{"id":34514,"date":"2018-05-07T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T15:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/northwest\/railway-museum-acquires-117-year-old-parlor-car-from-whidbey-island\/"},"modified":"2018-05-11T18:14:10","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T01:14:10","slug":"railway-museum-acquires-117-year-old-parlor-car-from-whidbey-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/northwest\/railway-museum-acquires-117-year-old-parlor-car-from-whidbey-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Railway Museum acquires 117-year old Parlor Car from Whidbey Island"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
After spending more than 60 years as a cottage on Whidbey Island, the 117-year-old Parlor Car 1799 is coming to the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Built in 1901 by the Pullman Company in Illinois, Parlor Car 1799 was operated by the Northern Pacific Railway from Seattle to Yakima until 1940. The car is one of two train cars built to a specific design specification called a “plan number” and is the only survivor of the two.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Richard Anderson, executive director of the Northwest Railway Museum, explained that parlor cars, or parlor sections of train cars, were more spacious and comfortable for passengers willing to pay higher prices.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“For people just on a day trip, perhaps they were going to Ellensburg or Yakima, the idea of the parlor car was to provide a better accommodation for someone who is willing to pay more,” he said. “It was the business class of 1901.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
By the late 1930s, several changes, such as as better seating and air conditioning, had been made to train cars which led to older models falling out of favor.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
According to Anderson, a railroad executive working for Northern Pacific Railway in Auburn purchased the car in 1941 and moved it to Whidbey Island to use as a cottage. The train car was treated very respectfully as only a few modifications had been made to the interior. In addition, the car itself was kept under a roof, which protected it from rain and snow.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“They used a lot of respect to route the pipes and wiring and it’s been used that way for 77 years,” Anderson said.<\/p>\n