In the late 1800s, railroads offered a pathway to life-changing opportunities and travel to other areas of North America. The western railroads took people across thousands of miles of open prairie and desert, over rugged mountains, and through virgin forests and were impressive examples of human vision, effort and cooperation.
Railroads are a major part of the heritage of the Pacific Northwest and helped shape the region, position and name its towns, foster communications and strengthen its economic life. In the first half of the last century, the people who lived in the region were here because railroads brought their families, offered employment, provided low cost land for settlement, or supplied the transportation essential to pursue business development.
In the Pacific Northwest region of the United States there are a number of significant collections of railroad-related photographs, timetables, correspondence, maps, technical drawings, project files, etc., which have been gathered over the last century by well informed people who may or may not have worked for one of the region’s railroads. These people are approaching the age when they want to find a home for their collections where the items will be honored, preserved and made available to the general public and researchers.
Virtually every railroad in the United States has a Railroad History Organization (RHO) whose mission is to preserve the history of its railroad and to generate understanding of its importance to the nation. The RHOs strive to develop their collections and increase the availability of those collections to their members and the general public, but nearly all lack the space, equipment and people to meet the goal.
Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive (PNRA) was formed by a consortium of non-profit RHOs to own and operate an archive facility in Burien, Washington. PNRA allows the RHOs to share expenses and thereby acquire affordable space and services to preserve the histories of their railroads. The RHO collections are preserved both physically and digitally, allowing the collections to be accessed over the internet by anyone interested in railroad history. PNRA is not a museum that provides public access to physical collections. Rather, it operates as an Archive, providing internet access to the collections, although researchers may access materials in the physical collections by appointment.
PNRA is registered as a nonprofit corporation in the State of Washington and has received exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. In June 2010, PNRA purchased a three-story, 7,500 square foot building in Burien, Washington, with sufficient space for all the anticipated Archive activities. This location is close to Sea-Tac Airport, accessed by good bus service from most parts of the region, as well as by two freeways and is ten miles southwest of downtown Seattle. The Archive is funded from operating revenues, individual contributions and grant funding.
PNRA provides digital equipment for volunteers from the RHOs to scan and catalog their collections. As well, it offers customized web sites giving worldwide access to the RHO collections. The PNRA operates in a manner similar to a stock photo agency, marketing and fulfilling copies of photos and documents from the RHO collections and requests for restricted use rights. PNRA also assembles interpretive exhibits promoting railroad history for display at museums and community centers throughout the region. Revenues generated from these services are divided between PNRA and the RHOs owning the originating collections.
RHOs active in PNRA present a credible proposal to potential donors and their families who donate material will be honored and preserved for the future generations. Currently, three RHOs are active member-RHOs in PNRA. They are Great Northern Railway Historical Society, Northern Pacific Railway Historical Association and the Cascade Rail Foundation representing the Milwaukee Road in Washington State. In addition, the Boeing Employee Model Railroad Club has leased dedicated space to build an HO-scale layout. Participating RHOs retain ownership of their collections and pay PNRA fees for use of space to store, digitize and catalog their collections and for other services provided by the PNRA.
Please refer all questions and information requests to:
Pacific Northwest Railroad Archive
425 SW 153rd Street
Burien, WA 98166
Info@PNRArchive.comcastbiz.net