{"id":7456,"date":"2021-02-02T20:47:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T01:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7456"},"modified":"2021-02-02T20:58:17","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T01:58:17","slug":"episode-242-yukon-diary-the-white-pass-and-yukon-railway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=7456","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 242 YUKON DIARY THE WHITE PASS AND YUKON RAILWAY"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 242   YUKON DIARY    RIDING THE WHITE PASS  AND  YUKON RAILWAY<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
FeB 2021<\/div>\n

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Wednesday  Sept. 12, 1962<\/div>\n

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Dark and dreary day.  Tough day for my ride on the White Pass Railway from Whitehorse<\/div>\n
to Skagway.   The downhill run.   Narrow Gauge railway\u20263 feet between rails\u2026cheaper<\/div>\n
to build than a standard railway.  The  builders had enough trouble trying to find a route<\/div>\n
over the Coastal  Mountains.   International\u2026toughest part from White Pass to Skagway.<\/div>\n
\u2026only 107 miles long.   Completed in 1900.<\/div>\n

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The White  Pass and  Yukon Railway was just about  worn out by 1939\u2026old  engines<\/div>\n
and old coaches.   Relied on freight from Yukon  mines\u2026such as Keno Hill, Galena Hill<\/div>\n
and others that shipped their concentrate  down to Skagway and then by steamships to<\/div>\n
refineries in the United States.   The Great Depression led to the closing of many mines.<\/div>\n

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Then  came the 1960\u2019s\u2026boom times for everyone.<\/div>\n

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Opened August 1,  1900<\/div>\n
Closed   October 2, 1982<\/div>\n
Re opened  May 24, 1988<\/div>\n

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NOTE:   IN 1963, the year after  I left the Yukon,  70 tons of stollen <\/div>\n
silver ore was surreptitiously shipped from  the Yukon.  The story<\/div>\n
will be coming shortly.  An unbelievable adventure.  This stollen silver<\/div>\n
or was being moved  to hiding spots near Elsa \u2026The  thief,  Mr. Preist<\/div>\n
was arrested by a  fluke action taken by a White Pass trucker who wanted<\/div>\n
a cup of coffee in Elsa before driving to Whitehorse.  Priest was arrested<\/div>\n
and  testified that \u201cthe 70 tons of  silver were his because the 70 tons \u201cfell<\/div>\n
from the Moon\u201d     I had no idea this was happening while  we were<\/div>\n
doing our survey.  The story is riveting.<\/div>\n
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WHITE PASS AND YUKON RAILWAY\u2026AND  WORLD WAR II<\/div>\n
(Critical  supply source for the Alaska Highway)<\/div>\n

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Alaska became strategically important for the United States during World War II<\/a>; there was concern that the Japanese might invade it, as Alaska was the closest part of the United States to Japan. Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor<\/a>, the decision was made by the US and Canadian governments to construct the Alaska Highway<\/a> as an all-weather overland route to ensure communication. One of the principal staging points for construction was Whitehorse, which could be supplied by the WP&YR.<\/div>\n
By that time the railroad was a financially starved remnant from Klondike gold rush days, with well-worn engines and rolling stock. Despite this, the railroad moved 67,496 tons during the first 9 months of 1942, more than double its prewar annual traffic. Even this was deemed insufficient, and so the U.S. Government leased the railroad for the duration, effective at 12:01 a.m. on 1 October 1942, handing control to the United States Army<\/a>. What became the 770th Railway Operating Battalion of the Military Railway Service took over train operations in company with the WP&Y’s civilian staff.<\/div>\n
Canadian law forbade foreign government agencies from operating within Canada and its territories, but Japanese forces had occupied some of the Aleutian Islands<\/a> by this time, and an accommodation was quickly reached to “make an illegal action legal.”<\/div>\n
The MRS scoured the US for usable narrow-gauge locomotives and rolling stock, and soon a strange and colourful assortment began arriving at Skagway. The single largest group was seven D&RGW K-28<\/a> class 2-8-2’s acquired prior to the lease in August 1942. 2-8-0’s from the Silverton Northern<\/a> and the Colorado & Southern<\/a>, all over 40 years old, and a pair of ET&WNC<\/a> 4-6-0’s soon appeared, among others, as well as eleven new War Department Class S118<\/a> 2-8-2’s. WP&Y’s original roster of 10 locomotives and 83 cars was soon eclipsed by the Army’s additional 26 engines and 258 cars.<\/div>\n
The increase in traffic was remarkable: In the last 3 months of 1942, the railroad moved 25,756 tons. In 1943 the line carried 281,962 tons, equivalent to ten years worth of typical prewar traffic. All this despite some of the most severe winter weather recorded since 1910: Gales, snowdrifts and temperatures of -30 degrees F. succeeded in blockading the line from 5 \u2013 15 February 1943 and 27 January \u2013 14 February 1944.<\/div>\n
The peak movement occurred on 4 August 1943, when the White Pass moved 38 trains north and south, totalling 3346 gross \/ 2085 net tons, and 2236 locomotive-miles in 24 hours.[33]<\/a><\/sup><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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ENJOY THE  TRIP\u2026THE PICTURES ARE MORE DRAMATIC THAN ANY WORDS<\/div>\n
I COULD WRITE.<\/div>\n

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END EPISODE  242    YUKON DIARY<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 242   YUKON DIARY    RIDING THE WHITE PASS  AND  YUKON RAILWAY alan skeoch FeB 2021 Wednesday  Sept. 12, 1962 Dark and dreary day.  Tough day for my ride on the White Pass Railway from Whitehorse to Skagway.   The downhill run.   Narrow Gauge railway\u20263 feet between rails\u2026cheaper to build than a standard […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

\"Map<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Commercial operations<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Original gauge<\/th>\n3 ft<\/span><\/a> (914 mm<\/span>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Preserved operations<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Reporting mark<\/a><\/th>\nWP&YR<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Length<\/th>\n107 miles (172 km) (Skagway to Whitehorse); 67.5 miles (108.6 km) (Skagway to Carcross)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Preserved gauge<\/th>\n3 ft<\/span> (914 mm<\/span>)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Commercial history<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
Opened<\/th>\nAugust 1, 1900<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Closed<\/th>\nOctober 8, 1982<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Preservation history<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
May 24, 1988<\/th>\nReopened as The White Pass Route<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Headquarters<\/th>\nSkagway<\/a>, Alaska<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n