et&wnc Wrote:
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> I've ridden the WP&Y twice and I can assure you,
> railfans are the very
last people
> anyone in Skagway thinks of.
> And why? Because so few actually show up there.
> When I was there the second time in 2015, I got
> into a discussion with a nice lady who worked for
> the WP&Y and we discussed the line's history
> during WW2. She knew next to nothing about the
> line during the war and at the end she mentioned
> how nobody who rides there knows anything about
> trains. In short, no railfans. She said in almost
> a decade of working there, she'd only seen maybe a
> dozen diehard train fan types. The vast majority
> of paying customers, she said, were normal folks
> looking to do something different at one of the
> cruise ship stops.
Interesting.... Not sure who you talked to, but I can probably guess. For the most part, what you said is spot-on. The White Pass is a tourist railroad, which lives off cruise ship business. People rarely get to Skagway any other way. It is a LONG way from the lower 48 and not a place you're going to drive to. If the White Pass sees any "railfan" types, it is probably off the cruise ships. And unless they ride, they're not going to see much. Much of the line is really inaccessible, unless you want to do some very serious hiking....with the bears, etc. As for photo charters and the like, there have been a few in the past, and not likely to be many in the future. During normal cruise ship season, there are so many tourist trains on the hill that there is just no room for a photo charter. The most recent one that I know of happened back in 2011, and participants that I know indicated they spent a lot of time in the hole, watching diesel-powered passenger trains pass them. A prominent organizer tried to get another one together a couple of years back, but was never able to get the equipment or schedule that he wanted. The railroad neither wants nor needs that kind of business. It's not a matter of not liking railfans, it's just that they have a business to run and there's no bandwidth for specials.
However comma......anyone at White Pass who says they've never seen any rail enthusiasts has obviously not been there very long. Back in 2011, there were two events that did bring serious enthusiasts in reasonable numbers. The first was the April, 2011,
4-day Rotary Run, which I personally attended. That occurred before the tourist season and the rotary operation was completely financed by the railroad. The 17 of us who attended financed only the chase train that positioned us to watch the operation. It was the best photography event that I have ever attended, bar none. The railroad treated us superbly. The second event was the afore-mentioned charter, which I believe had larger attendance, and did occur during the tourist season, in June. There may be another such event in the future.....it's just not likely to occur unless the railroad's current situation changes.
/Kevin Madore
