Council City and Solomon River Railroad

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The Council City and Solomon River Railroad (CCSR) is a former railroad in Alaska ( United States ). It existed as an independent company from 1902 to 1907. The railway company was founded on March 27, 1902 in New Jersey. In September 1902, planning began for an approximately 217 kilometer long standard-gauge railway, which would lead from Dickson at the mouth of the Solomon River past the mines at Council City to Candle and thus the entire Seward Peninsulashould cross. Construction began that same year; the first locomotives and wagons were delivered in 1903. The locomotives were bought second-hand from the New York Elevated Railroad .

On September 2, 1903, the first 16-kilometer section went into operation until shortly before Big Hurray, which was operated in passenger and freight traffic. In Dickson, a three-story station building was built, which also housed the headquarters of the railway company. In 1904 only 300 meters of track were built and a carriage service was set up from the end of the railway to Council City. In 1905 a 282 meter long bridge was built over the Solomon River and the route was extended over this bridge so that the total length of the route was now 21 kilometers. On September 19, 1906, about 35 miles from Dickson to Penelope Creek were completed and operated in passenger and freight traffic.

The July 15, 1907 timetable provided for a daily passenger train to East Fork, which took an hour to complete the route. Twice a week the train continued to Penelope Creek with a total travel time of three hours.

In 1907, however, construction was interrupted due to a lack of building materials and money, and the existing railway was shut down in the autumn of that year. The three locomotives, two passenger cars and 17 freight cars remained in Dickson and can still be viewed there today as “The Last Train to Nowhere”.

Sources and further information

Individual evidence
  1. ^ A b Poor's Manual of Railroads, 44th Annual Number. Poor's Railroad Manual Co., 1911, p. 1396.
literature
  • Howard Clifford: Alaska / Yukon Railroads. An illustrated History. Oso Publishing, Arlington WA 1999, ISBN 0-9647521-4-X , pp. 211-216.
Web links