Museum celebrates seven years

REARDAN – Approximately 400 people flocked to the Inland Northwest Rail Museum on Saturday, Aug. 12, to celebrate the museum's seventh anniversary.

Many of the visitors purchased train tickets allowing them the opportunity to be the first passengers in 55 years to ride in two restored railroad cars on a short segment of the museum's tracks.

Prior to boarding the Spokane, Portland & Seattle, Mount St. Helens buffet lounge car and the Great Northern passenger car, visitors snacked on refreshments, toured the museum and perused displays provided by railroad historical societies and model railroad groups.

"The museum did a great job restoring the passenger car,"Adam Walser of Devil's Gap said as he deboarded the train with a couple of excited kids. "The kids really loved the ride. If it had been longer, it would have been too hot. Any shorter, the kids wouldn't have been satisfied."

Museum president Dale Swant said the museum's anniversary was a huge success. Many visitors requested the train rides be a weekly event.

"I am very pleased with how well things went," he said. "Everybody loved it. We hope to do it again at Christmas time."