Hi Evan,
About 15 years ago I started conducting interviews with a dozen or so 770th veterans that I was able to find based on a personnel roster given to me by an Army telegrapher. I've posted the following before, but figured you might find it interesting if you hadn't seen it. If there's any interest I'll type up some more of the interviews. As far as photos go, there are a lot of shots taken by the guys who were up there, some of which were passed on to me. I don't think photography was necessarily discouraged on the WP&YR during the war, it's just that up to now for some unfathomable reason the White Pass hasn't garnered the same attention as, say, the D&RGW. Therefore it's harder to find good info online or in the history books. I'm pretty sure every tie and chunk of ballast on the Rio Grande and RGS has been documented several times over in multiple volumes. When you consider that during a four year period out of Skagway you had locomotives and rolling stock from the Sumpter Valley, Denver & Rio Grande, Silverton Northern, ET&WNC, C&S, NCNG (and several others) rolling out of the yards into blizzards, washouts, and WWII intrigue, yet very little is known/published about those times...it fairly boggles the mind. At any rate, here's a couple interview snippets:
First up is Winford Green, a 770th engineer. Interview 3-25-08
"Everyone joked about riding a bus to our location to draw overseas pay. Alaska was considered overseas! Anyway, when I first arrived in Skagway I was just a fireman. First workday came and I was to be on an old locomotive, with a civilian engineer who was nearly 70. I walked up to him and asked, "Sir, where do I find the location where I make ice water for our engine?". He smiled and replied "A fireman doesn't make ice water up here, we get our drinking water right out of the engine water tank". I was very surprised, thinking in Baton Rouge an idea like that would go over like a lead balloon. The old man reached up in the cab, got a paper cup, squatted down and filled the cup from a low valve. He gave me the cup and motioned for me to have a drink. The water was very cold. Then I asked if the water was pure. He then told me that it was 99.9% pure. I wanted to know what the other tenth was. He pointed to nearby Mt. Harding and explained that on top of this high mountain there was a huge lake. It would freeze over during cold weather but the lake was so deep the town had drilled though solid rock and then Skagway had a great water supply. Then I asked again why the water wasn't 100% pure. He smiled again, and explained that lots of mountain goats lived on Mt. Harding and would pee in the lake."
Next up is Maxwell Shief, a 770th fireman. Interview 1-15-06.
(CC) Do you remember the #80 or #81?
(MS) Yeah, I thought it was #88 but I guess it was the #81. I remember one time I had to clean her fire...must have been every two miles all the way up the hill. Us firemen didn't much like her because she was a bitch to fire. You never got to sit down once you left Skagway with her. As soon as you shoveled it in, it was out the stack! But part of the problem was the coal. They'd truck it from the ship to the airfield, then dump it and bulldoze it into a pile. By the time we got it, it was mostly bad dust.
(CC) That makes it tough alright.
(MS) Now you take those Army engines (the 190's). You could get a good heel in the corners and rear and by the time you were a third of the way up the hill you could sit down.
(CC) Do you remember working on the 250 class?
(MS) Gosh, I'm 84 now, but yeah I do remember the 250. It wasn't too bad of an engine. But compared to the Army engines, by God, those 190's were good.
Last up is Frank Larcomb, interviewed in 2005. Like an idiot I didn't write down the exact date.
(CC) So you were a machinist?
(FL) Yeah, I was a machinist. George Rapuzzi, Koploski, and me. During the big snowstorm I worked in the machine shop for 36 hours. I'd throw some waste against a vise and grab a little sleep. But lots of coffee helped of course!
(CC) You had to keep working because they kept breaking parts out-
(FL) Yeah. The rotaries would hit something and ruin their machinery. Had to keep the rotaries going!
(CC) Were you pretty well equipped in the shop up there?
(FL) What we didn't have, we improvised. We got along wonderfully.
(CC) Made do with what you had, and made what you didn't have.
(FL) Exactly. I was 21 and had previous experience on the Pennsy, so that helped. We turned tires, bored wheels out for the car shop, turned axles...we did pretty good for a bunch of kids really.
(CC) Do you remember working on the #4, the Skagway switcher?
(FL) That damn thing just kept running. A little fella ran her, and she was his baby.
(CC) Tough engine, huh?
(FL) Yeah. I'll tell you a good one. We had an ol' boy from Arkansas, and they were working on a locomotive. Working on the pops. This guy went and lit a fire in her. Next thing you know, she had 300 pounds of pressure!
(CC) That's not good.
(FL) No, not at all. So, one of the guys went up and opened the valve on top of the boiler. You probably could have kicked her side and she would have blown up!
(CC) Was that on one of the Rio Grande engines, or one of the 190's?
(FL) I think it was on one of the 190's. Boy, those Rio Grande engines sure were low to the ground. They'd just roll up the hill.
(CC) Kind of waddled.
(FL) Yeah!
(CC) Did you know Alex Gotoski?
(FL) Yeah! He and I used to stay in the same Quanset Hut.
(CC) You bunked in a Quanset Hut?
(FL) They put me in a tent at -20 below when I first got up there and I caught pnuemonia!
Anyway, that's a little glimpse of the stories they had. Burning bacon instead of coal, using a blowtorch to melt ice crystals to see in order to rerail a locomotive in a snowshed, and eating WWI canned turkey for Thanksgiving in 1944 are all more of the great anecdotes those fellows shared.
Enjoy,
Casey
