The Alaska Railroad is the only large-scale Railroad in the United States that was originally built and operated by the Federal Government. The mainline is 470 miles long with a few short branch lines (the longest is 9 miles to Whittier). The first 73 miles north from Seward were built between 1903 and 1909 by two different railroads that went bankrupt before the Federal Government purchased the railroad in 1914 and completed it to Anchorage by 1924. In 1985 the State of Alaska purchased the railroad from the Federal Government. Today it operates as a state government railroad, still receiving FTA funds for State of Good Repair and operation subsides from apportionments for the 3 urbanized areas it passes through.
The train operates a fascinating operation with a unique mixture of older passenger cars. It also operates in Summer 1 to 2 or 3 (depending upon the cruise ship schedule) charter trains per day, these charter trains exclusively use Colorado Railcar UltraDome double-decker or single-decker cars with wrap-around windows and most with outdoor viewing platforms.
There are five different named trains operated by the Alaska Railroad, plus two additional chartered trains using either cruise-line owned or Alaska Railroad owned cars. These are the trains the SubwayNut has ridden on the Alaska Railroad:
I hope to return to Alaska in winter especially to ride the winter only and super unique Aurora Winter Train, the only transportation to homesteads that lack road access Hurricane Turn Train, and the rest of the railbelt route down to Seaward on the Coastal Classic Train. Plus trying to ride some of the cruise lines charter trains to see how those compare to the regular Alaska Railroad.
