~Guest post by North Bend resident Cristy Lake: Executive Director, Snoqualmie Valley Museum; Deputy Director, Northwest Railway Museum; past King County Landmarks Commission Chair; MA in Historical Archaeology.
The Family of Jared TF Alery, a passionate, successful CAT Marine Diesel Technician, leaves a legacy for future generations to experience a piece of railway history.
Jared Thomas Fredrick Alery of Issaquah, WA, unexpectedly died in August 2023 at just 29. Jared was born and raised in Stevens Point, WI, the son of David and Lisa Alery. He attended Pacelli Catholic Schools from K—12. Upon graduation, he focused his passion at WyoTech in Laramie, WY and earned his Associate’s Degree in Advanced Diesel and Business Management.
After graduating at the top of his class with the highest honors and perfect attendance, he moved to Issaquah, WA and began his career with NC Machinery. He started as a diesel technician in the rental equipment arena but quickly outgrew that role and transitioned to heavy equipment.
His ultimate goal was to dive into the Marine Division, which he achieved and excelled at these past five years. The Marine Division took him on adventures worldwide to Tahiti, Hawaii, Alaska, and Gulf Shores. Work included the Department of Defense, the Navy and Army, tug boat operators and many private vessels. He was an expert in his field and highly respected and regarded amongst his co-workers and clientele.
Throughout his life, Jared was an avid adventurer and go-getter. He achieved the highest award in Boy Scouts of America, the Eagle Scout, with Troop 298. Anything with wheels, a dirt bike, motorcycle, ATV, Jeep or diesel engine, was his calling. After a long day riding around in the sand dunes of Eastern WA with friends, he could be found enjoying a campfire with a cold New Glarus Spotted Cow and a bag of WI cheese curds.
He was also passionate about railways and volunteered at the Northwest Railway Museum, helping restore its historic artifacts. Railways changed everything: settlement patterns, how people ate, the physical landscape and environment, how goods moved, and how economies functioned, among so many other aspects of life. This influence began with steam-powered locomotives but grew exponentially with the arrival of diesel-electric engines, which operated much more efficiently. Passionate about railways and locomotives, Jared innately understood the importance of early diesel-electric locomotives and the importance of sharing their role in our history.
The Northwest Railway Museum recently began restoring Northern Pacific Locomotive 125, the oldest existing Northern Pacific diesel-electric locomotive to operate in Washington State. Historically, this locomotive was just the second diesel-electric locomotive on the Northern Pacific Railway and was first operated in Seattle switching the docks along the waterfront where it served as their locomotive 125.
In 1949, the NP sold the locomotive to the Walla Walla Valley Railway, where it was renumbered 770. It replaced an electric locomotive just as that interurban line shut down its electric overhead. It spent several periods in the late 1950s building trains at King Street Station when it was leased back to the Northern Pacific and subleased to King Street Station. By 1971, the locomotive was sold to leasing company Relco and, by the early 1980s, was assigned to Continental Grain in Longview.
The locomotive was later purchased by the Port of Longview. In the early 2000s, the Port of Longview retired their locomotive 770, an Alco model HH660 built in February 1940. The Northwest Railway Museum purchased the locomotive from the port and stored it at their facilities until 2021, when it was moved to Snoqualmie. In 2023, the Museum began work on restoring this unique artifact.
Restoring historic artifacts following the National Park Service Standards of Restoration, takes skilled staff and volunteers, time and funding. In life, Jared was able to give his skills and time to the Museum. With his passing, his family felt they could carry on his legacy through also supporting the funding component of restoration work.
When Jared passed away in August 2023, his family felt the best way to honor his memory and allow his Legacy to carry on was to establish the Jared TF Alery Vocations Trust. With this trust, they support programs that share Jared’s vision. In September 2024, the Jared TF Alery Vocations Trust donated over $30,000 in Jared’s memory to help bring back Northern Pacific Locomotive 125 to operating conditions so that future visitors can experience the excitement of seeing and riding on this piece of history that changed the railway industry in the region from steam power to diesel-electric, forever changing the world of trains.
The Jared TF Alery Vocations Trust has also set up an endowment scholarship for WyoTech students at LoveTrades Foundation so that future students can join the trades just as Jared did. Jared had a generous heart and compassion, willing to help anyone anytime. The Alery family is honored to bring those wonderful traits of Jared’s to fruition through these grants. They want to encourage young people passionate about diesel to pursue their dreams. These opportunities challenge future generations of diesel technicians to be as big-hearted, focused, and successful as Jared.
The Northwest Railway Museum is pleased to support the Alery family in continuing Jared’s Legacy through this restoration project so that future generations can see and experience the excitement of a working railway while also preserving important stories and artifacts from our past. The Northwest Railway Museum is also pleased that the family has created the trades scholarship so that in the future, there will be other young people with the skill set to help carry on important restoration work.
For more information about the Northwest Railway Museum, visit TrainMuseum.org.
