Future

January 12, 2004 Update

A structural engineer has been retained to complete the foundation design.

November 3, 2003 Update

No appeals have been filed! The Museum will be proceeding with detailed design during the next few months.

September 16, 2003 Update

Snoqualmie City Council heard the appeal at the Snoqualmie Middle School and ruled in favor of the Museum. In a 5-0 ruling, Council voted to uphold the Hearing Examiner's decision. A written decision will be filed by October 3, 2003 and appellants will have 14 days to file an appeal in King County Superior Court.

August 30, 2003 Update

The City of Snoqualmie received an appeal to the Northwest Railway Museum's Conditional Use Permit and Variances. The appeal seeks denial of the permits and alleges that the Hearing Examiner's approval of the permits was clearly erroneous. It provides over 30 pages of arguments in support of this claim, including broad accusations that the City of Snoqualmie did not properly process the application. The appeal will be heard before City Council on September 16, 2003 at 6:00 PM in a location to be announced.

July 15, 2003 Update

The Snoqualmie Hearing Examiner issued the decision approving the Conditional Use and Variance Permits for the Conservation and Restoration Center. The decision places one condition on the project: that all conditions contained in the SEPA Mitigated Determination of Non Significance (MDNS) be complied with. An appeal period is open until August 6, 2003. The next step for the Museum is a building permit.

June 12, 2003 Update

The Snoqualmie Hearing Examiner held a new Condition Use and Variance hearing on June 12 at 2:30 PM. He heard testimony from the appellants about failings in the city's process, allegations of incomplete applications, and the potential for an environmental disaster if the CRC project is allowed to go ahead. Appellants demanded that an Environmental Impact Statement be prepared. The Museum and the City of Snoqualmie refuted all of these arguments, many of which were simply revisiting arguments made at the January 23 hearing.

April 16, 2003 Update

The City of Snoqualmie Council heard the appeal on April 16, 2003. They considered the appellants presentation and learned that SEPA comments filed on January 22, 2003 were not considered by the Hearing Examiner in his decision. Council ruled that the permits be remanded back to the Hearing Examiner for a new hearing to consider those SEPA comments.

April 2, 2003 Update

The City of Snoqualmie has continued the appeal hearing until April 16, 2003 at 6:00 PM in the Union Hall. The presiding officer stated that council members were required to listen to an audio tape of the January 16, 2003 hearing. Unfortunately, several members indicated that they could not understand the hearing because of poor audio quality. The presiding officer indicated that the tapes would be sent out to a recording studio for enhancement to improve intelligibility and then resubmitted to the council members.

Appeal Filed

The City of Snoqualmie has received an appeal to the Northwest Railway Museum's Conditional Use Permit and Variances. The appeal seeks denial of the permits and alleges that the Hearing Examiner's approval of the permits was clearly erroneous. It provides 9 arguments in support of this claim. The appeal will be heard before City Council on April 2, 2003 at 6:00 PM in the Snoqualmie Police Station Emergency Operations Center (EOC) room.

Permitting Update

The Northwest Railway Museum is moving closer to construction of a new collection care facility. Additional preliminary engineering work requested by the City of Snoqualmie was completed in the summer and fall of 2002 On December 19, 2002, the City released a 42 page development report. This report includes a description of the project, results of numerous reviews including the State Environmental Policy Review (SEPA) and the conditions for a Mitigated Determination of Nonsignificance (MDNS). The report also includes findings and conclusions for the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and two Variances and a recommendation for approval. The CUP and Variance applications are reviewed and decided by the City of Snoqualmie Hearing Examiner, usually following a public hearing.

The City of Snoqualmie Hearing Examiner held a public hearing on January 16, 2003. At this 5-hour session, he heard testimony from 26 people about the project. 22 people spoke in favor of the proposal; 4 people spoke against it. The Examiner also considered written testimony received from the public during an earlier public comment period. 88 letters were received of which 87 letters supported the application and 1 opposed it.

On February 5, 2003, the Hearing Examiner approved a Conditional Use Permit and two Variances with one condition: compliance with the conditions contained in the Mitigated Determination of Nonsignificance (MDNS). Project opponents speaking at the hearing alleged that the proposed CRC would cause impacts to a nearby wetland due to increased surface water runoff, through the possible releases of hazardous materials and by the use of creosoted railroad ties. The Museum countered by citing detailed documentation included with the permit application that proved the design had fully considered all potential impacts to sensitive areas. Specifically,

There will be no increase in surface water runoff. All CRC roof water will be channeled to an underground dispersion and infiltration trench system designed to emulate the existing surface water infiltration rate.
The design (and conditions of the MDNS) require all work to be confined within the structure providing effective containment in the unlikely event that any hazardous materials were spilled.
Creosoted railroad ties have been used for over 100 years and numerous studies have demonstrated that they pose little threat to nearby wetlands. The Museum's application material cited a wetland-specific study of creosoted railroad ties conducted by Dr. Brooks in 1999.

The City of Snoqualmie hired a wetland biologist to conduct a peer review of the Museum's design. She also spoke at the hearing and supported the Museum's conclusions. In his decision, the Hearing Examiner concluded that "Significant consideration was made in the design of the CRC to ensure it is harmonious with the surrounding properties."

To view the full text of the Hearing Examiner's decision, click here.

CRC Center Cross Section

Project Overview

The Museum has been developing a plan to build this new museum facility for over five years. Named the Conservation and Restoration Center (CRC), it will be a specialized building for performing conservation, restoration and maintenance of historic railway transportation artifacts including steam locomotives, diesel-electric locomotives, passenger coaches, freight cars and maintenance of way vehicles such as cranes and snow plows. The CRC will allow all types of collection care to be performed inside a heated building, including the operational restoration of steam locomotives. Now nearly all collection care is performed outdoors exposed to the elements. Completion of the CRC will allow expansion of museum programs and facilitate improved collection care practices.

Sectional view of the proposed new 2 track Northwest Railway Museum collection care facility.

This elevation view of the CRC highlights the first phase of the project in the foreground and outlines the second phase (and second track) to the rear.

Major committed funders include the State of Washington, King County (Hotel-Motel Tax Fund), The Boeing Company, the Seattle Foundation , and the Quest for Truth Foundation.

The CRC will be an 8,100 square foot facility constructed adjacent to the main track, approximately 1.5 miles east of downtown Snoqualmie. The project will include approximately 1,000 feet of additional track to access the building and to store cars and locomotives. A volunteer parking area will also be built. The development will include a visitor gallery. Visitors will travel by train to visit this facility.

So you want to build a museum?

To build the CRC, the Northwest Railway Museum needs an impressive list of permits and approvals:

-SEPA Review (State Environmental Policy)

-Sensitive Areas Review

-Drainage Review

-Design Review

-Shoreline Substantial Development Permit

-Excavation (or Grading) Permit

-Zoning Conditional Use Permit

-Buffer Variance

-Flood Improvement Permit

-Building Setback Variance

-Building Permit

Project Site

The site is mostly cleared but surrounded by forest. Plans require the removal of just 6 significant trees, and the proposal includes a plan to plant many native-species seedlings adjacent to the new building and new tracks. The nearest development is Weber Construction a few hundred feet away. The nearest home is over 1,500 feet away.

The Museum continues to work through the City of Snoqualmie?s permit process to allow construction of the planned CRC

The Museum has been actively seeking permits for nearly 3 years, since February 2000. Normally, the permit process is supposed to be completed in just 120 days, but a variety of issues have delayed the Museum?s project. These include unfamiliarity of the city staff with railways and museums leading to errors in permit processing, a couple of property owners who do not share the Museum?s enthusiasm for the project, and some minor redesigns such as increased earthquake protection.

These delays in the permitting process have been frustrating for the Museum but have not been without benefit.

Locomotive 4024

The Northwest Railway Museum's locomotive 4024 inside the Umatilla Army Depot locomotive shop in Oregon, circa 1983. The new Conservation and Restoration Center will be very similar to this facility.

Note the depression between the rails. This area is called the inspection pit and allows workers to get under a car or locomotive. It is a feature essential for restoration and operation of a steam locomotive. It is also important for maintenance of diesel-electric locomotives and for passenger cars.

Restoration and operation of a steam locomotive is just one of many things the Conservation and Restoration Center will allow the Northwest Railway Museum to do that cannot do now.

Earlier this year our engineering consultants completed a review of the proposed foundation design. Some minor anomalies were found in the data used to complete the design, so a new test bore was ordered. When the soil samples were analyzed, the Geotechnical Engineer concluded a different, lower cost design foundation would be more earthquake resistant. Now the design specifies a technology called ?GeoPiers,? columns of super-compacted structural fill. When compared to driving piles, the construction of GeoPiers will be more environmentally friendly, more stable during an earthquake and less costly.

The permitting process and the conditions that it creates has another less positive impact: cost. The estimated cost of building the CRC has increased several hundred thousand dollars in the past two years and now stands at $1.2 Million. The Museum has raised over half.

The Museum plans to begin construction of the new CRC in the spring of 2003 and your help is needed. Several hundred thousand dollars must be raised to fund construction of the facility through to completion. Contributions to the Northwest Railway Museum are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. For more information, please contact Executive Director Richard R. Anderson by email at rra@trainmuseum.org or by telephone at (425) 888-3030 x201.

You can make a difference by donating today! Click here to display a contribution page in Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format that you can print and mail to the museum. Don't have Acrobat? Click here to visit the Adobe web site to download your free copy.

Conservation and Restoration Center site plan.

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The Northwest Railway Museum is located in Snoqualmie, Washington.

Please call us at (425) 888-3030, or email to info@trainmuseum.org