July 10, 2014
Alaska Railroad Seward to Anchorage 600p – 1015p “Coastal Classic”

Alright then, let’s fast forward to mid-July. I only had my usual two day weekend to work with but that would be enough for what I’d like to do. Specifically I want to ride the Alaska Railroad between Seward and Anchorage. Having done so, I’ll have completed riding over every mile of passenger rail available on the Alaska Railroad. The Seward to Anchorage route, while not as heavily travelled as the Anchorage – Denali Park – Fairbanks run, is from what I have heard the more scenic of the two. Indeed, now that I’ve ridden it I’d have to say it offers the most dramatic scenery of any standard gauge railway I’ve ever ridden upon. Anywhere.

So – feel like tagging along?

Hellooooooooooooooo! Is anyone still out there? I can’t say as I’d blame any of you if you’ve nodded off or even moved on to a more traditional photo report depicting the good life at 38000’. After all, we’re nearly 40000 words into this saga and not one international airline has been flown upon nor even a moderately fancy hotel stayed at. What a gyp! For what it’s worth I’d love to be typing up delicious descriptions of the suite life aboard some exotic airline’s First Class but unfortunately I just don’t see anything like that coming up in the immediate future. There is this big open space between South America and Africa on my international route map that I’d like to fill someday soon. I’m also available for hire if anyone wants to me to write their trip report. All I require is an unobtrusive seat in the last row of First Class on your flights.

But seriously, for those of you that are still with me – a big Thank You for hangin’ in there! You’re real troopers and I hope you’ve found the time invested ini reading this far worthy of your time.

So then – let’s head on down to Seward and get this trip report back on the rails.

I’m starting the descriptive portion of this report from Seward because I drove to Anchorage and then took a bus down to Seward. There was nothing particularly interesting about that save for my first visit to the Moose’s Tooth Brewery. It was located just around the corner from the bus office and provided good beer and pizza in advance of my three hour bus ride to Seward.

Seward is the origin of the Alaska Railroad. Blessed with a deep water port and a relatively mild climate that leaves the port ice free year round, it is understandable how Alaska's railroad pioneers visualized a railroad that would reach Anchorage when construction began from Seward in 1903. Due to the terrain it took six years to build the first 50 miles. Due to bankruptcies of the first two host railroads, the tracks didn’t reach Anchorage until 1914.

I should mention and indeed emphasize here that Seward is worthy of a proper visit in its own right. Whether you drive there or take the train, you’re in for a beautiful trip and once you arrive, you’ll find no shortage of things to see and do. Seward is considered the Gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park with numerous tour operators providing anything from daylong boat tours into the park to week long getaways to remote fishing lodges. Speaking of fishing, halibut charters are plentiful as are flight seeing excursions and sea kayak rentals and tours. For those who choose to stay closer to town, the Sea Life Center will provide hours of entertainment and education.

I’ve been to Seward on a couple of previous occasions and while it would have been nice to stay a little longer on this trip, with only a two day weekend to work with there’s simply no time. Thankfully Seward’s just 490 miles down the road from my home outside of Fairbanks so I’m confident I’ll be back. In the meantime, I had about an hour to kill before train time and on the advice of friends I walked over to the Smoke Shack, a barbecue restaurant located just a couple of blocks up from the train station. The restaurant operates out of an old 1930s era Alaska Railroad car and is renowned for its pulled pork sandwiches as well as its homemade sauces. I bought two sandwiches – one for eating at the restaurant and the other for later on the train. You can now add my voice to the chorus of those singing this restaurant’s praises. The pulled pork sandwiches were served on ciabatta buns with sides of baked beans and coleslaw. With the addition of the Smoke Shack’s highly regarded sweet and spicy barbecue sauce they were simply excellent!

The Alaska Railroad offers two classes of service on the 114 mile four hour trip from Seward to Anchorage. Adventure Class offers coach style seating with spacious reclining chairs, a food/bar car and a 1950s era dome car. Gold Star Class offers seating in full length dome cars featuring large curved glass windows that run from seat side up over the roof of the car. A restaurant accessible only to Gold Star passengers is located downstairs while upstairs a bartender is available to deliver complimentary non-alcoholic beverages or the usual variety of beers, wines and spirits for sale. In consideration of the beautiful scenery we’d be passing through, I think the most exciting benefit of Gold Star Class is the outdoor viewing platform located up on the second level. The railroad claims it is the only one of its kind in the world.

Here at FlyerTalk we’ve established a standard of excellence that demands only the finest in accommodations whenever reasonably possible. As such, I booked myself a seat under the glass in Gold Star Class and now awaited the call to board. Until then, let’s check out the outside of the train:




1950s era dome car on the Alaska Railroad’s “Coastal Classic”



Looking down the unevenly shaped collection of cars


Unfortunately I didn’t get any decent shots of the Gold Star domes from the outside, so HERE is a photo of one courtesy of the John Combs Collection.

Once boarding was called I was able to add this view from the inside before my fellow passengers boarded.




Seating under the glass on the Alaska Railroad’s Gold Star Domes


The load was fairly light this afternoon. Only about one third of the 78 available seats were taken in my car. While I hope for the railroad’s sake that on the whole they’re operating at a profit, I much prefer a half full car to a full one. There’s that much more room to spread out and with less people on board, the service often seems more relaxed and personable.

The engineer gave a couple of toots on his horn and moments later we slowly eased north out of Seward. I was standing out on the open platform. Children waved, a couple of cars honked, I thought I heard a dog bark – it was a nice send off. The skies overhead were cloudy but up ahead one could see patches of blue. I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best.

The first twenty miles of the trip was through forests and swampy land along the Snow River. The scenery along here would be considered the highlight of many rail trips but the best was yet to come. As such, I decided that now might be a good time to check out the bar/café Bistro car that serves Adventure Class travelers. This is one of the more unique railroad cars I have ever seen and for casual dining, it is also the finest I have ever seen. Here’s the MENU.




Alaska Railroad Bistro Car



Alaska Railroad Bistro Car


Also along for the ride was an ex-Union Pacific dome coach as well as three flat top coaches. I’ve ridden on these cars plenty of times between Denali and Fairbanks, so my primary interest was in the Bistro Car. I plunked down $6.00 for a beer and chatted briefly with a couple from Bedford, New York before returning to the Gold Star car for our climb into the Kenai Mountains. Here are pictures from our run along the Snow River and Kenai Lake.




Rolling along the Snow River



Kenai Lake



A beautiful evening along Kenai Lake



Kenai Lake


Kenai Lake is 22 miles long, though the tracks only parallel about 10 miles of it. We were fortunate to have only partly cloudy conditions as the sunshine really enhanced the beauty of the area. Keep in mind too that this is summer in Alaska and the sun stays up a lot longer. These photos were taken at about 7:00pm.

As we left Kenai Lake behind us, the tracks began to climb at a noticeably steeper grade as we made our way up through spruce forests and towering mountains toward the summit of Grandview Pass.




Gaining elevation…



Trail Glacier



Hard to believe this view is from a train!


The highlight of this portion is the historic Loop District where the tracks make almost a complete circle to gain elevation up to the pass from the south. It is rugged spectacular scenery, and several glaciers were visible from the train.




Majestic landscape



Descending through the Loop past Grandview



Descending through the Loop past Grandview


From Grandview we commenced a long gradual descent through lush green mountains of the Placer Valley down to sea.




Descending from 1062’ to sea level



It’s a long way down that valley to the sea…



Ponds and river above Turnagain Arm


The next thirty miles were spent hugging the shores of Turnagain Arm, one of two narrow branches of the Cook Inlet which is part of the larger Gulf of Alaska. The views, particularly at this hour of day (8:30 – 9:00pm) were magnificent and once again I was thankful for even a bit of sun to brighten up the vistas.




Taking in the scenery from the Gold Star car’s viewing platform



Tide’s out on Turnagain Arm
This area has some of the highest tides in the world



Hugging the coast of Turnagain Arm



Coastal splendor



Sunset along the shore



Thirty miles out of Anchorage



There was still plenty of light in the sky as we rolled into Anchorage right on time. I had a 240 mile drive back up to Denali but tonight would drive just 110 miles up to Talkeetna. It’s funny but to be honest I’ve never much cared for the drive down to Anchorage. That said, I would gladly do it again for a chance to ride this train once again. Forests, glaciers, towering snow covered mountains and gorgeous coastal scenery - mile for mile, I have to say the Seward to Anchorage branch of the Alaska Railroad has the greatest concentration of spectacular scenery I’ve ever seen anywhere in the world on a standard gauge railway. I sincerely hope that any of you that visit Alaska will be fortunate enough to ride this train yourselves under the same sunny skies that I enjoyed.