After a tentative partnership was announced in April, the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad will not operate steam train excursions from Chehalis this summer, the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad & Museum has confirmed.
When first announced, the plan was to have the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad operating on the track in Chehalis from June to October 2023.
However, during a meeting on July 12, the Chehalis-Centralia Railroad & Museum (CCRM) board “agreed that this agreement is not going to be executed this year and will put the idea on hold,” according to meeting minutes.
“CCRM has not given up hope and continues to explore other options,” board President Mary Kay Nelson wrote in a statement to The Chronicle. “During this hiatus, work continues on deferred maintenance on the track and bridges.”
The contract between the two railroad organizations would have had CCRM serve as the “landlord” for the rail line and the train yard, with the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad running the operation itself with its own trains.
CCRM lost its liability insurance coverage in March 2022, halting all passenger service until further notice. The group did acquire premises-liability insurance about a month later, which has allowed for stationary events on trains at the Chehalis depot and for crews to make improvements to the property, including about a dozen miles of train tracks.
Meanwhile, the Mt. Rainier railroad has been working to hire staff and repair its tracks between Elbe and Mineral after suspending all operations in May 2020, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In April 2023, Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad announced “RailCycle” excursions, where patrons can ride the tracks on pedal-powered rail bikes. At the time, the railroad stated plans to run the RailCycle venture out of Eatonville and steam train excursions out of Chehalis.
The two railroads have differing accounts of why the partnership was put on hold.
Rainier railroad’s executive director Bethan Maher, according to CCRM, told Nelson the organization had “dedicated all their available resources, both financial and personnel, to the Mt. Rainier RailCycle adventure” and were “forced to concentrate exclusively on this project,” according to the minutes from Chehalis-Centralia Railroad & Museum’s July 12 meeting.
During the conversation, Nelson, according to the minutes, reportedly “explored the possibility of late season operations by (Rainier) on our line,” but claimed Maher “was not optimistic.”
Ultimately, the CCRM board members “agreed the partnership is a great idea, but unfortunately is not viable at this time,” per the minutes.
One Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad representative, however, told The Chronicle in a written statement on July 31, “We received notification on July 13 that the CCRM board voted to put the partnership on hold as they work through their own challenges and funding concerns. Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad received a generous donation, allowing us to perform necessary repairs to our own tracks and bridges. We will begin running a limited steam excursion schedule beginning on Sept. 1.”
Head to https://mtrainierrailroad.com for more information on the Rainier Scenic Railroad’s excursion schedule.
