At any given time, 50 to 100 people from around the world are watching railcam footage of the Chehalis Junction on the BNSF Seattle Subdivision rail line next to the Lewis County Historical Museum in Chehalis, which sees an average of 45 to 55 trains a day.
But viewers who want to head into downtown Chehalis to watch those trains in person have a hard time finding a safe spot to do so.
“There’s not really a safe place for people to gather, watch trains, enjoy trains,” said railcam site coordinator Robert Scott.
Scott and a group of fellow local railfans maintain and moderate the camera, which was installed five years ago and live streams to YouTube 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The chat function on the stream serves as a forum for a community of over 30,000 railfans from around the world, some of whom organize in-person gatherings near the camera site in Chehalis to meet each other in person and talk trains while watching the tracks.
“At one point, we would have a gathering of 75 to 80 people show up, so they would park all over, and we’re trying to keep people off the tracks and make sure that we follow all regulations,” Scott said.
Railfans are generally respectful of the regulations and follow the rules posted by Scott and fellow volunteers who manage the railcam, “But I thought, you know, we could do better with this,” Scott said.
In an effort to give railfans a safe spot to watch trains and to bolster downtown Chehalis, Scott, with the support of his fellow railfans, is working on a plan for a dedicated railfan park.
“I figured it was a way to tie it in with the museum, and it would be a great location for gathering, a park for the city, for people, for families,” Scott said, adding that the park could easily serve as an “anchor attraction” for downtown Chehalis.
“I know for a fact there’s numerous families that drive an hour and a half, Seattle to Portland, to come here, to bring their kids, bring their families, but also, importantly, bringing their tax dollars,” Scott said.
The park would be named in honor of former Chehalis City Councilor Daryl Lund, who died Dec. 7, 2024, after being hospitalized for septic shock.
“Daryl was one of the big reasons that we were able to get that camera installed five years ago,” Scott said. “He went to bat for us, vouched for us with the museum, with the city, and really opened up a lot of doors for us to do that.”
The Daryl Lund Memorial Railfan Park would ideally be developed at the site of the old Union Freight Depot and loading dock, located between West Street and the Lewis County Historical Museum in downtown Chehalis.
A concept rendering developed by Scott and artist J. Craig Thorpe in 2022 envisions a fenced park with an Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)-accessible covered platform area next to the tracks, a local historical photo interpretive display along the railing, a courtyard for small gatherings, a brick pathway to the Lewis County Historical Museum and space to display a historic caboose.
“The design, I think, is bulletproof when it comes to aspects I think that people are looking for,” Scott said.
Local railfan Dan Hawthorne loved the concept rendering for the park enough that he has a hard copy of it in his house.
“It would be somewhere where I would take my kids multiple times a week, just because we like to go watch trains, and I feel like if we had a nice, dedicated spot in town, there would be more (train watchers),” Hawthorne said.
Hawthorne became a railfan, or someone who is recreationally interested in trains and rail transport systems, after he and his family moved to Chehalis from Lacey in early 2021.
“I was somebody who would get really annoyed when a train goes by,” he said.
That changed after he discovered the Chehalis railcam one day while a coal train was blocking multiple crossings in town.
“For some reason, seeing it, it was like, ‘Oh, this is cool,’” Hawthorne said.
He started turning the livestream on while he was home all day with his kids, and soon became connected with other railfans through the chat.
“It’s been a daily part of my life for the last four years,” Hawthorne said.
Part of the reason the Chehalis railcam is so popular among railfans is because viewers can see trains approaching from over a mile away, Hawthorne said.
The sightline is so good that visitors from out of town will plan trips to Chehalis specifically to view the trains in person, but they are faced with the challenge of finding a safe place to park or stand while maintaining that sightline of the track.
Regulars like Hawthorne have their own favorite parking spots, “But if we had a dedicated spot, I think more people would actually come and do it, because they would know ‘I can park right here, and literally, here’s a little park where I can hang out, and my kids will be safe, and we can watch trains,” he said.
Scott is meeting with Chehalis Mayor Tony Ketchum later this month to discuss possible avenues for making the park a reality.
“I broached the subject a couple years ago with the city, just with the idea, and there was a lot of interest … but they said, you know, ‘we don’t really have the manpower to take this to ground,’” Scott said.
The park is still very early on in the development process, with architectural plans, a budget and funding options still uncompleted.
“The city is really going to dictate where we’re at on it, how that goes, and I know it’s going to be a long process,” Scott said.
Scott is looking into volunteer, fundraising and grant options to take some of the burden of the park off of the city, but Scott would need the city’s support to negotiate with BNSF for use of the area.
Scott and the city would also need to negotiate for BNSF for use of the Union Freight Depot and loading dock site.
“They (BNSF) are not going to talk to me versus talking to somebody from the city,” Scott said.
Scott said he hopes his meeting with Ketchum, and sharing the conceptual renderings of the park, will help the proposal start to gain traction.
The concept rendering can be viewed online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUtLcJY363I.
The Chehalis railcam can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wacIsiIYWm0.
