Alaska trip, WP&Y RR!

*Drops mic*

Tom,

Thank you for the great photos!  Looks like it was a wonderful ride on a wonderful day in a wonderful place!!

Awesome scenery, great photos !!!  I'd like to do that trip some day.

Found this pic online showing how the old bridge was bypassed (with a shorter bridge and 675-foot tunnel, in 1969).

wpyr.com has an interesting pictorial map of the route:

http://wpyr.com/sights-sounds/maps/#foobox-1/0

Freight service ended in 1982. Apparently the tracks are still in place to Whitehorse but current operations stop at Carcross.

My wife and I rode the WP&Y Route two weeks ago.  Fantastic trip, especially across the Yukon into BC.

Our tour guide for Skagway was very humorous, for a town with only 896 people, it is well appointed and interesting.

Incidentally, I asked our conductor about the Steam engines and he said they have three, and run them on excursions.

I loved the antique Rotary snow plow.

Thanks for the nice pics.

We visited Alaska a few years ago and had a great time. We rode on the WP&Y, left from Skagway, got off the train at the terminus, boarded a tour bus, and went further North into the Yukon Territory. Spent the better part of the day sightseeing. What a beautiful place.

Previously, when I responded to this, I had not been to Alaska...last summer I got there on a cruise out of Vancouver.  It was in August, which I then found was the rainy month...rained every day but two, one when in Skagway riding the WP&Y (behind steam!!!!!) and another in Fairbanks taking the river cruise, with the Indian village and the sled dogs.   In Denali on the bus tour I saw 10 grizzly bears out foraging in the rain (bus driver said the max she had ever seen before was 3).  Those critters can move fast!  Saw one go up a cliff like across your kitchen floor.  I looked around carefully before getting off bus at rest stops.  Got to Denali on the Alaska RR, and then to Fairbanks by bus.  Rain kind of did it for me, but I know two people going next summer, and one has been before.  I have heard Sept. is a good month....less rain and no black flies, as earlier in summer.  (I had no bug problem...but they probably can't swim)

HELP Please!!  One of the links above takes me to the WP&Y website to view maps of the railroad, but, while using latest version of Firefox, I can't view them.  Instead, I get an error message about needing a plug-in.  Does anybody know which plug-in is needed?

Thanks,

Chuck

My wife and I did our Honeymoon up there and here is my favorite picture I took on the ride.  I also took video most of the way up.

Yes, thanks to all for the photos.  As I posted last year, that train trip in conjunction with an Alaskan Cruise are still on my bucket list.  Hopefully it will happen in 2018 in celebration of our 50^th Anniversary. 

But just last month I was able to cross off a different item on my bucket list: a train ride through the Canadian Rockies on the Rocky Mountaineer from Vancouver, BC to Jasper, Alberta.  It was fantastic and I can highly recommend it.

Bill

Alaska is beautiful.  I fot the opportunity to land a ski-equipped airplane on the Ruth Glacier - three times!  

Other places of beauty - Mount Shasta.  The Columbia River Gorge east of Portland.  And Sunday I discovered the incredible approach to Sedona from the northeast.  Absolutely spectacular!

I am with P51 - if I never got on another airliner it would be too soon - and I can do it for free!  But the last two times somebody has coerced me, it has been first class, and the security folks are convinced that first class passengers pose no threat.  I got on Southwest Friday with a headset, a radio, a battery charger, enough wires to hook them all into an aircraft electrical system, and a GPS and two screwdrivers.  They didn't even blink.

If I travel on a pass, it is as if I am the number one threat, just like the old days when I had all those stripes on my sleeve.  They pull on the blue gloves and check my orifices.

69nickeycamaro posted:

Colorado, Cass And the East Broad Top have it all over that Alaska stuff. been there wouldn't waste time going back to Alaska.

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. Haven't been to Cass and EBT, but have ridden everything in Colorado, and the White Pass train trip (we took it two summers ago) was by far the more spectacular, IMHO. We did 11 days in Alaska, and it was incredible. Did several trips in floatplanes, light aircraft, high speed boats, the cruise ship, Alaska RR and WP&Y railroad. Unbelievable scenery. I can't wait to go back.

For those planning to go, be aware that weather in Alaska is problematic. It can be rainy and overcast, and it's very changeable. There's a certain amount of luck involved in catching good weather as you travel the state. You just have to plan for what are normally the best times on the calendar - we did early to mid-July. Unfortunately, if the weather's not good, you can't see very much, given that a lot of what you want to see in Alaska is going to be off at a distance, and you can spend a lot of money for a less than memorable experience.

I gather that WP&Y gets lots of passenger business off the cruise ships that stop in Skagway. So how does it work out with crowds off cruise ships? Do they adjust train lengths accordingly, or run additional trains? They appear to have a frequent schedule through the summer.

Looking at the web site:

http://wpyr.com/excursions/pro...et/summit-excursion/

Schedule

• Available: May 3 - September 27, 2016
• Departure Times: 8:15 AM & 12:45 PM DAILY
• Additional departures: 4:30 PM on Tuesdays & Wednesdays (From May 24 - August 31)
• Limited seating available on the 8:15 AM departure on Wednesdays (From May 25 - August 31)
• EXCEPTIONS TO SCHEDULE:
  • No Summit train service on May 5, 6, 13, 16 & 22; August 28; September 11, 18, 19, 23, 25 & 26.
  • The 12:45 Summit departure is not available on the following Sundays: May 22; June 5, 19; July 3, 17; August 14, 28

As much as I am interested in this train, I wouldn't enjoy it if it was particularly crowded. Also not sure if I would enjoy a "fully narrated trip" as mentioned on the web site. Well-done intermittent narration can be interesting, overdone narration can be annoying. I would be interested in further comments by people who have ridden the train, and experiences in travelling to Skagway other than on cruise ships.

ACE,

What we did was get the ticket separately from the Cruise offering.  What the train did was go to the dock to pick up passengers, putting them in the last few cars.  Then the people who purchased separately were put in the first few cars.

It was not that crowded on ours, and there were 3 ships in port at the time.

BREEZINUP paints the picture of my experience....My trip was planned to show up in Skagway the day, Wed., when the steam train ran.  I could not get a steam train trip to Dawson, so missed Dawson, and the two large mine sites, including a large copper mine, I would have liked to see and photo.  At Ketchikan had to walk through and photo the two totem parks, on my must-see list since I had done a term paper on Tlingit, Kwaikiutl, and Haida (native totem carvers) in college, in pouring rain.  Plus is that if you are a "senior", you can ride for free around Ketchikan and Fairbanks on the bus system, which gets you to the totem parks, off the cruise ship.  The (in)famous brothel in Ketchikan is small, but larger than a "crib", and overhangs a creek with salmon in a fairly deep gorge.   While the WP&Y is scenic and I recommend it, (I , too, got my ticket separately from the cruise) I rode the Silverton standing on coach platforms, when it was D&RGW in the '50's, and that is still at the top of my list.

Ace posted:

I gather that WP&Y gets lots of passenger business off the cruise ships that stop in Skagway. So how does it work out with crowds off cruise ships? Do they adjust train lengths accordingly, or run additional trains? They appear to have a frequent schedule through the summer.

As much as I am interested in this train, I wouldn't enjoy it if it was particularly crowded. Also not sure if I would enjoy a "fully narrated trip" as mentioned on the web site. Well-done intermittent narration can be interesting, overdone narration can be annoying. I would be interested in further comments by people who have ridden the train, and experiences in travelling to Skagway other than on cruise ships.

Probably about 99% of the passengers come from the cruise ships, I'd imagine. There were 2 other ships in port while we were there. The trains run continuously, with two separate trains running on the line at any given time, spaced out about equidistant. We were there in mid-July, and there was plenty of room in the cars. They run quite a few cars in behind the engines in each train (we rode behind the GE shovelnoses - real neat engines). You can leave right after you arrive on the ship, or schedule for a bit later in the day. Believe me, the WP&Y is a well-oiled machine - they have the whole process of running their trains with the cruise ship passengers down to a fine science, extremely well organized and operated. They have LOTS of experience with this operation, and it most always goes without a hitch.

There's nothing random about this operation. They know the schedules of the cruise ships ahead of time (probably for the entire season), they keep in touch with exactly when they will be docking and departing, they know what equipment they're going to need to run, they know how many passengers have selected the train ride as an activity, etc. Not all ship passengers ride the train - passengers get to chose from a list of activities available at each port, which are selected from the itinerary choices provided by the individual cruise lines, before departure, meaning when you're initially planning your trip, before you leave your house to get on a plane to go. There is variation in cost, depending on the activities chosen - some are more expensive than others. 

As far as the narration, you can sit inside the cars and listen to some or all of it (but it's not constant), or go outside on the open platforms at each end of the cars. That's what I did, virtually the entire ride, and kept my movie camera going a bunch of the time! I heard almost none of the narration during the entire round trip - just enjoyed standing outside in the open air and looking at the scenery and the train, from that vantage point.

Here are some shots, showing the cars. The trains go right down to the docks, some not as far as the one in the shot, though, but a very short walk. The interior shot is fairly representative - cars weren't crowded at all. The end car shot shows how the platforms are - plenty of room to stand. There are some differences in the cars, but they're fairly similar to this one - they just hung the rear marker on this car because it was bringing up the rear. No, that's not me, just some guy who was standing there. There are some other shots of standing on the platforms as the train rolls along (my wife and I included). It's very easy to view the scenery and take shots standing out there.

The White Pass can have as many as 8 trains running on the line at its busiest. That's a summit train from each of the four ships. A steam excursion to Fraser Meadows, BC. A one way trip to Fraser, BC with transfer to a bus back to Skagway or on to Whitehorse. A one way trip to Carcross, YT with transfer to a bus back to Skagway or on to Whitehorse. And a work train.

On a busy day at the height of summer there can be as many as 15 passenger excursion runs in a single day. The White Pass averages over 400,000 passengers in a five month summer season.

If you make it to Skagway on the weekend things are a lot more calm and the trains are a lot less full. Some cruise lines offer an evening rail excursion up the pass with fewer people. And you can pay extra and ride in style in one of their new 1st Class parlor cars with leather covered swivel chairs, a private tour guide that also serves drinks and food. I think those tickets run about $250-$300 a pop.

It's all about timing with the White Pass. On a Wednesday afternoon you're going to be crammed in to one of those poorly ventilated hundred year-old wooden passenger coaches with 55+ people on board. But on a Saturday there might be 12 people in your car. 

If you're up for hiking there are a couple of great Whistle stop trail heads along the line. My favorite is the hike up to the Laughton glacier. Beautiful.

The White Pass Railroad can be an unforgettable experience if you plan it right. My recommendation is either a run up to Laughton glacier for a hike or the all day excursion to Carcross, YT. The Bennett train is the name for the Carcross run. Not all cruise lines offer the Bennet excursion and steam only runs Monday, Thursday, and Friday. Anyone interested should do some homework on White Pass excursions prior to booking a cruise. You can also shoot me an email and I'd be happy to answer questions for you.

colorado hirailer posted:

BREEZINUP paints the picture of my experience....My trip was planned to show up in Skagway the day, Wed., when the steam train ran.  I could not get a steam train trip to Dawson, so missed Dawson, and the two large mine sites, including a large copper mine, I would have liked to see and photo. 

I'm confused. The White Pass only operates passenger trains as far as Carcross, YT. About 400 miles short of Dawson City, YT. The White Pass does not pass any large mine sites, only a few small ones. And finally, White Pass steam does not run on Wednesdays. Steam runs Monday, Thursday, Friday only, and doesn't come within 40 miles of any town.

When you go someplace with unrealistic expectations you're going to be disappointed. Do your homework beforehand, double check with the railroad, and be ready for rain. And if you're worried about limited visibility, I recommend an afternoon excursion when the clouds have usually burned off and lifted a little.

Mark Boyce posted:

Originally Posted by jim pastorius:

Nice shots. I always anted to make that trip but never could get my wife interested. Only cruise I ever thought worth taking. Only cruise I ever took was to Bremerhaven and back in a troopship. The EBT is dead, may it rest in Peace, so the best show in the east is Cass.  Appreciate the little we have available. I agree on the flying commrcial. Ugly.

I agree with Jim the only cruise I would be interested in is to Alaska.  My wife is in agreement, but I highly doubt we would ever see our way clear to do it.

I put this together in a hurry to catch a deal, and it might have been Thurs. I just went with agent's recommendations, and rainy days all look alike, at sea.  I did get to everything I wanted to see, except to the miners' destination, and those two mine complexes, which are NOT near my route or the RR.