The end of the world railroad

Last Sunday. It was quite early when Anna kindly offered to drive me at the train station. I have mixed feelings: excited by the ride by train in the Interior and sad to leave my Alaskan friends from Fairbanks. Andrew and Anna, you rose my level of expectations too high now!

I buy a ticket to Anchorage, located on the Southern coast. Class Adventure! I didn't choose it but it keeps me on the good track. Before leaving, a couple of pictures of the train itself. Two gigantic locomotives to pull only 3 cars: club car, passenger car and freight car. In 2014, the line will celebrate its centenary. Fairbanks-Anchorage (some 420 miles – almost 700 km) is the main section. There are small extensions on each end.

The train leaves the station quite punctually. We quickly leave the city behind us and find ourselves in the middle of wilderness. The conductor welcomes us. Few minutes later we can hear the radio “It seems we are detached”. Nobody knows why the radio is turned on our passenger car announcement system but anyway another guys reply: “Detached?! Oh-oh! This is not good”. And indeed, we can feel the train slowing down and the club car moving away. Fortunately we are still close to Fairbanks and not in the middle of the Alaska Range. The car fastening is fixed; we can leave again.

After this anecdote, the 12-hour ride will be a succession of stunning landscape, enlightened differently by the sun, being at sunrise, sunset, or more or less hidden by clouds. First we cross a rather flat or hilly region, about the same that I saw during my cabin trip the previous week-end. Fir-tree are quite small because of frozen ground due to permafrost, that prevent them from growing. Then we enter a more mountainous region, halfway down the hill. We can see the river in the gorge. It is frozen but the ice blocks let us imagine that it froze instantly when it was still bustling. Afterwards, we passed by a large flat area surrounded by mountains. Gorgeous! The last part is not be eligible for comments as it was pitch dark outside.

The train is not full. About 20 people got on the train in Fairbanks. A family got off a bit later. Two very nice ladies got on in the middle of nowhere in the heart of Denali National Park and Preserve. And two hours or so before arrival, a dozen people got on.

Andrew left a bit earlier than me by car to ice climb. Even if I haven't see him waving at the train, I still pictured another group of ice climbers. You'll find the photo in the selection below.

Even at an average of 35 mile an hour (55 km/h), we couldn't see any bear or wolf. But we saw a bunch of moose and caribous. More than houses anyway. Alaska is pretty desert. A gigantic desert. We could see some extraction industries and the entry of a mine (see picture in the selection). And even the conductor stopped the train in the middle of a bridge just for us to be able to take nice pictures.

Arrived in Anchorage on time, Casey and Brad welcomed me at the station. It is another city, much bigger than Fairbanks, warmer as well (around 25-35°F, or -5° to 0°C).


When speaking about pictures, here is a selection of them. Just click on Play!