Bumblebee Special, a train from Everett’s past, could roll again

All aboard the Bumblebee Special. It’s been about 20 years since passengers heard that call to ride the little choo-choo at what was once Jazwieck’s Golfette and Trainland.

It’s quiet now on the overgrown property along Broadway near Everett Mall. Soon, a developer will start work on 82 condos there. The family fun park, which also had an 18-hole miniature golf course, is just a memory now of simpler times. That doesn’t mean the end of the line for the one-of-a-kind train, which chugged along narrow-gauge tracks at Jazwieck’s from 1955 until 1994.

On Monday, a train car from the Bumblebee Special was rolled out of a corrugated metal shed — it used to be the ride’s tunnel — and trucked to the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe.

Phil Jazwieck, who sold his nearly 8-acre property to Seattle Pacific Homes, and his family are donating the train their father built to the Western Heritage Center, which operates a museum at the fairgrounds.

Someday, the train created by the late Edward Jazwieck may carry passengers at the fair.

Jerry Senner, president of the nonprofit Western Heritage Center, and museum volunteers Drew Black and Barrett Bertran are working to move the train before demolition at the Broadway site begins.

Before train cars were uncoupled for the move, Phil Jazwieck’s sister, Mara Jazwieck Brophy, visited the place where she and her three siblings grew up. Brophy, visiting from her home in New Mexico, could almost hear the echoes of happy passengers. In the train’s heyday, teen sweethearts kissed in the tunnel and kids celebrated birthdays by riding the rails.

Edward Jazwieck, who died in 1994, powered his miniature train with the engine of a 1946 DeSoto. The train still has the old car’s engine, transmission, dashboard, headlight, taillight and radio. It runs on tracks with a 27-inch gauge, a size often used for mining cars. The tracks, mostly disassembled, are included in the donation.

Brophy, 60, remembers “golden spike” celebrations when her dad added new sections of track. The route grew from a simple loop to a ride of nearly a mile.

Pictures from 1956 show the elder Jazwieck as engineer, with three of his children — Peter, Andrew and Mara — along for the ride. At the time, the train didn’t yet have canopies on its cars, which are named the Bumblebee, Wasp and Hornet.

Jazwieck’s, which added mini golf in 1961, was an attraction long before I-5 sliced through Everett. It was at the intersection of the old Broadway Cutoff and the Bothell Highway, a woodsy spot at what’s now 7828 Broadway. Also there was a US Western Apparel store, and at one time the train passed a replica of Mount Rushmore.

Much of the site was logged off in 2010 to help Phil Jazwieck pay property taxes.

Seattle Pacific Homes, also known as Sea Pac Homes, plans to start work in June to clear the land and build the 82 townhouse condominiums. With an office on Everett Mall Way, Sea Pac Homes has a half-dozen developments in Snohomish County. The Broadway project, on 7.99 acres, has been approved by Everett’s hearing examiner, city spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke said. It’s expected to be called Alpine Heights.

In Monroe, volunteers with the Western Heritage Center are eager to restore the train, which Brophy said was recently valued by an appraiser at $30,000. Senner has talked with Hal Gausman, Evergreen State Fairgrounds manager, about possible uses and routes.

Senner also is founder of the Sky Valley Stock and Antique Tractor Club, which hosts an annual threshing bee and antique tractor show. One idea is to give visitors a train ride from the fairgrounds parking lot, perhaps on a route to the Western Heritage Center.

“Our fair board has always talked about how to have a cool people-mover to add to the excitement of the fairgrounds,” said Gausman, who is a landscape architect. The safety of fair-goers will be key as they make plans for the train, he said.

The museum volunteers, both train buffs, can’t wait to work on the Bumblebee Special. Black, 23, and Bertran, 27, have been mentored by Senner at the Western Heritage Center, where visitors get a hands-on understanding of the area’s logging, mining and farming history.

“Anyone can buy a boat or restore a classic car. To restore a train you have to build a railroad,” said Black, who has also worked at the Northwest Railway Museum in Snoqualmie. “It’s a whole other world.”

Black used to live near Jazwieck’s, and played miniature golf there. He never got a chance to ride that train.

Once it’s restored, the last car — traditionally the observation car — may be renamed to honor its creator. Riders would climb aboard the Edward J.

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.

Learn more

The Western Heritage Center museum is open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and noon-5 p.m. Sundays at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe. www.westernheritagecenter.org