YOU can help us save a 130-year-old piece of regional and railroad history! Don't let the Peninsular Railway & Lumberman's Museum lose our chance to bring back one of Mason County's most important links to its heritage, as well as a potential-full economic opportunity for the region. We are petitioning the City of Shelton to cease demolition of the Simpson Railroad main track and rail yards within the city limits.

The Simpson Railroad was operated by the Simpson Timber Company, a logging and mill giant in the northwest since the 1890s. Until 2015, the Simpson Railroad operated a variety of nearly one-of-a-kind equipment over these ancient rails to supply logs to the company sawmill in downtown Shelton. Towards the end of the railroad's commercial iteration, they held the claim of "Last Logging Railroad in the United States".

In 2017, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit group was founded under the name Peninsular Railway & Lumberman's Museum (PRLM), with a mission to preserve the rich history of the Olympic Peninsula's timber industry and the rails that fed it, specifically reviving the Simpson Railroad and its unique equipment as a living history museum and tourist train, preserving the last logging railroad.

Now, as of February 2022, we are closer than ever before to a complete revival of our railroad. The once dormant rails through the hills of Mason County were soon to become a profitable, versatile and beneficial regional asset once again. As of mid-February, however, the City of Shelton commenced demolition of the rail to construct a rail-trail over around a mile and a half of the historic Simpson mainline and rail yards. Without notice to the PRLM, the state Utilities and Transportation Commission or the Surface Transportation Board, the city began removal of track components from the railroad downtown. It should be noted that Shelton denies the fact that the PRLM has an active lease on the portion of track owned by the city for our near-future reactivation, which we have in-hand.

Furthermore, the city is removing rail which connects to track owned by a private entity, cutting them and their potential customers off from any hope of future rail service and economic development. The PRLM still has an obligation through commission to develop service on this soon-to-be-isolated private rail, a goal the PRLM has been striving to achieve for several years. Even suffering immense setbacks due to COVID, we are nearly ready to begin cultivating revenue service on our line once again. Our dedicated team of volunteers has been working hard both in the field and behind the scenes to bring the railroad up to a class 1 track, common carrier standing to further our position as an important and viable economic contributor in Mason County. Nevertheless, the city is attempting to make our commission a physical impossibility by severing our one and only link to the national rail interchange network, with nearly no communication whatsoever. Building a common carrier railroad from scratch with a small volunteer crew is no easy task, and the city will not even give us a chance to prove how fantastic of an asset we can be for the local economy. 

We are truly within reach of turning the 100+ year old Simpson mainline into both a source to boost regional tourism as well as an asset to serve the business needs of customers locally and nationally. Please, stand with the Simpson Railroad to make sure that this great historical and commercial link is not lost to time and will be operational for generations to come.

For more information about the Simpson Railroad and the efforts to revive it, please visit our website and our Facebook page.