There hasn't been any news in the lower 48 on this site or CNN about the White Pass & Yukon Railway derailment. The latest report is that 19 passengers were injured. The operator hopes to resume operations on Friday, July 25th.
http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/skagwaycanada-train-derails-at-least-9-injured/27119300
Glad it happened where it did, I was worried about a derailment on the side of the cliff. Glad there are no fatalities.
The shed in the photo is at the summit switch at White Pass. It looks like the loco split the switch and wound up between the main an the siding
Trains were running on August 12, I was on the third of four trains making the run up to White Pass, with "my"train stopping a quarter mile past the summit with two trains ahead of us.
Glad to hear you made it. I made the trip last year, and I would have been bummed if the RR was not running for perhaps a once in a lifetime trip. Did you notice if there were any changes at the summit switch on the Alaska side where the derailment happened?
Looked like some very fresh trackwork just before the summit, I was looking for evidence of the derailment when approaching the summit.
The trains on the WP&Y seem to be run a bit faster than the D&S, the trees were much more densely packed along the Skagway river than the Animas (a lot more precip near Skagway). The cars on the WP&Y are from many different sources - it shows, whereas the D&S make more of an attempt to be authentic (my avatar is from riding the D&S in 2012).
One of the highlights was seeing "The trail of 1898" alongside the line near the summit, brings back memories of "The Call of the Wild" from 7th grade.
- Erik
That's a great ride! We did it a few years ago. There wasn't any part of it that wasn't enjoyable - even when I rode on the car plafform end in the pouring rain! Not steam, though.
The family liked it better - no mind numbing 10 miles at 10 mph from Hermosa to Durango. On thing I noticed on the D&S was there were quite a few new steel cars painted to look like wood. Sort of a reverse twist on what the North Shore did once upon a time.
That whole Klondike Gold Rush thing amazed me. The amount of quasi-organized crazy that went on was stunning. Pierre Berton's "The Klondike Quest" is a pretty good read for those who are interested.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
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