December 10, 2011
Alaska Railroad Denali Park – Fairbanks Winter Train 355p – 800p

My mission this week, should I decide to accept it, is to deliver a Subaru Forester wagon down to its new owner in Denali Park, 120 miles south of here. Although Alaska’s roadways are generally always snowy and/or icy during the winter months, last Sunday’s freezing rain deposited an additional sheen of super slick ice atop the already frozen surface. As the temperatures haven’t gone above freezing since then, the layer of ice remains. Driving is hazardous though certainly not impossible. Just as hazards in golf can be avoided by skillful play, driving hazards can be minimized by careful and skillful driving. As a driver, I am both of those incarnate.

The new owner is an old friend of mine who lives in Healy and works at the state’s largest coal mine down there. I suppose I could have waited until he had a day off and caught a ride back up to Fairbanks with him but then I’d be missing out on an excellent opportunity to ride the Alaska Railroad’s once weekly winter train back up to Fairbanks. Never one to pass up such an opportunity, I made plans for a Saturday delivery, timed so that I could catch the northbound train where it crosses the Denali Park road.

The Alaska Railroad is owned by the State of Alaska and is the last full service railroad in the U.S., providing both passenger and freight service yearround. From mid-September to mid-May, the ARR’s Aurora Winter Train operates between Anchorage and Fairbanks on weekends. The schedule offers northbound service from Anchorage on Saturdays and southbound return from Fairbanks on Sunday. Unlike the daily summer service which makes scheduled stops only in Wasilla, Talkeetna and Denali Park, the winter train will pick up just about anywhere simply by flagging down the engineers. I’ve ridden aboard a few flag stop trains in my time and some actually require you to wave anything from a cloth to a colored rag to indicate you actually want to ride the train. This requirement is intended to differentiate true riders from those engaged in that most basic human need to simply wave at the train. I called the railroad to get their definition of exactly what would constitute “flagging” and was informed that a simple energetic wave would do. Fair enough. Seeya Saturday, weather permitting.

The drive between Fairbanks and Denali is not only one of my favorites in Alaska; it’s one that over the past twenty-six years I’ve driven hundreds of times. During the summer months, the road meanders easily along the ridge tops of the rolling hills between Fairbanks and Nenana. The many dips and curves make this a great section for motorcyclists and drivers of performance automobiles. At several points along the way there are excellent views of the Tanana basin and the Alaska Range to the south.

South of Nenana the highway runs level and straight through the broad Nenana River valley until it reaches the northern foothills of the Alaska Range. Then it wanders up and down along the slopes of Mount Healy until the topography of that mountain and its opposite across the river conspire to force the road to enter the steep walled, narrow canyon carved out by the Nenana River. At the south end of that canyon is summertime community of Denali Park, fondly referred to amongst the locals as “Glitter Gulch”. The park entrance is just a mile farther up the road.

During the summer tourist season, the drive between Fairbanks and Denali Park is a pleasant one. The gentle grades are favorable for the many visitors driving RVs and the surrounding land offers a realistic opportunity to see moose, black bear and porcupines along the roadway.

During the winter months, this road takes on an entirely different and more unpredictable personality. Gone are the long summer days that offer bright sunshine as late as 10:00pm. Dusk sets in by 2:00pm during the winter months, and darkness arrives by 4. The dips, curves and hills so fun to accelerate through during the summer months demand slower speeds and caution during the winter lest you quickly end up spinning off the road. The anticipation of watching for 1000+ pound moose, so pleasant during the summer months, becomes tinged with concern and anxiety in winter’s diminished daylight, for should the animal suddenly decide to bolt out onto the road as they often do, you won’t be able to brake quickly on the slick surface. Those who are not seriously injured in collisions with moose will likely suffer extensive damage to their vehicle, rendering it inoperable. Lastly, if you are involved in a winter accident due to an animal or the road conditions, help could be a long time in coming. Traffic is light during the winter and temperatures are extremely cold. I spent Thanksgiving down in the park and when I left the following morning to drive back home, the temperature was -36°F.

Saturday morning dawned windy and warm. Here in Alaska’s Interior, warm is anything above zero and in this case the temperature was in the mid-twenties. So long as it doesn’t go above freezing, I should be okay. So – off I set and for the most part enjoyed a fairly decent drive down to a few miles north of Healy. Check out the pictures:



Midday sun illuminates the Tanana Basin and Alaska Range as seen from the Parks Highway south of Fairbanks



A thin sheen of ice still remains on the road surface



Mt. Healy and the Alaska Range loom in the distance

Unfortunately, as I approached the northern flanks of the Alaska Range, the temperature rose and the winds increased. Herein lies the answer to the question some of you may be asking: What’s wrong with the temperature going above freezing? The ice on the road begins to melt, making it waaaay more slippery. Try picking up a dry ice cube as opposed to a wet one and you’ll see what I mean. Add to that winds gusting at about 30 mph across the road and there were times that I felt like I was literally being pushed across the road surface into the other lane. Slow down! About five miles north of Healy I came across a pick-up truck that had spun completely off the road. I stopped to see if they needed any assistance and got the thumbs up signal that everything was okay. I continued on to Healy where I delivered the Forester, after which we headed off to Denali to meet the train. I could’ve caught the train down in the canyon below Healy but I was hoping to see at least a bit of the mountain scenery north of the park before it became completely dark.

Although there is a train station at Denali National Park, it’s not open during the winter months and the access road to it is not plowed. Since the train can be flagged down most anywhere, we decided to meet it on the park road by the Horseshoe Lake trailhead pullout. The park road is maintained up to headquarters at mile 3.5 and the trailhead pullout offered a nice wide area to sit and wait in. In the car, that is. The closest shelter was up at park headquarters, almost two miles up the road.

A schedule is posted for the winter service, but it can vary a bit depending upon how many enroute stops are made and how long they’re for. For example, some people may be getting off in the woods out by Trapper Creek with a load of wood they purchased down in Anchorage or they’ve got something bulky they need to load onboard that need to go in the baggage car. With all the four-wheelers and snow machines up here, there doesn’t need to be a road for some folks to get to the train.

In any event, the schedule indicated that the train would pass by Denali Park station at 3:55pm. The reality was closer to 4:10pm, just five minutes before my ride would have had to leave me standing out there by the tracks because he had to be at work by 5. We hadn’t seen a car in twenty minutes and the wind was blowing pretty good, so I was quite glad to see the glow from the locomotive’s headlight as it came around the corner and into view. I stepped out and gave the engineer a hitchhiker’s thumbs up in addition to a big wave.

Unlike freight trains which can require a mile or more to bring to a complete stop, our little passenger train was able to stop in a much shorter distance. That’s because the Winter Train doesn’t require many cars since ridership is usually limited to a few locals and an occasional tour group. Today’s consist was led by two GP-40 locomotives, a cafe/lounge car, a flat top coach and a baggage car. I was surprised to see two locomotives since each one produces 3000 horsepower, more than enough to power our little train. Once I’d climbed aboard, the conductor radioed an okay to the engineer who unleashed a few thousand of the horses at his command and we quickly resumed our northward journey.



Alaska Railroad’s GP-40 Locomotives head up today’s Winter Train



Alaska Railroad’s attractive blue and yellow livery


Inside the brightly lit coach were 76 seats, of which about 30 were occupied. I easily found a row to myself and was soon joined by the conductor who collected $36.00 for the four hour, 120 mile run up to Fairbanks. The fare is actually $45.00 but Alaska residents get a 20% discount.

I’d been hoping this train would be equipped with one of the Alaska Railroad’s historic 1950s era dome coaches, but in their absence I got a chance to take my first ride in one of the railroad’s newest coaches. Although many, including myself, thought these were Korean manufactured cars, the truth is they were built in New York by the Enprotech Corporation, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of C. Itoh of America, Inc., a division of C. Itoh of Japan, and Daewoo Heavy Industries of Korea, a major manufacturer of machinery, rail equipment and automobiles in Korea. The seats offer decent recline though nowhere near the leg room of those on the older dome coaches. The windows however are much larger than most passenger cars, measuring 60” x 36”. They allow for better viewing during the summer months when the entire journey between Anchorage and Fairbanks is made in broad daylight. Unfortunately, up here north of the equator, December 10th is the tenth shortest day of the year, and up at Denali Park’s location of 63.7°N, it is especially short. From inside the brightly lit car there was absolutely nothing to be seen but darkness, so I headed back to the vestibule where I could open the top of the Dutch door and get a better look. Here’s what I saw:



The view from my train car at 4:15pm

It was immediately evident that with such limited daylight, this ride would not be featuring any scenic photographs. As such, I fired up my laptop and began to put the finishing touches on this trip report. There is no Wi-Fi aboard the Alaska Railroad, and no electrical outlets at your seat, so a good battery is imperative.

After a couple of hours, I headed up to the café car to check out the offerings. The cafe has a small kitchen and bar for preparation of beverages and light meals. Seating consists of five stools at the bar, twelve booth style tables seating four each and a small lounge area with cocktail tables with room for perhaps a dozen more. HERE is the winter menu.



The Café / Lounge Car

I’d had a good sized sandwich on the drive down, so I wasn’t really hungry enough to order any of the more substantial items on the menu. This was just as well since I thought they were overpriced anyway. Instead I settled for a cup of coffee to go with one of the tasty baked brownies available in the display rack.

With the exception of two people I overheard speaking Australian, it appeared that the rest of the passengers were locals. We stopped to pick up one guy in Ferry – a tiny settlement just north of Healy - and dropped off a family of five in Nenana. Otherwise we made good time along the frozen rails and ultimately pulled into Fairbanks three minutes early. Thirty minutes later I was enjoying a beer and a burger at the Chena Pump House and already looking forward to my next big trip out of Alaska in January.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading! Have a great winter, stay warm and happy travels!