Rail transport in Alaska and the Yukon Territory

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Train of the TVRR 1916

Alaska and the Yukon Territory did not have a coherent or uniform railroad network. Nevertheless, especially at the time of the Klondike gold rush, there were numerous mine railways, i.e. railway lines that connected mines with sea or river ports. Only a few of these railways were also used for passenger transport. Only three railways are still in operation, the Alaska Railroad for regular passenger and freight traffic and the White Pass and Yukon Railway as a museum railway, as well as a tourist railway in Fairbanks , which was built directly as such. In addition to the mine railways, some smaller non-public industrial railways or forest railwayswere alsooperated. The forms of operation were varied, so there were steam or diesel-powered trains as well as horse-drawn trams , electric railways and funiculars . Most of the railways were narrow gauge, only the larger routes were partly built in standard gauge .

history

After gold had been found three years earlier at Dawson in the Yukon Territory (at that time still part of the North-West Territories), in 1899 miners also found large amounts of the precious metal in Nome (western Alaska), and later in other places. Shortly afterwards, coal and copper were also found, especially in the south of the Alaska Peninsula. Numerous railway companies were immediately established to open up the entire country. The first public railway ran in Skagway in 1898 with the later White Pass and Yukon Railway , after a horse-drawn tram had opened in a mine on Umga Island in 1886 and a 5.5-kilometer non-public gold mine railway had opened near Seward City south of Skagway in 1894 . Very few of the plans were actually implemented. Little information is known about many of the railways. The longest of these railways was the Alaska Railroad , which connects Fairbanks with the ports of Whittier and Seward over a length of about 750 kilometers .

The second longest and, due to the immense construction costs and also the route, the most controversial mine railway was the Copper River and Northwestern Railway , which connected the copper mines at Kennicott to the south coast of Alaska near Cordova over a length of 315 kilometers .

The first deposits were already exhausted by 1910, and many followed in the years that followed. Some of the railways also fell victim to competition from the road. When oil was discovered in Alaska in 1968, all railways in this area except for the Alaska Railroad and the White Pass & Yukon Route had already been shut down.

A new mine train is now planned. The Alaska Central Railroad , founded on February 27, 1998, is to connect the Alaska Railroad near Wasilla with several coal mines and two new ports to be built and to lead to Tyonek on Trading Bay . The route should have a length of 138 kilometers. An extension towards Canada has been proposed. The provisional abbreviation of the AAR should read AKC . The railway company currently operates a 900 meter long museum railway with a gauge of 190.5 millimeters (7.5 inches ) in Wasilla between the airfield and the transport museum  .

List of mine railways

The following list is arranged chronologically by the date the company was founded.

Name of the railway company founding Route Length
(km) 		opening Shutdown Track
width
(mm) 		Passenger
traffic 		Cargo Remarks
Apollo Consolidated Mining Company 1886 on Umga Island ? 1886 circa 1917 914? No Gold quartz Initially horse tram, locomotive operation from 1897
Berners Bay Gold Manufacturing Company 1894 at Seward City on the Lynn Canal 5.5 Beginning 1894 ? 914 No gold  
White Pass and Yukon Railway 1897 Skagway - Whitehorse YT / Pueblo YT 195.9 1898-1910 07.10.1982
(partly in operation again) 		914 Yes Gold, silver, copper, lead, zinc partly in British Columbia , partly reopened from 1988
Klondike Mines Railway 07/10/1899 Dawson City YT - Sulfur Springs YT 51.19 1906 Autumn 1913 914 Yes gold  
North American Transportation and Trading Company 1899 along Cliff Creek, 93 miles south of Dawson City YT 2.5 1899 1918 914 No coal  
Cook Inlet Coal Field Company Railroad 1899 at Homer , Kenai Peninsula 13.5 1900 1902 1067 No coal Tracks only dismantled in 1913
Seward Peninsular Railroad 1900 Nome - Shelton 140 1900-1902 1910 914 Yes gold Wild Goose Railroad until 1902 , Nome – Arctic Railroad until April 27, 1906
Council City and Solomon River Railroad 03/27/1902 Dickson - Penelope Creek (- Candle Planned) 56 (planned 217) 1903-1906 1907 1435 Yes planned gold  
Alaska Railroad March 31, 1902 Seward - Fairbanks and Branch Lines 757 (main
route) 		1905-1923 in operation 1435 Yes Gold, tin, coal until 1909 Alaska Central Railway , until 1915 Alaska Northern Railway
Detroit Yukon Mining Company Railway 1902 at Bear Creek YT , north of Dawson ? Summer 1904 1905 914 No gold
Katalla Coal Company Railroad 1902 inland from Goose City approx. 14 1907 1908 1435? ? coal  
Treadwell Mine Railroad 1902 Douglas Island , south of Douglas ? 1902 December 1922 610 No ?  
Golovin Bay Railway 1902 Council City No. 15 Ophir Creek 13 08/17/1902 circa 1906 914 No gold  
Coal Creek Coal Company Railway 1903 along Coal Creek, 87 miles south of Dawson City YT 18.5 09.1903 1914 914 No coal from October 1906 Sourdough Coal Company Railway , from 1909 Northern Light, Power and Coal Company Railway , dismantling of the line in 1918
Tanana Valley Railroad 1904 Chena - Chatanika with branch to Fairbanks 72 1905-1907 08/01/1930 914 Yes gold through May 15, 1907 Tanana Mines Railway
Alaska Home Railroad 1905 Valdez –Keystone Canyon (–Kennicott planned) 1.5 1907 1907 1435 Yes planned copper until 1907 Valdez – Yukon Railroad
Copper River and Northwestern Railway May 16, 1905 Cordova - Kennicott 315 1911 09/11/1938 1435 Yes copper until 1907 Copper River Railroad
Alaska Marble Company Tramway circa 1905 on Prince of Wales Island 1 1905? ? 1435? No marble Funicular
Rush and Brown Copper Mine Railroad 1905 on Prince of Wales Island (Kaasan Peninsula) 5 1905 1908 914? No copper  
Atlin Consolidated Mining Company 1906 at Pine Creek YT ? 1906 1909 914? No gold electrically operated (400 V, catenary on the side)
Alaska Anthracite Coal and Railway 04/19/1909 Point Martin- MacDonald Mine 27 1917 1921 1435 No coal  
Alaska Juneau Gold Mine Railroad 1911 above Juneau 11 1911 April 1944 762 No gold electrically operated, 600 V, overhead line
Alaska Gastineau Mining Company Railroad 1914 Sheep Creek 8th April 1914 1921 914 No gold electrically operated, 600 V, overhead line

More tracks

  • The Yakutat and Southern Railroad operated a railway line from Yakutat to Situk from 1904 to the 1960s , which was also served by passenger services.
  • When the Alaska-Gastineau Mining Company wanted to start gold mining north of Juneau (Alaska), they needed a power plant to provide electricity. A dam was therefore built on Salmon Creek in 1913 , for the construction of which a 4.2 kilometer long railway with a 3 foot (914 millimeter) gauge was laid. On steep stretches the wagons were pulled by a cable. The railway transported construction materials and workers to the dam and was decommissioned after the dam was completed. The tracks were used in the construction of the company's electric mine train (see table).
  • The Alaska Lumber and Pulp Company operated an industrial railway near Sitka until its pulp mill closed in 1993 . It transported chemicals, wood and pulp.
  • The Ketchikan Pulp Company operated a factory railway north of Ketchikan (Alaska) from 1954 to 1997 . They transported chemicals and manufacture pulp. After the factory was closed in 1997, the railway was shut down.
  • Before the WP&YR arrived in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, there was already rail traffic around the city. In the spring of 1898, Norman D. Macaulay opened the Canyon and White Horse Rapids Railway , a horse-drawn railway, three foot gauge along the east side of the river to bypass the dangerous Miles Canyon south of town. Shortly thereafter, John Hepburn also opened a railway on the west side of the river, the Miles Canyon and Lewes River Tramway . Macaulay eventually bought the Hepburns railway and operated both railways profitably until 1900 the WP&YR approached the city. He eventually sold both lines to the railway, which used the western route partially for railway construction.
  • In Pioneer Park in Fairbanks , where some old locomotives and wagons of the Alaska Railroad and its predecessor companies are on display, the Crooked Creek and Whiskey Island Railroad runs as a tourist train on three-foot (914 millimeters) track on a circular route during the summer months .
  • Other railways, about which information is no longer available, were in Goulding Harbor (on Chicago Island ) and at Eagle Harbor .

Sources and further information

Individual evidence
  1. ↑ http://artefactscanada.chin.gc.ca:8015/Webtop/CHINApps/artefacts/ws/human/user/www/Record;jsessionid=2zs4oss1o1?upp=0&m=61&w=NATIVE('INSNAME+EQ+''DAWSON + CITY + MUSEUM + '' + and + image +% 3D + '' X '' ') (History of a DYMCo locomotive)
  2. ↑ Clifford 1999, p. 227.
literature
  • Ken C. Brovald: Alaska's Wilderness Rails. From the taiga to the tundra. A Pictorial Review of the Alaska Railroad. Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., Missoula MT 1982, ISBN 0-933126-21-2 .
  • Howard Clifford: Alaska / Yukon Railroads. An illustrated History. Oso Publishing, Arlington WA 1999, ISBN 0-9647521-4-X .
  • Stan Cohen: Rails Across the Tundra. A Historical Album of the Alaska Railroad. Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., Missoula MT 1984, ISBN 0-933126-43-4 .
  • Lone E. Janson: The Copper Spike. Alaska Northwest Pub. Co., Anchorage AK 1975, ISBN 0-88240-045-2 .
  • Bernadine LeMay Prince: The Alaska Railroad, in Pictures, 1914–1964. 2 volumes. Ken Wray, Anchorage AK 1964.
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