| Having reached the
northernmost point of our trip, we headed south from Fairbanks. Looking out
over the valley to the east we could see one of the many forest fires which
burn up to a million acres each year. |  |
 |
Although one thinks of Alaska as mountainous and covered in snow there are
surprisingly large flat valleys with huge meandering rivers. This is looking
east just south of Fairbanks on the Parks Highway to Anchorage. |
| We paused at Nenana to
look at the railway museum. This is a fraud since there are no obvious
railway connections other than it being in the old station building. |  |
 |
It is essentially full of junk. Fortunately it is free. The Alaska railroad
was completed here in 1923 with a golden spike driven by President Warren
Harding. On his return to Vancouver he died from food poisoning. |
| Now we start entering the
mountains and this gorge through which passes the Nenana River. |  |
 |
The road is good but the terrain is quite rugged. Each year numerous
sections have to be repaired because of damage from frost heave. |
| Down at river level. The
railway follows the same route as the road but here is on the other side of
the river. |  |
 |
Finally we reach Denali which is 100 miles south of Fairbanks and 200 miles
north of Anchorage. Somewhat remote! |
| The train runs once a day
in each direction. Here the buses from the big hotels wait for the train
passengers. More people visit Denali by train than by any other means. |  |
 |
The train arrives. It leaves Fairbanks or Anchorage at 0830hrs. The
southbound train arrives about 1300hrs and the northbound at 1600hrs. The
300 mile journey takes 12 hours. They are not high speed! |
| There's about 6000hp
pulling the train. I suspect one provides the motive power and the other
provides the power for the air-conditioning. This is a luxury train. |  |
 |
The normal (well, gold class) passengers travel in these panorama coaches
paying about $300 for the one way trip. |
| The train also hauls
coaches for the tour companies. These are super deluxe. I've no idea how
much. These are the largest coaches on an American railroad. |  |
 |
They are much too high for a UK railroad but then there aren't many bridges
and tunnels here. |
| We stopped at the visitor
centre to organise our trips and spotted this in the car park. Weird! |  |
|