Northwest Railway Museum finds new coordinator for Railroad Days

Published 1:16 pm Thursday, February 18, 2016

After previously announcing a possible downsizing of Snoqualmie’s Railroad Days festival, the Northwest Railway Museum has found a volunteer to become the new event organizer for 2016.

Paul Timmerman, Snoqualmie resident, treasurer of the Washington Civil War Association and volunteer at the Northwest Railway Museum, has stepped up to the role of festival coordinator for this year’s Railroad Days.

“I’ve had a long-standing interest in history and living history for a long time,” Timmerman said. “It’s an exciting opportunity for me to help keep it going and seeing if there are things we can do to make it better.”

Peggy Barchi, marketing and events manager at the museum and former Railroad Days coordinator, could no longer spend 25 percent of her time focusing on a three-day event while the museum geared up for a busy year of change, including construction of a new education center building. She spoke with Timmerman about helping with the festival throughout 2015 and in late December finalized his involvement.

“Paul has graciously stepped forward to be the overall coordinator, so he’ll work with me but I’m going to be a step removed so I am not doing the day-to-day things this year,” Barchi said. “The museum will still be the organization that is in charge and coordinates everything and it obviously affects our budget, so Paul will be working really closely with myself and Richard Anderson, our director.”

Timmerman, originally from New Hampshire, said by leveraging the history of Snoqualmie they could drive more engagement from the community.

“Financially, it is very beneficial to a community. I’ve seen communities back East that benefit significantly by leveraging their cultural and historical connections,” he said.

“Those things all come together to do good things for the community. But right now it’s focusing on Railroad Days and focusing on what gaps we have to fill in order to do a good job this summer.”

Right now, Timmerman is in the early stages of planning and is identifying which organizations are coming back to contribute to or sponsor the event in 2016 as well as finding new groups or individuals to help out.

Some organizations that have been involved in past years have already committed to supporting the 2016 event.

The Railway Museum is also looking for volunteers to help run events during the festival.

“If we get a good, strong, volunteer crew, no one person would have to put so much time into it and yet it can still be the same fun festival it always has been,” Barchi said.

“This is Snoqualmie’s festival, we are trying to keep it alive, but to do it. You need folks who are willing to step in and help,” she said. “As the old saying goes, many hands make the work light.”

Civil war re-enactor Paul Timmerman, who is leading the efforts for the 2016 Railroad Days event, is pictured second from left at the 2015 event. With him, from left, are  re-enactors Audun Holland, Robert Ballard, Ian Melendez and Jack Parsons.