Re: WP&YR locomotive and rolling stock correspondence May 1946

Sharrod Wrote:
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> Really, really interesting.
>
> I did not know control of the White Pass was in
> London.
>
> Did you notice that in winter, they needed 2x as
> much power just for snow clearing as for revenue
> trains? Does the railroad run in winter today? Has
> the climate changed that much that snow clearing
> is easier?

The railroad has not run in winter since the ore traffic went away. And that was back in the 1980s, if I recall correctly.

The highway from Skagway into Canada had been completed in the late 1970s -- it was under construction in 1976 when I rode the line and had about two more years of construction before completion. When I was there the assistant manager in Skagway shared that the railroad thought that yes, the road would affect the business on the WP&YR, but they would still get the oversize loads, etc. Then the mine closed down and the big source of traffic went away.

The highway really made a change in the local passenger business -- now residents in Skagway could make a round trip to Whitehorse in a single day. When I rode the line in 1976, I stepped out onto the platform when the train was stopped at the yard; conversation between a railroader on the ground and a man to stepped out of the combine was that the man on the train had taken his family to Whitehorse to see the dentist. Three days to see the Dentist; two days on the train and one in Whitehorse.

Brian Norden