Cascade Rail Foundation joins Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive

Cascade Rail Foundation (CRF) is pleased to announce that it has joined the railroad history organizations leasing archive space from the recently formed Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive (PNRA) in Burien, WA.  This will improve storage conditions and public access for our collections of documents and photographs.  The rest of our collections will continue to be stored in South Cle Elum.

CRF works to further the public understanding of and appreciation for railroad history in Washington, particularly the history of the Milwaukee Road.  Our collections support this purpose, and includes material pertaining to the Pacific Coast Extension as well as system-wide materials that provide insight on activities of the railroad in Washington. These materials are key to the development of books, magazine articles, and exhibits that tell the story of the railroad, which are necessary to perpetuate the memory of the Milwaukee Road and the efforts of the individuals that made it work.

Help Needed
We hope the Milwaukee Road community will support us in this endeavor.  While financial support and donations of Milwaukee Road materials are needed and greatly appreciated, to make our collections truly accessible we are establishing a group of local, dedicated volunteers to organize, digitize, and catalog material.  We’d like to organize regular work parties at the archive in Burien at least once a month starting in 2011.  If you’re interested in participating, please contact me directly at kruegerp@nwlink.com.

About PNRA
PNRA’s mission is to provide affordable, secure archival space and services for the participating railroad historical organizations that will enable them to make their materials available to the general public.  By combining efforts of the organizations through joint use of shared facilities, equipment and training, each organization can forgo the significant expense of operating their own archive.  The emphasis at PNRA is on preserving collections both physically and digitally, while making the collections much more accessible.  The internet will be the primary venue for providing access to the collections, though researchers will also be able to access materials in the physical collections by appointment.  Other organizations currently leasing space at PNRA include the Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association and Great Northern Historical Society.  More information is available about PNRA is available at http://pnrarchive.org/.

Paul Krueger
Secretary
Cascade Rail Foundation
www.milwelectric.org

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