The Northwest Railway Museum’s latest acquisition is a train car unlike any other.

The 109-year-old “Messenger of Peace,” which rolled into Snoqualmie on Sunday, Sept. 13, is one of a handful of chapel cars that roamed the rails many decades ago.

“It’s basically a mobile church,” said museum director Richard Anderson.

Messenger of Peace has a colorful history. The car was built in Dayton, Ohio, and was dedicated in 1898 in Buffalo, N.Y., as a chapel car for the American Baptist Publication Society, which helped set up churches across America.

In many frontier towns, if you didn’t have a place of worship, the place of worship came to you. However, the chapel cars were a rare breed. Only 15 chapel cars have been documented in the United States, Anderson said.

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