75 replies to this topic

[ckent323]

Frank,

 

Our plan is to ferry up amd drive back.  We are taking our Truck with FWC camper and pulling a covered trailer with two railroad motorcars in it, mine and a friends.  They are taking their truck and FWC camper. 

The Ferry trip up includes layover in Ketcikan for 4 days and Juneau for 10 days.  From Juneau we have multi-day trips planned to Sitka and Glacier Bay.  From Juneau we go to Haines.

 

From Haines our plan is to drive up to Dawson City and then come down to Anchorage via the top of the world highway.

The trip home is planned to go down through Jasper, Banff and Glacier parks.

 

During our 2018 trip we drove up the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, took a side trip to Stewart B.C/Hyder, AK and visited the Salmon glacier and Fish Creek overlook. From there we went to Anchorage via Whitehorse and Glenallen.  The return was down the Alcan to Dawson Creek then over to Prince George and South from there.

Doing the ferry both ways would cost too much with the camper and trailer on top of the railroad motorcar tour cost.

We are realizing that there is a very real possibility we will have to cancel the trip.   

We have the option of containerizing our motor cars and shipping them up and flying to/from Anchorage.  But that takes away all the other parts of the trip so we probably will not take that option.

I suppose we could ship the motorcars and take the trucks on the ferry to Whittier and take the ferry back too.  I need to talk that option over with the other travelers but two of them get seasick easily and the trip from Haines to Wittier is outside and can be much rougher than the inside passage.

Thanks for the suggestion just the same.

 

Craig
 

Edited by ckent323, 12 April 2021 - 09:47 PM.

[Atlin]

Excuse the rant, but this blanket border closure to everyone absolutely sucks.  We have a cabin in northern BC that has now been sitting unattended since September of 2019.  The government should allow property owners to at least access our property for maintenance and repair, especially since we have been vaccinated and would not be anywhere near a population center.  It will be incredibly frustrating if we cannot get north this year, which means the cabin (and all the other stuff there) will be unattended for almost three years (and that is presuming we could get there in 2022!).  Who knows what damage we will end up with for our solar system etc.

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Craig that sounds like a nice trip.

On our 2 latest trips to Ak using our truck/ATC Bobcat

we did some of the same routes you plan.

 

I realize the ferry with a truck and trailer can get very expensive.

 

The outside trip from Juneau to Whittier wasn't very rough but

defiantly not not as smooth or as nice views as the inside passage.

 

How do you use the rail motorcars on the rail line? What about the

other rail traffic in the line? Especially from Anchorage to Fairbanks.

 

Well look on the positive side about the Covid issue.

We are in a similar boat about visiting our daughter in Barcelona.

 

Hoping things will be open by Christmas.

 

Thanks for the info.

Frank

[ckent323]

I belong to a club called the North American Railcar Operators Association (NARCOA).

https://www.narcoa.org/

 

We have Event Coordinators (ECs) who are trained and authorized by the organization to arrange motorcar runs on many different railroads all over the US mostly 3rd class tourist type railroads and shortlines but some 2nd class railroads like the Alaska railroad.  Most are standard gauge railroads but there are a handful of narrow gauge railroads that we run on as well, such as the Cumbres and Toltec and Durango and Silverton (I also have a narrow gauge motorcar).

 

Our hobby has a motorcar operator licensing program and we must all be 1) Mentored and 2) subsequently pass a written licensing test every 2 years.  In addition, we are all required to carry accident insurance to protect the railroads from us.

The ECs are in charge of each run and we typically pay about $0.50 a mile to operate.  For safety reasons runs are often limited to no more than around 30 motorcars.

The railroads typically dispatch us as a group like a train and frequently they railroad has an employee operating a motorcar or highrail pickup in front of our group and one behind.  They stay in radio contact with the dispatchedr and with the EC.  Many, if not most of the motorcar operators have radios and can listen in. 

When we are operating on traack we typically separate and the distance between cars can be hundreds of feet.  On curving rail line it can seem as if you are out there by yourself.

On the Alaska railroad the primary traffic in summer are tourist trains and they have priority.  Freights usually run at night.  We get dispatched between the toruist trains and when one is coming we are directed onto a siding well before the meet up and then we wait until the tourist train passes.  

In 2018 we ran the entire length of the Alaska railroad round trip between Seward and Fairbanks including a side trip to Whittier and back through the tunnel.  The total on track mileage was just under 1,000 miles.  Our 30 car group was allowed to spread out to a maximum of 2 miles so that allowed a lot of space between cars.

At night we parked our motorcars on a siding, locked them up then took our bags to a shuttle bus pickup point. Once on board we were taken to a hotel for the night.  Sometimes we stayed more than one night.  Example lodging venues were the Talkeetna Lodge, The Grand Denali Lodge, the Ayeska Hotel as well as the Marriott Springhill Suites in Fairbanks and the Harbor 360 Hotel in Seward. 

Here is the 18 day motorcar trip itinerary from 2018 (we also took 14 days to drive up and 10 days to drive back - some others drove as well and a number of participants shipped their motor cars up and back by container and flew):

It is a fun, noisy, kind of dirty hobby.  Mostly a guy thing but there are some Women operators which is awesome.

Regards,
 

Craig

Attached Files

•  Alaska 2018 Itinerary.pdf   315.14K   54 downloads

Edited by ckent323, 14 April 2021 - 12:17 AM.

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Thanks Craig ,sounds like a fun way to visit areas.

Getting off the road and into some back country.

 

Hope your Aug trip gets to go through.

 

Frank

[Dirt Rider]

Sounds like I may need to bump TUK to 2022 Viking already canceled my Rhine river cruise. looks like its all going to be US travel this year, but there is a lot to see and do here.

[ckent323]

Hal,

 

Yeah, not looking good. Sorry  to read your cruise got cancelled.

 

 

Ditto on doing CONUS trips!

Craig

Edited by ckent323, 14 April 2021 - 05:47 PM.

[LuckyDan]

I’ve seen people come through town with little rail motor cars on trailers from time to time. One of our equipment operators I worked with called them a speeder. I guess they are same thing. Always wondered what people did with them, now I know. Thanks for posting Craig. That sounds like an interesting and epic trip!

FWIW, I feel everyone’s pain. I had a big tour planned through BC and destinations north last year. Obviously that failed to launch. Still going to be on the launch pad this year.

Good luck all.

Edited by LuckyDan, 15 April 2021 - 07:18 AM.

[DavidGraves]

Any BC residents want to join a canoe trip ? 

[Dirt Rider]

Heard it's 75 cents Canadian to the dollar now...if only I can cross the border!