LYNNWOOD — Gary Rogers’ family moved to Alderwood Manor in 1952 so he could have a horse.
“This was all country out here then,” he said. “There was no such thing as Lynnwood.”
He graduated from Edmonds High School six years later and went to work for the railroad, starting as a sheet metal apprentice.
Rogers, now 75 and retired, serves as a docent, or caretaker, for Car 55, an Interurban trolley that ran between Seattle and Everett from 1910 to 1939.
Car 55 is kept in the trolley barn at Heritage Park in Lynnwood. Rogers and his wife, Jeanne, also a trolley docent, recently cleaned up the barn before an open house this weekend.
Gary Rogers sees the trolley as part of the area’s heritage and, in turn, his own, he said. His wife’s connection is personal, too.
Her father, Walter Shannon, was a trolley motorman. Before Shannon died, he helped guide the restoration of Car 55.
Back in the day, folks went out on the trolley line to look at newly logged farmlands, advertised as perfect for “chicken raising,” Gary Rogers said. Heritage Park commemorates that history.
After the trolleys stopped rolling, Car 55 was turned into a restaurant along Evergreen Way until the late 1950s. Then it became a railroad ticket office in the Snoqualmie area.
Somehow, it ended up in storage. The city of Lynnwood got hold of the car in 1993 and asked Shannon, Jeanne’s dad, for advice. Pictures from trolley times were in black and white, so the city needed her dad to remember the right paint colors, said Jeanne, 68.
The trolley now is Boston Green with a Pheasant Red stripe, though it used to be Pullman Green with gold, she said.
The trolley was moved to the park in 2003. The Rogers woke up at 3 a.m. to bring Shannon to watch. He died three weeks later, before the grand opening.
A contractor did much of the restoration work. Gary Rogers and other retired railroad crews volunteered to finish the interior. City parks staff helped. Burgundy naugahyde seats were installed.
Many of the curved mahogany panels inside are the originals.
“You just don’t see this anymore, the craftsmanship involved,” Gary said.
The panels once held advertisement posters, as happens today on modern buses. In the trolley days, the biggest advertisers were cigarette companies. The trolley’s men’s compartment was where the smoking and spitting took place.
The Rogers have donated countless hours of their time, said Sarah Olson of the city parks department. They helped stitch everything together to make the history of the park meaningful, she said.
“As a duo, they’re just fantastic,” Olson said. “We just have been very, very blessed with the level of expertise and knowledge that they bring.”
The Rogers met through coworkers on the railroad. They married in 1986 and later moved to south Everett. They hold hands across the trolley aisle.
Many of the trolley pictures on the displays inside the barn came from Walter Shannon’s collection.
On tours, little kids always ask: “Is this Thomas?” referencing the fictional tank engine from TV.
No, the Rogers tell them. They call it Walter.
Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.
Pay a visit
Car 55, the trolley at Lynnwood’s Heritage Park, at 19921 Poplar Way, is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. the first Saturday of every month from June through September. The first open house of the season is Saturday.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
