October 10, 2014

All Aboard Washington's annual membership meeting will be on November 8 from 1 p.m.-3:30 p.m. in the community room at the Centralia Amtrak Station.

Speakers include Kirk Fredrickson, WSDOT Rail Division, Dan McFarling of the Assoc. of Oregon Rail and Transit Advocates and Cascadia’s Bruce Agnew. NARP board member Jim Hamre will recap the recent NARP council meeting in Salt Lake City and Lloyd Flem will have a post-mortem of the Nov 4 General Election’s probable impact on passenger rail.

Our meeting will again feature AAWA’s silent auction, returning after skipping 2013. The silent auction will run from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. so as not to overlap with the meeting. Auction items include some very high-quality model railroad kits; excellent hard-cover books on railroads and rail history (plus other non-rail topics); overnight stays with meals at two distractive downtown Centralia Hotels (the historic Olympic Club Hotel, and Centralia Square – the remodeled classic Centralia Elks building); and two tickets ($39 each value) to the Seattle Symphony concert on February 21. Many other good items, including a very large, imposing piece of railroad infrastructure.

We will be able to accept credit cards for payment this year. Everyone is encouraged to attend and bid high for distinctive holiday gifts.

Both McMenamin’s and Centralia Square, along with Talgo, are sponsors of our meeting. We suggest lunch on your own before the meeting at one of our sponsors or other nearby establishments.

Use our Northwest trains to and from the meeting. Suggested trains: To Centralia from the north, Amtrak #501 or #11. Back home , Amtrak #516. To Centralia from the south, Amtrak #500. Back home, Amtrak #507.

Hope to see you in Centralia on November 8.