Passenger Trains > Skagway from a different prospective

Taken from two different decks of a Princess Ship while in Skagway

Thanks for looking

Jay
 

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That ship really towers over the train...

Thanks for the memories. Last year we had a cruise aboard a Holland America ship: our first time in Alaska since 1972. That was on a small converted ferry boat - the CPR's Princess Patricia. We docked at the same location as in the photos. It was interesting to see the emblem of Canadian Pacific amongst those painted on the rocks.

Due to the large number of cruise ships calling in Skagway, the White Pass & Yukon's service is obviously far more extensive than it was in 1972. The conductor on our train told me the excursion train often operates with as many as five sections, each with up to 15 coaches.

Does the White Pass and Yukon handle much freight or are they primarily a tourist rail line?  Thanks

renf Wrote:
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> Does the White Pass and Yukon handle much freight
> or are they primarily a tourist rail line? 
> Thanks

It only carries people these days... lots of them.  Skagway doesn't have any other tourist draw for the cruise ships other than the railroad, unless you count jewlery stores. The tracks come right down to the cruise ship docks so passengers can board almost from the ship.  The photo in the picture shows a recently built dock (Last 10 years or so) and if you look closely it also has a standard gauge rail in case they ever widened the railroad.

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

They've got a steam engine, too.  Rode it in September as part of a cruise shore excursion.

webmaster Wrote:

>
> It only carries people these days... lots of them.
>  Skagway doesn't have any other tourist draw for
> the cruise ships other than the railroad, unless
> you count jewlery stores. The tracks come right
> down to the cruise ship docks so passengers can
> board almost from the ship.  The photo in the
> picture shows a recently built dock (Last 10 years
> or so) and if you look closely it also has a
> standard gauge rail in case they ever widened the
> railroad.
>
That appears to be a rebuild of the dock that was there on my 1972 cruise.  As happens today, the train came down to the ship's side. On our 2015 cruise there was another ship at an extension of the dock aft of our berth. Because the extension is narrow the track does not go that far so passengers had to walk - or take a "golf-cart-type" shuttle - to their train which boarded in the same spot as our train. (We departed first.) Judging from the crews' artwork there has been a dock there for a long time. The CPR house flag "painting" from the SS Princess Norah dates from 1928 and the SS Princess Charlotte from 1929. These two photos were taken in May 2015.

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