mrwalsh85 Wrote:
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> Good luck. My cruise ship just two weeks ago was
> in Skagway on Wednesday. I contacted WPY earlier
> this year when I realized that 73 would be back
> just in advance of my visit.
>
> They said that 73 will only run Mondays,
> Thursdays, and Fridays. Wednesdays are one of the
> busier days with the cruise ships, so they focus
> their efforts on the regular trains. There were
> five ships in port when we were there.
>
That schedule would be similar to what has historically been the case. The steam trip has typically been billed as a "Fraser Meadows Steam Excursion" and only runs perhaps 3 times a week. Unfortunately for fans, the White Pass is a difficult railroad to photograph. They have rarely run anything like a photo charter and such trips are more unlikely today than they ever have been with so much lucrative cruise ship business. Arriving by cruise ship is fine if all you want to do is ride the train and see the line. If the objective is to photograph operations, the cruise ship passengers will be limited to what can be seen in Skagway itself, which is still better than nothing. Even folks who fly into Whitehorse and drive down to Skagway will find it difficult, unless they are into some serious hiking.....beware of bears. Yes, there are a few grade crossings and places where you can see it from the highway, but the take from that is probably not worth the cost of the trip up there.
If anyone is thinking of running a trip on the White Pass & Yukon, the time to propose it is either just before or just after the cruise season. At any other time, there would be just too much train activity for any kind of photo event. I think the last real charter ran in 2011, and the chief complaint I heard from folks who participated was that they spent extensive time in the hole simply watching the tourist trains pass. I believe that White Pass does have a hiker service that would essentially allow you to do that for the price of a regular ticket.
/Kevin Madore
