White Pass and Yukon Route

The White Pass and Yukon Railway ( also White Pass and Yukon Route ) (WP & YR) is a railway company in Alaska, British Columbia and the Yukon. It consists of three subsidiaries that manage the stretch in the respective states.

History

Prehistory

In 1885 there was the first considerations, a railway from the coast in southern Alaska to build into the Yukon Territory. Initially it was planned to build a route from Sitka or Juneau over the Chilkoot Pass. The establishment of the Chilkoot Pass and Summit Railroad Company was requested but not approved for lack of financial coverage.

After 1896 had been found at Dawson gold, more and more miners arrived in the area on the Yukon River and it evolved into a true gold rush. For this reason it was soon necessary to bind the mining areas around Dawson and a smaller area around Atlin in British Columbia at a port where the workers arrived. Due to its sheltered position and the possible over the White Pass route you chose now Skagway as a starting point. Was to be built a railroad to Fort Selkirk, a distance of 523 kilometers. For cost reasons, it was decided to build a track in the track width of three feet (914 mm), which is only a ten foot wide path required, rather than in standard gauge wide with a 15 foot line.

For this purpose, each founded in 1897 in the three administrative regions a railway company:

• In Alaska, the Pacific and Arctic Railway and Navigation Company,
• In British Columbia, the British Columbia Yukon Railway Company and
• In the Yukon Territory, the British Yukon Mining, Trading and Transportation Company, which was founded in 1900 converted in British Yukon Railway Company.

On July 30, 1898, finally established the White Pass and Yukon Railway Company Limited in London, who then took over the three companies.

Construction of the network

The construction began in May 1898 and on July 21st of the year were a few problems with Soapy Smith, a local gang leader, the first 6.4 km route will be opened to Boulder. On February 20, 1899, the first passenger train reached the White Pass and thus the border with Canada. The 32.2 km long route from Skagway here overcame this 873 meters. A tunnel and numerous viaducts had to be built.

Gold prospectors on their way home came on July 6, 1899 early morning on the steamer in Bennett and bought train tickets for a train by 14 clock, although no track was present at the station. However, you heard the track workers in two miles away. Many passengers were so keen to re-start that they helped the workers assemble the finished track to Bennett Station, so that the first train could depart on time by 14 clock in Bennett. Two days later, the regular operation started. Because Bennett was only a temporary terminus and they wanted to build any hub, the trains used here on a track triangle.

Around this time, construction began on the section - Carcross Whitehorse. The remaining section between Bennett and Carcross along the eastern shore of Lake Bennett was more difficult and was later built. Both sections were finally on 1 August 1900 in operation after it had been three days before taken solemnly to the last nail. The entire route had a length of 177.7 kilometers. Despite the difficult climatic and topographic conditions were used in the construction, only 35 of a total of 35,000 workers lost their lives.

Since the gold rush subsided already, not one built the track, as originally planned, on to Dawson City and Fort Selkirk. In addition to the railway operation, the railway company in 1901 but had also set up a postal service between Whitehorse and Dawson, which was carried out with horse-drawn carriages. With these cars and passengers were transported. In addition, the train had 1910 17 riverboat and 12 smaller vessels, with which passengers were carried over the Yukon River as far as central Alaska.

The " Taku Tram "

Now still had to be connected to Atlin gold fields. By boat you could get from Carcross over the Wheaton River and Tagish Lake, which is drained by the Yukon River until after Taku City. From there, the Yukon is no longer navigable. A four kilometer wide land bridge separates the Tagish Lake from Atlin Lake. The river at this point is very narrow and not designed for passenger and freight transport suitable. To overcome this land bridge, which was founded in February 1899 Atlin Short Line Railway and Navigation built a horse-drawn tram with wooden rails in the track width of three feet of Taku City to Scotia Bay, from where a ferry took over the Atlin Lake to Atlin. The train went on 6 June 1899 and was nicknamed Taku Tram. About a year after starting operation, the WP & YR took this path and built the plant in a steam-powered train to, which was opened on 18 July 1900. She was finally decommissioned in 1951. In 1956, the tracks were dismantled. The former railway embankment is now an unpaved trail (trail ).

Other rail projects for the development of Atlin and the surrounding area were never realized. The Atlin Southern Railway had in 1899 a concession for a railway from Log Cabin on Atlin to Telegraph Creek obtained, which was never built.

Racecourses in Whitehorse

Before the WP & YR arrived in Whitehorse, there were in the vicinity of the city already rail transport. In the spring of 1898 opened Norman D. Macaulay Canyon and the Whitehorse Rapids Railway, a horse path along the east side of the river in three foot gauge in order to avoid the dangerous Miles Canyon south of town. Shortly thereafter, John Hepburn also opened a path on the west side of the river, the Miles Canyon and Lewes River Tramway. Macaulay finally bought on the web Hepburn and operating both webs profitably until 1900, the WP & YR approached the city. He eventually sold both routes to the railway which used the western route partially for the construction.

Further development

1910 was a 18.17 km long branch of Mac Rae to Pueblo in operation to open up a new mining area there. Meanwhile, more silver, copper and lead was mined than gold in the region. The branch line to Pueblo was decommissioned in 1918.

In June 1934, the company expanded its fleet to a seaplane, which also now brought passengers from Whitehorse to Dawson. Shortly after, more aircraft were purchased and also the flight operations of Skagway and taken to other destinations north of Whitehorse.

After the world economic crisis that also the mining had to suffer in the region, drove in some cases only once a week, a passenger. The situation changed with the USA entered the war in December 1941. U.S. Army took over from 1 October 1942, the control of the train. Many locomotives and cars were reassigned from other tracks to Skagway, because the web had a great strategic importance: it was until 1978 the only land transportation route from Skagway the Yukon River. 17 trains ran daily on the route, and on peak days up to 34th in Skagway a detour around the town was built and the original route on Broadway was shut down.

After the Army had surrendered control of the WP & YR the back on 1 May 1946 it was again quiet on the White Pass. The railway company had to be liquidated in 1951 and was replaced by the new White Pass and Yukon Corporation. Even in the 1950s triggered diesel from the getting on in years steam locomotives. 1956 drove the first container in the world on the WP & YR. As at 1969 Whitehorse a new lead and zinc mine was opened, the carriage numbers skyrocketed. In the same year moved to the track at the Dead Horse Canyon. The old steel bridge over the gorge was no longer face the stress of the many trains. The train was led by a new additional tunnels and over a new bridge.

1982 had due to the sharp fall in metal prices many mines are closed. Since the web is not calculated solely on passenger, was laid quietly the route on 7 October of the year. The investments of the train remained operational.

Since the end of the 1980s, more and more cruise ships landed in Skagway and tourism increased in the region, it was realized the benefits of the web and decided to operate it as a tourist railway. In 1988 went to the location in Alaska section Skagway White Pass again. Some vehicles were purchased by the disused railway on Newfoundland in November 1988. The following year, the trains ran back to Fraser, 1992 to Bennett. Starting in 1997, drove occasionally trains to Carcross, a regular operation, it was not there initially, however. As of May 2007, the trains were back on schedule to Carcross. After heavy floods had to be stopped for some time on 27 July 2007, the operation between Bennett and Carcross, since the bridge in Carcross was no longer safe to operate. However, the bridge could be repaired, so that again trains to Carcross.

The White Pass and Yukon Route was established in 1994 by the American Society of Civil Engineers in the List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks.

Passenger

The timetable from October 1913 provided for a daily train Skagway - Whitehorse, 7 hours and 45 minutes and 7 hours and five minutes needed the Yukon towards the harbor. The two trains met in Bennett. On the route to Pueblo no passenger was held. It is not clear if ever rode passenger trains on the track.

According to the schedule on June 1, 1934, was at that time a total of three pairs of trains. A mixed train ran on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, another mixed pair of trains ran on Wednesdays and Fridays from Skagway to Whitehorse and Thursdays and Saturdays back. The third train upside as a pure passenger train and ran on Wednesdays and on Fridays in both directions. The travel time for the distance was between 6 hours, 15 minutes and 7 hours 20 minutes.

According schedule from May 19, 1964 went to this time two trains. A daily train went all the way and needed to White Horse 6 hours 15 minutes and towards Skagway 6 hours and 40 minutes. Another train operated only after the line steamer in Skagway and drove only to Carcross. The railway-owned bus line wrong once daily from Whitehorse to Beaver Creek on the border with Alaska.

2007 runs a daily train Skagway - Carcross, the distance required for more than six hours - as much as 1934, a passenger train from Skagway to Whitehorse needed. Since 2010 Carcross is approached several times a week. In addition, several trains that run only up to White Pass, Fraser or Bennett.

Ship line

On November 26, 1955, the company took the first container ship in the world, the Clifford J. Rogers, on the route between Vancouver and Skagway in operation. 1965 Clifford J. Rogers was replaced by the Frank H. Brown, which in turn was supplemented in 1969 by the Klondike.