Western Railroad Discussion > A Real Land Cruise in Alaska

My wife and I took a Princess cruise tour to Alaska in September. After docking in Whittier, we took the train to Denali National Park for two days. The next leg was on to Fairbanks, also by train. Earlier on the day of our journey to Fairbanks, managed to catch an Alaska Railroad engine, pulling both Princess Cruise Lines and Holland America Cruise Lines cars, going from Denali to Whittier.

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Does the locomotive have a HEP generator in it? Those Princess cars look like they chopped the top off of a commuter coach. Thank you for the video as we do not see much from Alaska.

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does the locomotive have a HEP generator in it?
> Those Princess cars look like they chopped the top
> off of a commuter coach. Thank you for the video
> as we do not see much from Alaska.

Those cars were built by Colorado Railcar, We rode from Anchorage to Denali and then back to Whittier in 2006 when we took our whole family on a Princess cruise, same thing etc. They were not "chopped". They were/are beautiful dome cars.
C.

Carol Voss
Salinas, CA

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does the locomotive have a HEP generator in it?
> Those Princess cars look like they chopped the top
> off of a commuter coach. Thank you for the video
> as we do not see much from Alaska.


Yes, to the HEP generator. The observation/smoking platform on the last car was where my wife and I spent a great deal of the trip from Whittier to Denali, as our assigned seats, which are actually bench seats at a table, were facing backwards and my wife has a hard time riding backwards on a train. When we were rolling thru this one beautiful valley, with the river on one side and beautiful Aspen trees changing colors, the train was doing 60 mph. What a hoot!

Hello

Todd the webmaster wrote:

"Does the locomotive have a HEP generator in it? Those Princess cars look like they chopped the top off of a commuter coach. Thank you for the video as we do not see much from Alaska".

The Princess cars are not built from former Bi-Level commuter coaches, they are build new from the ground up.
The Holland America cars appear as though they are built from former B-Level commuter coaches, but they too are built new from the ground up.

If you are interested in learning more, fellow T.O. member and former CRM employee Jodie Moore, has an excellent website, which is dedicated to the former CRM "Ultra Domes".

http://www.trainweb.org/ultradomes/index2.html

As a former employee of CRM myself, I can tell you that the information on Jodie's website is very thorough and accurate.

RosevilleBill
Longmont, CO.

Hello Todd

My apologies, you were right.

The last car in the consist was a former "Chopped" Bi-Level SP commuter car.

The last car in the consist was built by Tom Rader in his early days of rebuilding old commuter coach cars for the Cruise industry in Portland Ore.

The era in which these cars were rebuilt, was long before I worked at CRM.

Man I must be getting old, as my memory is starting to go away, I forgot all about the cars in question.

I stand corrected, and once again, my apologies.

RosevilleBill
Longmont, CO.

rosevillebill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello Todd
>
> My apologies, you were right.
>
> The last car in the consist was a former "Chopped"
> Bi-Level SP commuter car.
>
> The last car in the consist was built by Tom Rader
> in his early days of rebuilding old commuter coach
> cars for the Cruise industry in Portland Ore.
>
> The era in which these cars were rebuilt, was long
> before I worked at CRM.

>
> Man I must be getting old, as my memory is
> starting to go away, I forgot all about the cars
> in question.
>
> I stand corrected, and once again, my apologies.
>
> RosevilleBill
> Longmont, CO.

The guide on our car, a Princess Cruise Lines employee, stated that these cars "have the largest windows of any railcars."

Man, u guys who mnake it up to Alaska sure do know how to have a great time!

A wide variety of dome cars in Alaska. Sometimes all represented on one train.

Fairbanks

And the inside of Holland America 7/09

Paul

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rosevillebill Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hello Todd
>
> My apologies, you were right.
>
> The last car in the consist was a former "Chopped"
> Bi-Level SP commuter car.
>
> The last car in the consist was built by Tom Rader
> in his early days of rebuilding old commuter coach
> cars for the Cruise industry in Portland Ore.
>
He may have done some rebuilds up in Portland, but he did his first rebuilds at the blimp hangars at Tillamook where the air museum and Port of Tillamook RR are currently. If I remember correctly, the last 3 tail cars in the video were all rebuilt by Rader. I saw some of them being worked on at the hangars one summer, I think it was around 1989, I wrote an article for "Flimsies" about it. - Chris

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does the locomotive have a HEP generator in it?
> Those Princess cars look like they chopped the top
> off of a commuter coach. Thank you for the video
> as we do not see much from Alaska.

The SD70MAC's with the 'flared' radiators have HEP, the 'standard hood' SD70MACs from the first delivery did not, and had to have a HEP-equipped GP40-2 at the rear of the power consist.

Were the SD70MAC's built with the E-Bells or did they acquire them later? Almost sounded like a SD70ACe-style K5LLA horn.

Cool video, I have GOT to go to Alaska sometime.

Pump

We rode the cars owned by the Alaska RR this summer from Seward to Anchorage, and then on to Denali. I think they were the last ones made by Rader. They are like the huge-window domes in the photo on top with a kitchen in one and a dining room in the other on the lower level. They have the open observation space on the end of the upper level. The bar has coffee and soda, and booze for purchase. The cars run as smooth as can be, the view is breathtaking, and the onboard staff makes you want to come back. It just doesn't get any better.