Alaska Railroading and Railfanning In "The Last Frontier"

Alaska railroading is as remote as it is beautiful. Here, you may not find any of the classic fallen flags or current Class Is, Regionals, or even shortlines. However, railroading does exist here (even though it got a much later start than in the lower forty-eight states) and with the state’s longest railroad, the Alaska Railroad (ARR), offering passenger service across much of its system, you have the chance to see some of the most spectacular scenery in the world. One day, the hope is to eventually connect the ARR with the rest of the North American rail grid but for now it goes about its business, as it has since 1985 (when it came under state ownership), moving both people and goods.

Alaska railroading has its beginnings dating back to 1898 when the White Pass & Yukon Route completed its 111-mile route between Skagway and Whitehorse, Yukon Territory. In all, Alaska would be home (at one time or another) to roughly twenty railroads although today it is home to only two, the ARR and the reborn White Pass & Yukon.

Later, in 1903, the Alaska Central Railway completed its main line between Seward and 50 miles northward. It went bankrupt just four years later and was reorganized as the Alaska Northern Railway.

The Alaska Northern extended the system to Kern Creek, 71 miles from Seward by 1910. The Alaska Railroad came into being in 1914 when Congress purchased the Alaska Northern and authorized funding to complete a line from Seward to Fairbanks.

By 1944 with the establishment of a second port at Whittier (the other being at Anchorage, the railroad's headquarters by 1915 having been moved from Steward), the Alaska Railroad was all but complete and has changed little over the last 70+ years.

In all, the Alaska's system runs roughly due north, winding its way from Seward in the south to Eielson in the north, where the Alaska serves the Eielson Air Force Base.

The Alaska Railroad became state owned in the 1980s when President Ronald Reagan, in 1983, signed legislation transferring ownership of the railroad to the State of Alaska. The transfer was official on January 5th, 1985 when on that day the ARR came under ownership by the state.

Because of Alaska's beauty its railroads today haul nearly as many passengers as it does freight. Currently the state holds 506 route miles of trackage with the ARR pulling double duty using most of that (nearly 400 miles) to haul passengers and freight (the ARR is also the only privately owned railroad which still has daily operating passenger trains).

The White Pass & Yukon is the state’s other railroad, although it is purely for tourism after freight service ended in 1982 after the final mine it served closed that year, which then forced the railroad to cease operations. It reopened in 1988 as a 40-mile tourist line and has grown by leaps and bounds since then. Today it is the nation’s busiest tourist railroad, thanks in part to the thousands of yearly passengers it receives from cruise ships that literally dock right next to the rails.

Aside from the tremendous scenery afforded during trips, another draw of the WP&Y is that it uses eleven unique shovelnose diesels, built by General Electric between 1954 and 1966 and the railroad also operates two Baldwin steamers, a Mikado 2-8-2, and a 2-8-0 type. The railroad has grown so much over the last twenty years that in 2007 it reopened 27 more miles of the original line, north to Carcross in the Yukon.

Along with the historic White Pass & Yukon, Alaska is also home to one railroad museum, the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry. Located in Wasilla it is home to several pieces of historical railroad equipment. All in all, Alaska is well worth the long trip north (if you live in the lower forty-eight) to see not only the trains of Alaska but also the state's stunning beauty.