Because I miss riding on the train
Since I wrote Views from the Train, I took a few more short train rides in the Pacific Northwest. One was with my dad and my sister and a friend. We woke up early in the morning and instead of driving, we booked a train to Portland,Oregon on the Amtrak Cascades. Though it was three hours, it went by so fast. I personally prefer the longer train fares better. My dad loved the train. I think that is where I get the love of trains from.
Riding on a Steam Train
The other was with my friend where we rode on a steam train last year. We went to the Northwest Railway Museum. The train was steaming up or rather warming up to take us for a ride on their opening weekend, in April when we arrived. A wide age range of passengers showed up, ready to take a ride to the past.
After paying for tickets, we walked around a bit. The outside of the train was kept in beautiful shape. (I will have to do a short video of the train later). We took the historic train excursion from Snoqualime Depot to Northbend and back.
As we hopped on the train, there was a tour docent talking about some interesting phrases that came from the rail road era.
Terms like:
“Getting off on the wrong track,”
“I lived on the other side of the tracks.”
“Getting your signals crossed.”
The term “dead beat also came from working on the trains” This came about from “the cars that that the train was hauling for free. The rail road crew could hear which car was filled when the train was coming because of the sound the car made. Dead beat was an empty sound. Thus a dead beat car is the car that is not making any money.”
I love understanding the origins of words. I researched more into it and found a list of railroad words on this website.
The steam train was way noisier than a diesel locomotive, not as in choo choo, but chickle,chickle,chickle as we rode past Mt. Si. I loved the whistles and the sounds that came from it.
View of Snoqualmie River from the train
Stopping at the Northwest Railway Museum
There are some good train artifacts kept inside the musuem. The estimated round trip was seventy minutes, with a thirty minute stop at the Railway History Center.
We hopped back for the second sence of the train. I felt my body wobbled as the train sped forward onto top of the Snoqualimie Falls. We caught some good glimpse of the Falls.
Overall, the train ride was a short. If you have an intersest for old trains, it is worth a trip.