Steam Trains From Great Britain and Beyond

The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad

1. Origin and Construction

The clouds, mountains, draped strands like steel wool Silver was down on the Lynn Canal, gateway to the historic town of Skagway, Alaska, itself the source of thousands of gold seekers who had started their 45-mile trek to the summit of White Pass toward the Klondike gold fields in the Yukon in Canada in 1897 and 1898. The crowd continued to infiltrate the region today from ships also sailed from Seattle, but all are descended from one of the cruise ships that many Daily docked a short distance.

The crowd of passengers, the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad Depot spilled the concrete platform and one many Trains departing, including Fraser, British Columbia. I myself trace the path of gold miners at the top of White Pass, located 2865 feet above sea level, the Canada-US border, but it would on the rail that was built to replace the earth path Walking and capitalize on the demand for travel created by the historic event.

The upcoming trip had actually originated some 110 years ago. Prospectors searching for gold along the Yukon River, had not given their first harvest until 1896, when George Carmack and two Indian Skookum Jim and Dawson Charlie discovered a few flakes of gold in Bonanza Creek, Yukon, even if it had been another years before the world had been warned of the discovery at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has published his now famous title of "Gold! GOLD! GOLD! "In his July 17, 1897 issue shortly after the landing of 68 prospectors steam Portland to Seattle, Washington. The promise of a instant easy wealth apparently associated with the deprivation of the economic crisis, triggered a historic event which involved 100,000 players and eventually form parts of Alaska and the Yukon itself.

With the exception of seasonal navigation service on the Yukon River and construction of roads and railways is not permitted in Alaska until Congress passed the Homestead Act of 1898, there had been no internal infrastructure to facilitate access of gold miners to the Klondike gold fields.

Yukon itself, the sparsely populated expanse of land located above the 60th parallel north-western Canada, which shares its border with Alaska and win with Precision the slogan of self-proclaimed "larger than life", is a diversified topography, but the rugged territory insurmountable sterile, treeless plains, the boreal forests, rugged mountains, glaciers, and lakes and rivers reflecting mirror inhabited by people of First Nations of Canada and fauna abundant. Because of its high latitude, it experiences more than 20 hours of daylight in the summer, but less than five in winter, replaced instead, by northern lights known as auroras. " Apart from the large "cities", most communities are accessible only by floatplane or dogsled.

The Yukon's history is essentially that of the gold rush, and traces its path five major locations, both in the United States and Canada.

The first of them, Seattle, Washington, served as the gateway to the Yukon. Presented as the provider "fields of gold", it has sold equipment and supplies in stock ten feet deep on the sidewalks of window, the extrapolation 25 million dollars in sales by early-1898, and was the starting point for the all-water route across the Gulf of Alaska Saint-Michel, then down the Yukon River to Dawson City. Despite high tariffs, which could afford a few, all the passes had been sold.

Dyea and the Chilkoot Trail, the second location, had provided slower, more treacherous, alternate route, via the 33-mile Chilkoot trail that connected Alaska with oil the Upper Canada of the Yukon River.

Skagway, Alaska, the third location, quickly replaced Dyea the "Gateway to the Klondike" because of its more navigable route to White Pass, although ten miles longer than the Chilkoot Trail, had led to a rise of 600 feet below. Located the north end of the Alaska's Inside Passage, Skagway, now a major port of call on cruise itineraries in Alaska, became the first incorporated city in Alaska in 1900, with a strong population of 3117, the first non-natives who had been Captain William Moore, who discovered White Pass route into Interior Canada. Metemorphosed a clear, scattered on the ground in a city of tents lined promenade of shops Wooden sports, dance halls, gambling houses, and about 80 rooms in the four months between August and December 1897 as a result of gold seekers Piling out of steam vessels in its harbor, it soon swelled to a town of 20,000 inhabitants, its temporary inhabitants for the Overland Trail and White Pass Klondike Gold Fields themselves.

At Lake Bennett, the fourth location, 30,000 gold seekers awaiting the spring thaw, the construction of 7124 Green whipsawn wooden boats and the launch of their fleet, 29 May 1898, the fight against the Whitehorse Rapids before attending the Yukon River to Dawson City.

Dawson itself, the location of the fifth, was the site of the discovery first gold flake and began as a small island between the Yukon and Klondike rivers previously occupied by the Han people of First Nations, but has exploded in western Canada the largest city of Winnipeg and north of Vancouver, with up to 40,000 gold seekers who cover an area of ten miles along the shore. Thirty cords of wood have been used to burn the trees in the permafrost in the mines themselves.

The White Pass Trail Skagway, quickly destroyed due to overexploitation, shouted to the need for a railway line replacement. Seeking to capitalize on the demand for safe, fast and reliable transportation from its port in the Yukon, Thomas Tancredo, a representative of investors in London, and Michael J. Henry, a railroad contractor, had both proposed such a line, and after a chance meeting at night, outlined the initial plans of the road.

The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad Company, established in April 1898, was composed of three companies: Pacific and Arctic Railway and Navigation Company, responsible for the division Skagway-White Pass Rail, British Columbia Yukon Railway, whose division related to the U.S. border to White Pass on the border between British Columbia and the Territory Yukon, and the British Yukon Railway, whose track ran from the border of Yukon Territory Whitehorse.

The four directors of Railway principle included Samuel H. Graves, President; EC Hawken, chief engineer, John Hislop, assistant engineer, and Michael J. Henry himself, contractor.

Construction of 10 million, three feet wide, narrow-gauge railway, which allowed sharper curves than the standard gauge would have resulted in barriers and engineering far unimaginable proportions, began May 28, 1898, and involved a bed ten feet of road wide, a gain of nearly 3,000 feet over a distance of 20-mile track laid cliff, turns 16 degrees, tunnels, bridges, bitter cold and snow, and 450 tons of explosives.

Built in three sections, from Skagway to White Pass, White Pass to Carcross, Whitehorse and Carcross, the first of these proved the most difficult, although his first seven miles of track was actually done in only two months. On July 21, 1898, after the first locomtove had been delivered, an excursion Train operated for dignitaries invited for the first time, drawing three flatbed cars with wooden benches. Two months later, in September, the slope of the track prepared stretched 17 miles from Skagway, but a discovery of gold Atlin attracted the majority of workers there, complete with picks and shovels desperately needed for the project. At Mile 18.7, depth, shape V Canyon 215-meter high could be connected with a steel bridge built 400 feet cantilever arches three joints.

The first train to run at White Pass has nine months after work began, February 20, 1899.

Another important step took place five more months later, on June 6 when the tracks had reached Bennett at Mile 40.6, liaising intermodal transport with the smallest first steam vessels were in the lakes and rivers through Miles Canyon and Whitehorse Rapids. About 20 miles later, the title reached Lewis Lake.

With the last spike driven in Whitehorse Yukon, June 8, 1900, the second of three sections have been completed, allowing rail travel to Carcross, British Columbia, the first time. Was the only land route between the two cities to the South Klondike Highway was built 78 years later.

With the installation of rails on the bridge at Carcross on July 29, 1900, and driving the last spike to 17h30 local time, the second of three sections have been finished and the completion White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, whose track extended 110 miles from the United States to Canada, 20.4 miles is in Alaska, 32.3 miles across British Columbia, and 58.1 miles stretched across the Yukon Territory.

Skagway has quickly become the gateway "to the Klondike" and White Pass has become the gateway "to the Yukon."

2. In service

The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad not only proved an engineering feat, but a good business with many, changing needs. First transport equipment operating mining, materials, supplies, tools and northbound runs, it has made the copper ore for smelting in Washington on return trips in 1908, the commodity later replaced by lead silver in 1923, where he continued until 1970. In fact, cargo is an increasing share of its revenue base until 1918, when the crisis had exercised its effects, and then re-increased to 21,450 tons annually in 1940.

Perhaps the biggest increase in demand occurred in August 1942 when the U.S. military began construction of the Alcan Highway, take the tonnage 200-2000 daily, and on October 1 of that year, the track had been completely leased to the U.S. Army Battalion Operating Railway 770th, which re-equiped with staff if necessary, Locomotives and Rolling Stock. Indeed, its highest volume of all time, following the reverse, totaled 34 transactions collectively daily train carrying more than 2,000 tons of cargo per day, or 47,506 tonnes per month.

Demand has also been created by the crude oil refinery in Whitehorse and the pipeline linking it to Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories.

Modernization of its equipment increasingly obsolete after the war, the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad acquired new locomotives and rolling stock, replacing its traditional Steam Engines with diesel-electric propulsion in 1954. The last steam operation was place ten years later, in 1964.

In 1955, it operated the first integrated world, intermodal container service from Vancouver to Whitehorse when container ship intentionally designed first, the Clifford J. Rogers, goods transferred in the port of Skagway to cars platform Road iron for ultimate transfer to semi-trailers using the road to Alaska.

To meet the demand for transport of lead-zinc Mine open pit in the Yukon Anvil Range, the railroad has undertaken a major modernization program in 1969, the acquisition of heavier locomotives higher-capacity, 50 tons flat cars, ore and containers, reconstruction of bridges and tunnels, construction of a warehouse Skagway, and the dredging of a deep sea fishing dock.

The passenger had also taken into account in its revenue base, with 16,000 having held in 1901. During the 1970s, it carried passengers during the day and night ore concentrates, housed in trains of 80-100 cars long.

The White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad was the primary means of transport to and in northern British Columbia and the Yukon for 84 years, its construction from 1898 to 1982 when the Anvil Mine closed and had avoided his need. Because the remaining demand was insufficient to maintain profitable services, it ceased operations at this time, ending a long history whose match had been lit by the gold rush of 1898.

But an invisible flame continues to flash in the ensuing years of darkness. Gradually, the growing demand, stimulated by the arrival of vessels Cruise Skagway, sparked the railway in 1988, seasonal re-opening passenger service, its centennial year, resulting in a number 39,000 annual passengers. The increasing number two ship operations, and increase their size, has taken the total annual passengers to more than 100,000 in 1991 and 290,000 in 1998, all in a short season of five months. In 2006, it transported over 430,000 passengers per year.

As the self-proclaimed "Gateway to Yukon "and" railway built of gold, "the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad had been designated an International Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1994, one of only 36 projects worldwide, including the Panama Canal, to do so because of obstacles overcome during construction, and today it is the only Railway narrow gauge international still operating in North America.

Its current fleet consists of two steam engines, one designated restored 1947 Baldwin 2-8-2 Mokado engine number 73 and 1907 Baldwin 2-8-0 originally built for the railroad and designated Engine Number 69, 20 Locomotives Diesel-electric, made in 1950 and 1960, General Electric and 80 types ALCO restored and replica passenger coaches, with the earliest dating back to 1883.

3. For white-collar

The original White Pass Depot, a wooden station dual-stage front on Broadway, where the tracks had was originally located, was built in 1899 and was adjoined to the building Railroad Administration, the following year. After its closure in 1969, when he was picked by the National Park Service has erected a new structure on the ground floor and second Spring Street and, with a growing number of passengers, added a second floor in 1997.

Following the street-embedded, narrow-gauge tracks 1245, after the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad maintenance and restoration facility, my 12-car train, pulled by three diesel-electric locomotives, along with shallow, rock-embedded Skagway River in dark green, mountains and spruce carpet Tongass National Forest, from its slow ascent on the note of 3.9 percent of the track.

The six tracks car park, just after the maintenance department had been used for equipment rolling overnight storage, maintenance and cleaning.

Turn right at Mile 5.8, the train, moving in 402 feet, crossed fork of the Skagway River, near Denver Glacier Trail, which was marked by the red and the White Pass Caboose Yukon Route railway available for rental night from the U.S. Forest Service.

Re-left-hand curve at Mile 6.9, the train passed Rocky Point, offering spectacular views Mt. Harding and its canyon carved by glaciers. Skagway and its armada now small cruise ship had been reduced to miniature proportions, eclipsing by treeless, snow-capped mountains overlooking them.

Clifton Station, a 638-foot elevation with another channel 792-feet long, had formerly served as platoon house staff by supervisors, sweepers, and cooks, but had been abducted in the 1960s after the monitoring and improvement platform has eliminated the need. His name had emanated from the ledge of granite weighing on him.

Bridal Veil Falls, Mile 11.5, down 6000 feet in a series of curved steps, a man "of white, frothy water" jump "with the dark green pine his way to Mt Cleveland and Mt. parents Clifford Glacier. The quilt cloud torn to reveal pieces of blue sky.

The skinny silhouette barely visible from the train 1230 Fraser also drawn three yellow and green diesel-electric engines could be seen hugging the mountain front and a higher altitude.

The tracks in an arc into a right 90 degree turn again. At the station, Henry, who had been named after a White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad Contractor The cargo was transported by a horse tramway pack steep stationed primarily at the tent compound White Pass City in the valley below to final delivery to the summit.

Shortly before reaching 1,871 feet Glacier Resort, Mile 14.0, the railroad doubled, then tripled briefly. The station itself had been the home to the crew section of railway which had maintained steam engines of the railway and reconstituted with water in them mounted.

The platform wider box canyon catering to widespread snow slides Spring made rivers of rock, gravel, and vegetation with them.

Crossing the Bridge Glacier Station, the train, including the 12 units, the chain of cars snaked behind her old now, topped the Deep, Mountain dark green, covered with western hemlock and lodgepole pine, as evidenced through the coach windows left. He gave the gray, slightly snowy mountain mine to come, its jagged peaks partially obscured by the soft puffs of marshmallow clouds resting atop it. A cable had lasted once the canyon to the gate of the silver mine the other side.

The two parallel mountain down into the ravine below 1,000 feet, have formed a green velvet "V" which the base had been cut by the now tiny slice of light Blue River.

Cross the wooden trestle at Mile 16 the train plunges into the 250-foot-long mountain tunnel, the abyss of his throat ice disappears in the light as horizontal beams laid on its granite walls swayed in the dark phase in its center, leaving one dead, perceptionless, no breath of inhibition.

Inspiration Point at Mile 17.0 and altitude of 2400 feet, once again offered a breathtaking view of Mt. Harding and the Chilkat range, while the train passes the branch road leading to the most used non- cantilever bridge, which was built in 1901 and had been the largest of the design world such at the time.

Ingestion again by impenetrable darkness, the sense-defying 675-foot tunnel at Mile 18.8, the three-Locomotive, coach channel 12 drilled through the mountain trail avoided by bypassing suspension bridge until 1969, when he had closed.

The valley of several layers, wrapped in deep green, stretched out below on the left side.

Reduce speed to a crawl and threads its way through steep rock walls, which appeared in the scrap against the windows outside coach, the train has just past the pin sub-arctic to 2865 feet White Pass Summit, named after Canadian Minister of the Interior Thomas White in 1887 and located on the Canada-US border, the narrow gauge tracks multiplied into three parts. The locomotive griped the brakes and 15-unit chain has stopped moving in the cold, austere, of thin air.

The silence, a contrast sharply with the constant buzz with its origin Skagway, almost shouting in the history of closed chapter which had triggered feat of engineering railway, the gold miners who had been there, but no longer exists. He had been at the top of White Pass, where the Mounties had allowed thousands of gold miners, overloaded their year worth of supplies and equipment necessary for survival in the frozen north, to enter Canada and continue their expedition to the Klondike gold fields, hoping to achieve wealth. Of the some 40,000 who had made the trip, only ten percent have actually discovered the gold and then only a few hundred have actually fulfilled their dreams of becoming rich. "

For others, the journey itself, not the destination, proved the ultimate value of the adventure. Like life, whose ultimate purpose " remains elusive, it sometimes seems that the path followed to a destination offers a better reward than the destination itself. Yet, without anticipation of destination or the aim, it is unlikely that the trip would be undertaken at all. If anything, the gold rush was given a lesson in life.

Logout and following the 1296 foot long spur line, the three locomotives clung to the (now) in front of the train, pulling on the summit of White Pass and the beginning of its progressive orientation tracing descent from the mountain to Skagway. During the return trip, I think the lesson …

About the Author

A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.

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