nrhs – I Ride The Harlem Line

November 29, 2013

More photos from Alaska; Get yourself on the Holiday Mailing List!

Thanks to some server issues this week I was unable to post anything until about now… but I’ll make it quick. Here’s another collection of photos from Alaska (yep, I still have more Alaska photos). Here you’ll find some photos from the Denali Park area, as well as some in and around Fairbanks. The NRHS tour got to ride some trains around Fairbanks that usually aren’t open to regular passengers, which was certainly fun. As a secondary note, it is about that time… I Ride the Harlem Line’s holiday tradition is to send out rail-related holiday cards (drawn by...

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October 29, 2013

Behind the scenes of the Alaska Railroad…

Over the past few weeks we’ve gotten a chance to check out the best that the Alaska Railroad has to offer – from its most attractive scenery to some of its rarer routes, we’ve covered a lot of ground. Part of the awesomeness of the NRHS convention was that we got to see some “behind the scenes” stuff that most rail passengers never get to see. The Alaska Railroad was undoubtedly a generous host, opening not just their rail system to us, but their operations center and even their locomotive shops. I won’t include a whole lot of commentary with...

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October 25, 2013

Rare mileage on the Alaska Railroad – The Palmer & Airport Branches

Most of the places we’ve checked out thus far on the Alaska Railroad are part of regular routes that countless passengers have traveled over. Today, however, we’re going to take a look at two of the railroad’s branches – the Palmer branch and the Anchorage Airport branch. Both routes are occasionally used for passenger service, but are not in regular scheduled service. The Alaska Railroad operates a fair train every year for the Alaska State Fair, which travels over the Palmer branch and to South Palmer station. Besides the fair and other special events, it is mostly freight that sees...

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October 17, 2013

More Adventures on the Alaska Railroad, South of Anchorage

In our last two Alaska Railroad videos, we got a chance to tour the two main areas the railroad services south of Anchorage – Whittier and Seward. Both routes share the same trackage just south of Anchorage, which parallels the Seward Highway and travels through the scenic Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest, and Turnagain Arm areas. Before moving on to the area north of Anchorage, I figured that we should finish up with the coastal areas south of the city. We spent a little less than a week in the Anchorage area and experienced quite a variation of weather –...

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October 2, 2013

Pioneer Park and the Tanana Valley Railroad Museum, Fairbanks, Alaska

Before I continue with a long series of photos and videos from the Alaska Railroad, I figured it would be fun to quickly introduce everyone to the Tanana Valley Railroad Museum, located in Fairbanks, Alaska. Located in Pioneer Park, the museum operates a historic 1899 steam locomotive a few times a year for visitors. Built in 2005, the museum consists of a shop for the locomotive, and a smaller section for displays, all of which is staffed by volunteers. The museum was one of the very first stops for the NRHS convention, and the historic locomotive was operating all afternoon,...

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September 26, 2013

Back from Alaska, and the NRHS Convention

If you enjoyed our series on Alaska posted earlier this year, you will undoubtedly love our upcoming series on the Alaska Railroad. I’ve just returned from the absolutely awesome National Railway Historical Society convention, which was held in Fairbanks and Anchorage, Alaska, and have some great features lined up for the blog… many of which include video. My trusty GoPro camera was mounted on several locomotives throughout the trip, recording well over a hundred gigabytes of footage. So if you happened to miss the convention, or have always wanted to go to Alaska, you can pretend like you were there...