From Gary Ostlund

The caption reads: “A steamship passenger’s introduction to the White Pass & Yukon was the view of the train from the ship as she stood on the wharf at Skagway, Alaska The loco seems eager to climb White Pass, portal of legendary Klondike.” This undated scene could be 40s/50s vintage, and is repeated to this day, albiet with Love Boat style liners, and mostly diesel locomotives. (Automobiles help dating old pictures, but none are close or clear enough to assist)

Nudging closer to the dock, this ship is undoubtedly one of the Canadian Pacific Princess liners out of Vancouver, B.C. The tourists will enjoy a scenic ride over the pass to Bennett, maybe on to Carcross or all the way to Whitehorse, Y.T., about 110 miles north.

The 36′ narrow gauge line was built at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush of 98, offering rail service beginning August 1, 1900. During World War II it supported the defense of Alaska and the continental U. S. hauling construction equipment for building the ALCAN Hiway, communications support, and volumes of petroleum. Eventually a pipeline was installed over the pass. The US Army took over operations at that time.

Post WW2 saw this line pioneer cargo containerization. The SS Clifford Rogers called regularly, with containers to be placed on flatcars. These were smaller than what we see double-stacked on today’s RRs. Ore was shipped out of the Y.T. in special containers for smelters in Canada and the U.S.

The line was closed in 1982. A highway had been built over the pass and into Skagway, mines had closed for a variety of reasons. After 6 years, public support and the cruise line industry made for favorable economics and the line is open to Bennett and Carcross, running several “boat” trains as traffic warrants.
Submitted by Gary Ostlund.

Credits: J. Norman Lowe collection, seen in RAILROAD Magazine, February 1973

Steam, Semaphores and blue Sky. Only the
sky is a common occurrence in this day and
age. But in selected locations steam is still there to be ridden, chased and photographed.

Semaphores are a little harder to find. Think New Mexico and a few other select locations.

Semaphores were widely used by
railroads, the most recent installed nearly a
hundred years ago. They were state of the art
in their day, one feature being that even with
the light bulb burned out, the position of the
semaphore provided protection. They are
woefully out of date in this digital age, and are
falling like flies in a freeze.

As a rail-fan I love to have them astride
the tracks. From any angle, even at speed on an adjacent highway you could tell by the horizontal position that a train was occupying the block. Wait for about a minute or less and either you had a train, or the arm went upward indicating the train is moving away. U-turn, and the race is on.

Former Spokane, Portland and Seattle #700 is splitting the blades near Prosser, Washington on October 19th, 1990. What an impressive cloud of steam against that blue sky. The massive Baldwin built 4-8-4 Northern loco was returning from a steam expo in the Yakima Valley.

The Northern Pacific and Great Northern Railways owned the SP&S jointly, and had a bad habit of giving hand-me-down locos to its step-child. But in 1937 the owners let the SP&S buy new locomotives, including three fast passenger Northerns. The #700 was part of that purchase.

The #700 occupies new digs in Portland, Oregon with the other Pacific Northwest 4-8-4 Northern, Daylight #4449 of Southern Pacific heritage. Both locos shared space in Portland’s Oaks Park for years, and they can both be found pulling rail-fan excursions several times a year.

Photo credit: Alan M. Miller, as seen in Classic Trains “Fantastic 4-8-4 Locomotives”, special 2012