Monday Meandering - 8.12.2018

Alaska by rail.
 

We extended our Alaska cruise with a train trip from the port of Whittier, Alaska to Denali National Park. It's a distance of about 300 miles, which translates to a 10 hour train trip. I will say that  the glass dome cars provided spectacular views of the countryside - but as Barb put it, "We could have flown to Europe in the same amount of time."

Since on the maps it looked to me like Denali was in the big middle of a lot of empty space, I think I was expecting a Cruise-line owned railroad that went to the Cruise-line owned lodge outside the National Park and we would be rather isolated in the big middle of that empty space.

Turns out the Whittier-Denali route is just a portion of a very busy rail line and the Cruise line just contracts with the Alaska Railroad Company to haul the Cruise-line owned dome cars (specially made by a Colorado company) back and forth between Denali and Whittier, only a portion of the Anchorage to Fairbanks route. Oh, and there's a major highway that parallels the rail route, and the Cruise-line owned lodge is just one of many lodges and commercial establishments in the busy little town of Healy, just outside the Park entrance.

But this blog is about the train.

Like airlines, seating is assigned. Each car accommodates about 60 passengers and there are attendants assigned to each car. One acts primarily as your tour guide; the other is busy with food and drink service. The observation deck is upstairs, there are open-seating benches and tables downstairs, along with restrooms and access to an adjacent dining car and open observation platforms.

Underway, I expected us to head for the wide open spaces, so it was a little startling to first pass through Anchorage, then Wasilla, then Willow before reaching "wilderness." In fact, we passed through small towns and villages along the route on a regular basis. The railroad, of course, attracted this confluence of settlements; you might live out in the boonies, but you had to have a way to get back to civilization.

Perhaps the smallest town consisted of one house - Sherman, Alaska.

You can't see it in the picture but there is a sign that says, "Sherman City Hall" above door of the home where Mr. and Mrs Sherman raised their 5 kids, and where they live after retiring (from the railroad, of course).

Another surprise, after being out of cell phone service for most of the cruise, was to find good phone service along almost the entire route. Once upon a time telegraph lines ran alongside the railroad (there were long stretches of abandoned poles - some with slack wires); now there were cell towers to provide needed communication.

We passed, met, and waited for other trains along the way. At one point we stopped alongside a train headed back to Anchorage and transferred goods and passengers. As mentioned, it is a busy railroad. During the summer months, ARC operates daily "Flag Stop" service. If you live along the route and need to go into Willow, or into Talkeetna, you literally put up a flag at designated spots along the route. There are trains each way that stop when flagged and the passengers pay a per-mile rate to their destination and back.

Next: Summer Hires