RR To Alaska

The current expansion of the Alaska RR made me wonder - going back in history did anyone ever try to build a continuous line going to Alaska from Canada? If so, what was the story of that attempt?

This might be a good link to start on for the History angle of Railroading inAlaska:

History of the Tanana Valley Railroad: http://www.fairnet.org/agencies/tvrr/history.html

Then The White Pass and Yukon RR: (wikipedia) :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Pass_and_Yukon_Route

Then here is the ARR Website (Home): http://alaskarailroad.com/

Check this link for projects effecting ARR:

http://www.alaskarailroad.com/corporate/CapitalProjects/Studies/tabid/490/Default.aspx

And at the bottom of that page you’ll find a set of links to the alaskacanadarail.com and its progress on connections to the Canadian and American systems:

http://www.alaskarailroad.com/corporate/CapitalProjects/Studies/tabid/490/Default.aspx

this link takes you to a map of the proposed system: (as do the links noted from the ‘Projects’ on ARR’s site):http://alaskacanadarail.com/documents/Map_Page_ACRL.pdf

And if curiosity, and time permit. o to the “Community Search” option on the right of the page. There have been several threads in the past that have pretty thoroughly surveyed the thoughts an

The British Columbia Railroad (At the time the Pacific Great Eastern) once started to build an extension to Dease Lake (In the far reaches of northern BC) as a prelude to a rail line to Alaska back in the 60s and 70s. This fell through and the line was abandoned before completion…I suppose the Alaska highway was enough.

It’ll be interesting to see if it ever gets built!

I recall reading about a proposed monorail to China from the United States that would travel through the center of the Earth. I don’t think it ever got built but then, I did read about it in “National Lampoon.”

The other problem is that in the US if you started drilling straight down you wouldn’t come out in China… you’d come out the other end in the middle of the Indian ocean in the vicinity of the island of Diego Garcia!

{Above asked by Sawtooth500}

I remember of seeing a photo either on this forum, or possibly in an issue of TRAINS back some ways…It showed some views of a ROW certainly not finished, but with this thought in mind.

…if such a line would be built…Especially up where it really gets cold, I wonder what season they would have to lay CWR to stay out of trouble…?

Quinten: Can’t answer your question directly refering the use of rail on the Western side of Canada, but found this referencing the building of the Mary River Railroad in Baffinland,Canada:

Railway http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baffinland_Iron_Mine

FTL:"…The Corporation plans to construct a railroad line to transport the ore to a port for transhipment.[4] Two routes were considered.[3] Initially a 100 kilometre route to Milne Inlet on Baffin Island’s North Shore was preferred. However a 149 kilometre route to Steensby Inlet on the South Shore was chosen because it is ice-free for a longer portion of the year.

[edit]

Back in the late 1960’s/ early 1970’s when the 800-mile long Alyeska oil pipeline was being considered from the North Slope to Valdez, John Kneiling advocated hauling the oil instead by special purpose integral tank trains that would have been around 10 miles loing each. In his (and others’) view then, the natural market for that oil was the US Midwest and NorthEast, so a new rail line would have been required all the way from the North Slope to a connection with one of the Canadian systems to get there. He claimed that with the projected volume and compared to the cost of the pipeline and tank-ship transport and loading/ unloading, etc., it would have been cost-competitive, but I don’t recall seeing even ‘back of the envelope’ level figures to support that assertion.

Quentin/ modelcar - I believe the photo you have in mind is from a mid-1980’s Trains article on the failed BCR extensions to the north, and / or another article from the same time frame titled something like “Mixed Train to Alaska”.

Yes, those do sound familiar, and the time frame possibly in the bracket.

I believe the US has a air base at Diego Garcia…such a line would simplify the logistics of supplying the base. [:D]

I’m sure that a curveof some sort could be made somewhere on the line if it was to serve the China/US travel market. Aren’t there all these brainy science guys that could figure it out? Aren’t monorails the way of the future? Speaking of which, where the hell is the helicopter I could keep in my garage? Wasn’t I promised one back in 1960? Well?

While we’re at it, how about that bridge across the bearing strait I keep occasionally hearing about? :slight_smile:

“Aerocar” was the word of the day back then. It was designed to fly and use the highways. Unfortunately, it never did either.

I heard they might run it through Port Aspestose. Lots of handy people in that town.

[xx(] http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/32256/414619.aspx#414619 [xx(]

[banghead]The above thread is from March 2005… Go to Community Search and enter Bering Strait.

[soapbox]This is another Topic that get resurected [xx(][|)] when the Summer doldrumds hit… Community Search will lead you down a pretty good Thread about this topic. Interesting, but time consuming.[oops]

In the 1960s the experts were telling us that we would have electric cars and videos phones in 10 years.

In the 1970s they said the oil would run out in 15 years and that the air pollution would block the sun and bring on a new Ice Age.

Plus the usual predictions of world wide famine just around the corner that have been issued since the 1960s.

Current studies favor a tunnel under the Strait. Recently a Russian Billionaire claimed he was going to build it in the next few years…I was going to buy stock in the project but I sunk all my capital in purchasing this Bridge in Brooklyn…

[quote user=“Paul_D_North_Jr”]

Back in the late 1960’s/ early 1970’s when the 800-mile long Alyeska oil pipeline was being considered from the North Slope to Valdez, John Kneiling advocated hauling the oil instead by special purpose integral tank trains that would have been around 10 miles loing each. In his (and others’) view then, the natural market for that oil was the US Midwest and NorthEast, so a new rail line would have been required all the way from the North Slope to a connection with one of the Canadian systems to get there. He claimed that with the projected volume and compared to the cost of the pipeline and tank-ship transport and loading/ unloading, etc., it would have been cost-competitive, but I don’t recall seeing even ‘back of the envelope’ level figures to support that assertion.

Quentin/ modelcar - I believe the photo you have in mind is from a mid-1980’s Trains article on the failed BCR extensions to the north, and / or another article from the same time frame titled something like “Mixed Train to Alaska”.