Fall colours, snow & steam trains
Cathy and I had planned on working on the house yesterday. No really, we had 🙂 , even though it was a beautiful morning.
But then I got an email from the WP&YR railfan discussion list [now gone] that I belong to, saying that there was going to be a run using both steam engines, and that ended the house plans.
We got side-tracked for a few minutes at Carcross when I caught a glimpse of the Caribou Hotel – isn’t this renovation coming along beautifully?
The fall colours are a week or so from peak but most of the mountains above about 5,500 feet have a substantial load of snow on them.
I had planned on getting some photos of the trains at the station but somehow my time got messed up and we arrived at the station to see it pulling away 🙁 But we caught it at the roundhouse for the first photos.
Rocky Point and the bridges just above it are the best spot for good steam action photos, as the highway is close and the engines are pulling hard up the tough grade.
WP&YR steam locomotives #73 and #69
Once out into the straight part of the valley, the strong south wind out of Skagway hit the train and the smoke started to envelope the train instead of trailing behind.
By the time the train reached Pitchfork Falls, normally a very scenic photo spot, it was barely visible through the smoke.
There were lots of people following the train – every pullout was full.
From there on things got quite ugly on the train – we could hear horrendous crashing as the train’s wheels slipped on the wet tracks and then grabbed again over and over.
The train disappears into the clouds. We had planned to hike into the Thompson River bridge to shoot the train there, but it was just too cold and wet so we went back to Skagway to look around while we waited for the train to return.
There were only 2 ships in today, the Seven Seas Mariner and the Carnival Spirit – the most expensive and the least expensive of Alaska ships. There were few people on the street and traffic on the highway was very light – I expect that most people stayed on the ships where it’s warm and dry. The cruise season is just about over.
Skagway in September – wind, cold, low clouds and great sales on made-in-China junk – whoops, I meant “Alaska souvenirs”. The shelves in many stores are emptying quickly.
The train never did make it back to the station. Half an hour after its scheduled arrival I asked a WP employee and she said that it was going to be at least 2 hours late and that the steam engines would be stopping at the shops anyway – diesel locomotives would bring the passengers back to the dock. Oh well, despite the lousy weather it was a good road trip.
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