Steam In Search Of Snow
Here is look back over a decade to a triple headed steam spectacular! This is the caption I wrote when this was originally shared on RP.net:
White Pass and Yukon Railway narrow gauge rotary snow plow #3 (Cooke 1899) is departing Glacier and crossing the curved trestles as it marches upgrade. This location is 14.1 miles from and 1871 ft higher than Skagway. The vintage snow fighter is being pushed by steam locomotives #73 (Baldwin 2-8-2 blt. 5-47) and #69 (Baldwin 2-8-0 blt. 4-07) with coach 211 trailing. #211 was built by AC&F in 1918 for Oregon's Sumpter Valley coming to Alaska during WWII courtesy of the US Army. The cupola was added in 1946. The White Pass is America’s busiest tourist railroad and an engineering marvel of any era. Regular tourist trains operate for the four month cruise ship season of mid-May to mid-Sept with the WP&Y largely dormant the remaining 8 months of the year. In days of old it was a 110 mile freight hauler supporting the Yukon mining industry and before that a major WWII supply conduit during the building of the Alaska Hwy. Like the town it calls home, the WP&Y was born during the heady days of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush and experienced booms and busts through the years but has persevered, and today is the most popular excursion for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit Alaska each summer.
Bridge 14A - Glacier Station
North of Skagway, Alaska
Monday April 25, 2011
Steam In Search Of Snow
Here is look back over a decade to a triple headed steam spectacular! This is the caption I wrote when this was originally shared on RP.net:
White Pass and Yukon Railway narrow gauge rotary snow plow #3 (Cooke 1899) is departing Glacier and crossing the curved trestles as it marches upgrade. This location is 14.1 miles from and 1871 ft higher than Skagway. The vintage snow fighter is being pushed by steam locomotives #73 (Baldwin 2-8-2 blt. 5-47) and #69 (Baldwin 2-8-0 blt. 4-07) with coach 211 trailing. #211 was built by AC&F in 1918 for Oregon's Sumpter Valley coming to Alaska during WWII courtesy of the US Army. The cupola was added in 1946. The White Pass is America’s busiest tourist railroad and an engineering marvel of any era. Regular tourist trains operate for the four month cruise ship season of mid-May to mid-Sept with the WP&Y largely dormant the remaining 8 months of the year. In days of old it was a 110 mile freight hauler supporting the Yukon mining industry and before that a major WWII supply conduit during the building of the Alaska Hwy. Like the town it calls home, the WP&Y was born during the heady days of the 1898 Klondike Gold Rush and experienced booms and busts through the years but has persevered, and today is the most popular excursion for the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit Alaska each summer.
Bridge 14A - Glacier Station
North of Skagway, Alaska
Monday April 25, 2011