![]() Riding in the cab might not be as comfortable as the coach but it’s exhilarating enough a ride you won’t notice. We’d ridden in a passenger coach on the way to Mineral and on our way back we rode in the cab (there is only enough room in the cab for two passengers). The coaches are comfortable food and beverages are available as are restrooms. In Mineral four short blasts from the whistle was the signal that passengers needed to re-board the train for the ride back to Elbe. You can peek into the “shop” where volunteers and staff are at work preserving and maintaining these marvelous trains some sections are roped and off-limits to visitors. Many of those locomotives in the shop are historical, others one of a kind. There’s a lot to see – not only steam locomotives in various stages of usability but also the Camp 6 Logging Structures that were formally displayed at Point Defiance State Park in Tacoma. Here a 30-minute stop is available for passengers to wander about the displays. The train skirts Mineral Creek, then crosses Mineral Creek on a smaller bridge before arriving at the Railroad Museum in Mineral. The train crosses the Nisqually River on a bridge – that bridge has been washed out several times over the years, the last time during the flood in 2006. The train goes to Mineral through a variety of scenery ranging from old barns, forests with a hint of fall color, pastoral scenes of pastures complete with cantering horses. We were booked for the “Autumn Leaves” ride on steam locomotive No. We were pleased to see so many visitors drawn to experience this. You’ll hear the train before you see it some of the smaller children stuck their fingers in their ears to lessen the blast, the way I used to. We went inside the depot/museum for our tickets and to check out railroad-related items you can purchase ranging from mugs and posters to historical books on trains and/or Mount Rainier National Park. We got to Elbe early so we could admire the railroad coaches that have been put out to pasture on the outskirts of Elbe even retired they are handsome and inspire photographs. I love the squeal of brakes, the hiss of steam, even the more mundane whistle of diesels stir my soul and give me itchy feet.įor a couple of hours, I enjoyed being 10-years old again thanks to a ride on the Mt. ![]() Trains are in my blood perhaps because my grandfather worked for the Great Northern Railroad at the roundhouse in Whitefish, Montana and my mother was raised in a boxcar (today I still wave at engineers when the trains go by at crossroads) though I miss the red cabooses no longer used by railroads. My first toy was a wooden train built by my Dad it’s in pieces but I still have it. I was one of those children stranded with my parents on the Great Northern when the Kootenai River flooded the tracks and the train had to wait on the tracks until the river receded before resuming our journey to Montana. You may be old enough to remember the romance of trains when real food was served in the dining cars with linen napkins, tablecloths, fine silver and the soothing voices of porters calming an anxious child. Who hasn’t yearned to hit the road or the rails when you hear that lonesome steam whistle blow? And who doesn’t enjoy a train ride? Even in this day and age that restless urge to roam can be kept in rein by a ride on the Mt. Museum admission is included with train fare during regular excursions.Regular excursions typically begin Memorial Weekend and run weekends late May through October. ![]() Rainier Railroad and Logging Museum is closed for 2020 and the foreseeable future.
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