of track get washed away.
“He literally called me out of the blue and said, ‘What can I do to help?’ And I said, ‘I don’t have a clue what you can do,’” said Nelson.
Eventually, CCRM entered into an agreement with Goose Lake where CCRM would be covered under Goose Lake’s insurance. By 2023, rail repairs had been completed and the CCRM was finally operating on the tracks again.
The Goose Lake partnership lasted up until this week, Nelson stated, when the CCRM’s own full liability insurance kicked back in.
While the Polar Express is the CCRM’s main revenue source throughout the year, the museum is also hosting more train ride events throughout this summer in an effort to generate more revenue to fund passenger car restoration efforts.
These include a Summer Bash BBQ and Train Ride on Saturday, July 12, a Roaring 20s Dinner Train Ride on Saturday, July 19, and a 70s Themed Dinner and Train Ride on Saturday, Aug. 9.
For more information on these events, visit https://tinyurl.com/y2sbnz7e.
To learn more about the CCRM or to purchase tickets for upcoming train rides, visit https://steamtrainride.com/.
