WP &YR railway (Whitepass & Yukon Route)

The train ride!!! 3 hour round trip from Skagway at 0 ft. sea level to 3000 ft. at the summit in just under 20 miles. The route was born in the Klondike Gold Rush era...a necessity to move the gold to the coast from the interior...Faro used the route to move the ore mined in the town to the coast to the ocean going ships. The tight curves of the White Pass called for a narrow gauge railway. The rails are just three ft. apart on only a 10 ft. roadbed. There are two tunnels (pitch black tunnels) and numerous bridges and trestles. Some made of steel, some of wood and all on a wing and a prayer...(or was that me riding the rails) When riding this train you can hardly not think of the explorers...something I do quite regularly..I heard that the tunnels were built in the dead of winter at 60 below and with seeing the amount of snow in May....Its is an unbelievable feat....Construction of the railway took 35000 men...There is a story of a 10 ton rock which fell down the mountain on top of two explorers and their pack horses and all the equip. There was no equipment that could move that size of rock so they place a marker on top, and with every train ride full of tourists they pay homage to these men. If they only knew what the future would bring 100+ years down the road.
On our visit to Whitehorse Phyl and Doris went to visit a friend of theirs from Faro in hospital, and mentioned we were going on the train...she was telling them she and her husband arrived from Czechoslovakia in Skagway 54 years ago and traveled to Whitehorse on the White Pass train. They happened to be on the final car and she was terrified of the sway, was having second thoughts of her adventure. (I'll try to avoid the final car!!!!)


Snow removal !!!!








Phyl stayed back at the truck with Oliver because she was to nervous going on the train but I had to get the photo..so Doris and I ventured out...and it wasn't to bad..I even found myself hanging over the edge of the railing to get a photo of the side of the train riding around the curves..
































Of course the closer you came to the summit the more snow there was...it was an amazing trip well worth the time. As I stated earlier I must go back after the snow has cleared to see the actual terrain. I will be as impressed.