I remember the Alaska Railroad from the four years I spent stationed at Eielson Air Force Patch just south of Fairbanks. I remember it partly because of the bright yellow and dark blue colors of the diesel engines and partly because we saw a lot of engines on base hauling in coal for the base power plant. The power plant not only supplied electricity for the base but also supplied steam for heating the buildings. (There's a story there but has nothing to do with the Alaska Railroad so I'll skip that one.) We also saw a lot of the trains because the main route paralleled the (George) Parks Highway running from Fairbanks south past Denali National Park to Anchorage, a route we drove numerous times. From Anchorage the rail lines then heads across the Kenai Peninsula to the ports of Whittier, on Prince William Sound, and Seward, on Resurrection Bay. The mainline is over 470 miles long with a number of sidings and rail yards. Although the rail line runs only in Alaska, there are rail barges that can be loaded and moved through the inside passage to allow connections to the lower 48 states. The Alaska Railroad actually began in 1903, when a company called the Alaska Central Railroad began to build a line from Seward northward. By 1909, the company had 51 miles of rail line carrying passengers, freight, and mail to the upper Turnagain Arm where everything and everyone was taken by boat, god team, or pack train to the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, then the agricultural center of the territory. Unfortunately, the Alaska Northern Railroad, bought the Alaska Central rail line and extended it another 21 miles allowing the owners to mainly use small boats from that point to move goods and passengers. However, that company also failed to turn enough profit and it entered receivership in 1914. About that time the United States government was planning a railroad from Seward to the interior town of Fairbanks. President William Howard Taft had authorized a commission to survey a route in 1912 and in 1914, the government bought that Alaskan Northern, which became known as the Alaska Railroad, and moved the headquarters, and began to extend the rail line northward. In 1917, the Tanana Valley Railroad in Fairbanks, a 45 mile, narrow gauge line, was also heading into bankruptcy. The government bought that railroad and some of its narrow gauge line was converted to dual gauge to complete the line from Seward to Fairbanks. The government also extended the south portion of the Tanana Valley Railroad to Nenana on the Tanana River and in 1923 built a 700 foot bridge across the river to complete the final link in the line. At the time it was completed the bridge was the second longest single-span steel railroad bridge in the US. President Warren G. Harding was on hand to drive the golden spike to complete the railroad on July 15th, 1923. President Harding may have been better served to let someone else do the honors as he died on return to San Francisco from a heart attack. In 1944, the Alaska Railroad bought its first diesel locomotive. The last steam locomotive was retired in 1966. In 2011, the ling reacquired the last steam locomotive that had been purchased new by the railroad, a Baldwin 2-8-0 Consolidation engine, No. 557, built in 1944. The 557 had been purchased by Monte Holm, moved to the lower 48 and displayed in the House of Poverty Museum in Moses Lake, Washington. In was purchased on Holm's death by Jim and Vic Jansen and returned to the Alaska Railroad on condition that it be restored. The engine was then sold for $1.00 to the Engine 557 Restoration Company and the restoration is currently underway. In 1984, the Governor of Alaska, established the Alaska Railroad Corporation and in 1985, the state purchased the Alaska Railroad from the US government fro $22.3 million and immediately invested another $70 million into long needed infrastructure improvements. The purchase agreement prohibits the Alaska Railroad from paying dividends or otherwise running capital to the state of Alaska. In addition to freight the Alaska Railroad offers several passenger services including the Denali Star between Anchorage and Fairbanks, the Aurora Winter Train running the same route as the Denali Start but only on weekends from September 15th through May 15th, the Coastal Classic from Anchorage to Seward, the Glacier Discovery from Anchorage to Whittier, and the Hurricane Turn, one of the last flag-stop routes in the US, between Talkeetna and Hurricane. Article written by Jim Cartmill
Sources Jim Cartmill and Wikipedia
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