Trains in Alaska? You bet! The state of Alaska does have a couple of railroads. There are two possible routes that we could see. Both have great scenery, some interesting history, and unique operations. -Alaska Route Idea #1: White Pass and Yukon RR: When gold was discovered in the Yukon territory of western Canada, many prospectors flocked to the north to get rich. Eventually, a narrow gauge railway line was built starting in Skagway, Alaska and running 107 miles to Whitehorse in Canada. The route was later used to handle other mining and freight operations and even passengers. Now the WP&Y is a popular tourist railroad. The current line runs from the port of Skagway north to Carcross. The distance is 67.5 miles. The rest of the line is unused. The WP&Y rostered narrow-gauge Alco/MLW, Bombardier, and GE diesels built in the 1960s until recently. Now the line runs modern NRE power acquired in 2020. Some of their older diesels have been sold off to other railroads, although a few of the older locos are still on the line. The WP&Y also has a pair of steam locomotives that are used occasionally. #69 is a Baldwin 2-8-0 Consolidation, and #73 is a Baldwin 2-8-2 Mikado. For a TSW5 version of the WP&Y, we should get #69, #73 (if DTG wants to continue doing steam), NRE E3000CC-DCs, MLW DL-535Es, and GEX3341s, along with historical passenger and freight equipment and a functional rotary snowplow (which the WP&Y uses in the winter). -Alaska Route Idea #2: Alaska Railroad: Anchorage-Seward: The Alaska Railroad (ARR) is a Class II (regional) railroad that transports both freight and passengers across the state of Alaska from Seward to Fairbanks. The main line is over 470 miles long, so I'd suggest that a TSW5 ARR route be the same one from TS Classic: Anchorage-Seward (114 miles, plus the 12 mile Portage-Whittier branch). The ARR: Anchorage-Seward route would include the following rolling stock and locomotives: -ARR SD70MAC: ARR rosters 28 of these big 4000HP EMD diesels; 12 of them have HEP for passenger services; the SD70MACs would be the primary mainline locomotives on this route. -ARR GP40-2: ARR rosters 15 of these and they would be perfect for yard switching, port switching operations, and local freights. -ARR GP38-2: ARR rosters 8 of these; like the GP40-2s, these would handle switching and local freight duties. -Passenger cars, including bi-level and dome cars -The same freight equipment from the TS Classic version of this route, including the cabooses. -DLCs could include an ARR GP49 (no longer on roster) and their pair of control cab F40PHs
Part of our honeymoon was taking the Denali Star so love the Alaska Railroad. One of the best scenic railways in the world. But only issue is that for passenger services it's slow and there's not many services for a timetable - basically one train per day in either direction. It's primarily a tourist train. Doing Anchorage to Seward would take 4 hours to complete. The Hurricane Turn would be kind of interesting as it's a flagstop service that is a lifeline in the winter in that part of Alaska where there are no roads. I would love for TSW at some point to incorporate request stops so that would be one way to do it. But it's still the same issue as above in terms of slow and infrequent.
When ever Alaskan railways are mention I can't help but to think of this... The Whittier area looks like a cool location.
