SNOQUALMIE, Wash. — The Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie has acquired a Series VI Talgo Bistro car for preservation, the museum has announced.
The museum has announced the car — the last surviving Series VI car — is due to arrive today from a scrap yard in Indianapolis. While the car was donated, with its arrival, the museum will launch a fundraiser to offset the $26,000 cost of its move.
The Series VI equipment was a fixture on the Vancouver-Seattle-Portland Amtrak Cascades route from 1998 through 2020. Five of the unique tilting-carbody trainsets eventually operated in Cascades service, three owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation and two owned by Amtrak.
Their service life came to an end following the fatal 2017 derailment of one of the trainsets in a derailment in Dupont, Wash., after the National Transportation Safety Board report questioned the safety of the equipment’s design. The equipment was retired in 2020 with the end of its maintenance contract; the Washington-owned sets were scrapped in 2021 and the Amtrak-owned sets were sold for scrap last year.
A last-minute negotiation by the museum led to the preservation and donation of the Bistro car, which was one of the signature features of the Talgo equipment, donated by the Rail Excursion Management Co., or Railexco.
Designed by rail designer César Vergara, whose wide-ranging work at Amtrak includes the Cascades equipment and the Phase III locomotive scheme popularly dubbed the “Pepsi can” [see “Behind Amtrak’s new locomotive designs,” Trains News Wire, March 18, 2021], the Bistro design avoided the use of straight lines and features an illuminated ceiling map of the Cascades corridor from central Oregon to southern British Columbia. The museum intends to use the Bistro car to highlight not only modern rail passenger service in the Pacific Northwest, but also the career of Vergara.
“Railexco is thrilled to have been in the position to donate the unique Cascades Talgo Bistro to the Northwest Railway Museum,” said Railexco CEO Adam Auxier. “I personally rode the Talgos numerous times and have sung their praises both in Cascades service and RENFE’s TrenHotel operation [in Spain]. The rest of the two former Amtrak owned sets were scrapped in Indiana by our team, but not before all useful parts were pulled for re-use. The bike racks made their way to my garage to house our bikes. The distinctive table lamps were saved, with one going to the train’s original designed Cesar Vergara; the rest are being refurbished for re-use as this goes to print.”
The museum says on its website that “this sole remaining car is exceptionally significant due to both César Vergara’s beautiful design work and its contributions to the perception of passenger rail travel. The car’s significance has made it eligible to be considered for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.”
More information on the Bistro car project is available at the museum website.
— Updated at 5:25 p.m. to acknowledge donation by Railexco and with additional information.
The Northwest Railway Museum (NRM) in Snoqualmie, King County, Washington incorporates a heritage railway, historic depot, exhibit hall, library, and collection care center. It was founded in 1957 as the Puget Sound Railway Historical Association and took its current name in September 1999. The mission of the organization is to develop and operate an outstanding railway museum where the public can see and understand the role of railroads in the development of the Pacific Northwest, and experience the excitement of a working railroad.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
If I ever go to the PNW, I’m immediately going to visit this bistro car.
Way too soon to be a museum piece.
Thanks go out to Adam Auxier!
Huzzah! Glad to see a piece of PNW railroad history saved for future generations to see!