Tanana Valley Railroad
The Tanana Valley Railroad ( TVRR ) is a former railroad in Alaska ( United States). It existed as an independent company of 1904 until 1917.
History
After was found around 1900 in the areas around present-day Fairbanks and north from there gold, attracted many miners and workers in the area. To ensure transport of people and natural resources, planned businessmen from Dawson ( Yukon Territory ) the construction of a railroad from the port on the Chena River in the Tanana mining areas. To this end they founded the Tanana Mines Railway, which was converted based on 12 December 1906 in the Tanana Valley Railroad in 1904.
In the summer of 1904, the construction of some railways in Chena had begun. Due to the unexpectedly marshy soil and the resulting difficulty in track construction work soon came to a halt. On July 4, 1905, the first steam locomotive train came (No. 1) by ship at Chena. Until then, the materials with horse and cart to the end of the track had to be driven.
On July 17, 1905, the first section of Chena to Fairbanks could be opened. The track width was 914 mm (3 feet). Then immediately continued the Streckenbau toward Chatanika. In September Gilmore was reached. After the reorganization in TVRR began immediately after the ongoing construction of Gilmore Chatanika, which was completed on September 29, 1907.
At the end of the financial year 1909/10 ordered the railway company over four locomotives, four passenger and 26 freight cars.
Until about 1910, the operation of the train was running smoothly and profitably. As of this time, however, more and more shipments were moved by road and transport numbers declined. The harbor at Chena rapidly lost importance and 1915, railway operations by Chena has been set. Finally, the Alaska Engineering Commission adopted on 31 December 1917 the railway. She was going to build the standard gauge track Fairbanks Seward, but a few more years had to do with it due to several pending bridges. So they built instead to 7 November 1919 new route to Nenana, which branched off in Happy from the TVRR route. This should be part of the main route later. First, we used the narrow gauge, spurts the route, however, until early June 1923 on standard gauge to after the rest of the track was completed. Between Happy and Fairbanks was built a third rail.
The operation between Fairbanks and Chatanika could still be maintained until 1 August 1930. 1931, the line was dismantled. Thus, the narrow-gauge railway operation ended in Fairbanks.
Sources and further information
- Howard Clifford: Alaska / Yukon Railroads. An illustrated History. Oso Publishing, Arlington WA 1999, ISBN 0-9647521 -4- X.
- History of TVRR (English)
- Former Railroad Company ( Alaska)
- Track width 914 mm