ELBE, Wash. — A major wooden trestle on the Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad has been destroyed in a potential arson fire, a major blow that has the operation asking for financial support.
The heritage railway, in a Facebook post, says a fire at a 28-span bridge between Mineral and Morton, Wash., was reported about 6:40 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30. It took fire crews more than an hour to reach the scene, and by then, the railroad says, “the damage was done.”
The Lewis County Sheriff’s Office has identified a “person of interest” involved with the fire, the railroad reports — but also notes that a photo of a railroad volunteer, who is not a person of interest, was released as part of Sheriff’s Office investigation.
The Mt. Rainier Scenic has updated its initial report to note that its previously scheduled operations are continuing, as the bridge was on a portion of its line that was still being restored.
In a Friday, May 2, Faceb0ok video showing a collapse of portions of the bridge, the railroad says the state Department of Natural Resources has determined the fire was human-caused.
The bridge had been rebuilt 20 years ago and was still structurally sound, the railroad says. It burned just after the sale of the railroad had been finalized.
“That span carried more than trains,” the railroad said on Facebook. “It carried the weight of our financial stability, our plans for local industry, and the future of the communities we serve. … we don’t know what the path forward looks like yet, but we do know we need help.”
The railroad says it will post updates and photos later today, but for now has launched a GoFundMe page to help reopen the railroad. “Donations will go toward whatever that now requires — including insurance deductibles, legal costs, and eventually, bridge replacement and recovery planning,”” according to that page.
As of 7:30 p.m. CT on May 1, the page had received $22,692 toward a goal reset to $45,000.
The Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad was shut down by owner American Heritage Railways in 2020, with the company — owner of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, among other properties — citing the cost of rehabilitating the operation, as well as the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic [see “American Heritage says it will work …,” Trains News Wire, May 20, 2020]. The Western Forest Industries Museum subsequently acquired the railroad and began limited excursions in fall 2023, while working toward a full resumption of service [see “Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad returns to operation,” News Wire, Sept. 7, 2023].
— Updated at 7:30 p.m. CT with additional information, revised fundraising figures; updated May 2 at 12:20 p.m. CT with link to video of fire.
I know a lot of people ask the same question, “why would someone do such a thing?”. I am not a psychiatrist but I have read many stories over the years about community and local efforts to rebuild historical railroad artifacts, only to have an arsonist set it to flames shortly thereafter.
Usually the perp resents the fact that everyone is so worked up on something that has no value to them. When a major milestone is applauded publicly, they want to take them down a notch. (so to speak)
One local town saved an old RR freight barn, moved it to a donated piece of land by having a very public fundraiser that raised over $14k. A night later, it was burned to the ground. The perp was never caught.
Another small town raised money to restore and remodel an old passenger depot into a museum for the community. They had done a very public fund raising campaign. 2 nights later an arsonist damaged it severely. In this case the perp was caught, a 14 year old boy who resented the fact that he had nothing, but people were spending all this time and money and he saw nothing in it for him.
The answer is obviously to continue to do public fundraising, and it is impossible to suave every disgruntled person, but there is a mentality out there who resents the attention and money spent on things like railroad history.
When people make an inanimate object the subject of attention that is usually reserved for actual people doing something, it can trigger these responses.
A big worry has always when preserving RR items to add in good fire detection and protection. That is especially true for buildings that were around a lot of steam operations due to the coal dust fallout being very volatile.
These wooden bridge fires are a national problem. The problem is not easily solved as the replacement costs for some bridges are very steep.
Very sad news. I visited the Mt. Rainier Scenic RR years ago and really enjoyed the train ride and tour of the shops. I hope they are able to secure the funding to replace the bridge and resume operations. Definitely worthy of a donation in my opinion.