Snoqualmie Valley History: Casey Jones Excursion Trains Offered a Glimpse of the Past

~Guest Post by Noah Heutchy, Snoqualmie Valley Museum Volunteer

On a Sunday afternoon in December, excited valley residents lined the streets awaiting the arrival of the passenger train to Snoqualmie. Stores were ready for customers, hot dogs awaiting purchase at the American Legion Hall, Firemen were ready to act as hosts, and residents with their private transportation were ready to give tours of the local sites. 

The arrival of a passenger train was not unusual for many residents’ ancestors, but in 1956, it was a first. It had been over 20 years since a passenger train pulled into the Snoqualmie station, and everyone was ready to give the riders a warm, small-town welcome.  

This first Casey Jones Excursion train was a product of nostalgia. It was a project of Carol Cornish, a retired semi-invalid in her 70s from Seattle. She and several others were reminiscing about the good old days of rail travel by steam locomotive and decided it would be fun to have one last ride before all the steam locomotives were turned to scrap metal. 

They discovered that the Northern Pacific Railroad owned a steam locomotive capable of hauling passenger cars and contacted the Railroad, which said it could be chartered. Miss Cornish gave her phone number as the contact for purchasing tickets; a notice was published in the Seattle Daily Times. The response was overwhelming! More tickets were sold than the train could accommodate, even though the railway managed to gather up 13 passenger cars and a diesel engine to assist the old steam locomotive up hills. 

On the morning of December 2, 1956, approximately 2000 eager passengers arrived at King Street Station, excited to board the train for this historic trip. Since traditionally, children under 6 rode the train for free without a ticket; this oversight was the primary cause of excess passengers. Those who arrived later were left behind, tickets and picnic lunch in hand, placated only by the promise of tickets for a future trip.

“Old Betsy,” known officially as Northern Pacific 1372, chugged out of King Street Station, hauling 13 passenger cars carrying an estimated 1300 riders between them. The excitement spread beyond those on the train. As Charlotte Paul Groshell wrote in the North Bend Record, “Whenever the tracks parallelled the road or highway, cars were parked, and children were waving from the open windows while father or mother or both were busy with their cameras.  Autos followed the train’s progress for mile after mile.”  

The Casey Jones Excursion train headed north up past the University of Washington and Sand Point and then east. In Kenmore, the train was stopped by two “old prospectors” standing with a mule on the tracks. “Bandits” boarded the train while masked horsemen rode along beside. Despite their menacing appearance, the “bandits” purpose was not to cause harm but to hand out leaflets educating the passengers about the benefits of living in Kenmore. 

After this unscheduled stop, the train continued its travels through Redmond, along Lake Sammamish, and through Issaquah, above Fall City and Snoqualmie Falls. Old Betsy finally pulled into Snoqualmie around 1:20 pm, where the entire town had gathered to welcome the train and its passengers.

Locals and train passengers alike took time to examine the steam locomotive before it took a solo trip up to North Bend to take on water and turn around at the “Y.” While the engine was away, nearly 300 passengers enjoyed site-seeing trips of the local area led by local residents driving their private vehicles. Excursionists ate their picnic lunches on board the train or in the nearby grass and enjoyed shopping and the hospitality of various organizations in Snoqualmie. 

The first Casey Jones Excursion passengers returned to Seattle praising their welcoming reception in Snoqualmie. Excursion organizer and passenger Carol Cornish wrote a letter of thanks to “the wonderful people of Snoqualmie,” which was published in the North Bend Record.  In this letter, she thanked the town for their hospitality, noting that “with such short notice, it was nothing short of a miraculous achievement – so well organized it seemed to move along like clockwork.  This is thoroughly appreciated and merits its heartiest congratulations.”

Certainly, the warm reception given by the residents contributed to the success of this historic train excursion. Two more Casey Jones Excursions to Snoqualmie were scheduled in the spring of 1957. When Old Betsy pulled into Snoqualmie on April 28^th and May 5^th, valley residents again turned out in droves to welcome the passengers. Not everyone was present for this welcome, as some locals were on board the train. 

“We especially felt the spirit of the occasion, for we’ve heard the stories of our grandparents who came here years before the railroad.” wrote Fall City resident and Casey Jones passenger Elva Polley.  It was not all nostalgia, though, some of the ride was simply thrilling. Of this, Polley wrote that “the high trestles gave us a queer feeling, first the one at Issaquah and then Raging River.  By the time we crossed the trestles between old Fall City station and the Falls, we were quite inured to the feeling of just riding out into space.”

The Casey Jones Excursions continued for 11 years, though after Old Betsy was scrapped at the end of 1957, diesel engines pulled the historic passenger cars. Excursions also expanded beyond the Snoqualmie Valley, and other cities in Washington, such as Cle Elum, Olympia, and Sumas, were visited. In addition to sightseeing excursions, the Casey Jones Excursion train transported riders from Seattle to local annual events, such as the North Bend Jamboree and the Ellensburg Rodeo.

On Sunday, June 9, 1968, a diesel engine towing two passenger cars steamed out of Seattle. At the time, no one realized this would be the last Casey Jones Excursion. The train followed a similar route to the first trip but included visiting North Bend. On the way back to Seattle, the train stopped for an hour in Snoqualmie so passengers could see the Puget Sound and Snoqualmie Valley Railroad. The same day the last Casey Jones passengers enjoyed this trip, Miss Carol Cornish, the woman behind the excursions, passed away at age 82.  

[Feature Image: Casey Jones Excursion Train Snoqualmie Valley Museum Historical Photograph Collection 1122.0001]

References

• Cornish, Carol. “Valley Voices.” North Bend Record, December 13, 1956.
• Dunphy, Stephen H. “No More Passenger Cars: Finding trains a Problem for Casey Jones Excursions.” The Seattle Daily Times, September 7, 1969.
• Fish, Byron. “’Casey Jones Special,’ Capacity 1,092, Carries 1,300-Plus.” Seattle Daily Times, December 3, 1956.
• Fish, Laurie. “The Woman Behind Seattle’s ‘Casey Jones’ Excursions.” Seattle Daily Times, December 1, 1957.
• Groshell, Charlotte Paul. “Everyone Loves Old Choo-Choo Train!” North Bend Record, December 6, 1956.
• Polley, Elva. “All Aboard!” The North Bend Record, May 2, 1957.