Talkeetna is a small town but an important station along the Alaska Railroad. In summer it provides access to various recreation opportunities to look at Mount Denali including the main location for flightseeing expeditions to the mountain and National Park. The current station opened in 1997, with the original depot used by employees as a section house for maintaining the railroad.
The stop is more notable because it is the summer terminus of the Hurricane Turn Train. Talkeetna is the “big city” for residents and visitors of the remote, off the grid homesteads that are along the next 57 miles of railroad north of the station and are only accessible by railroad. These various residents can only reach their homes via railroad with the railroad providing their only connection to the outside world (this is the only place in the United States where this is the case). The Hurricane Turn train operated as an RDC rail car until the late 2000s when it was replaced by a more conventional pull-pull train that lacks any food service facilities but does have a dome car to encourage tourists to join the train on its essential services round-trip. The train runs 5 days a week in summer, but in Winter operates only monthly (with the weekly Aurora Winter Train also stopping at all flag stops) but is extended to Anchorage with passengers able to make a same-day turn from Anchorage all the way to Hurricane Turn, (above Hurricane Gulch) something not possible in Summer when the schedules make Talkeetna the farthest north one can go and return the same day.
The station is designed to make it as easy as possible for tourists to get off a bus and get directly on the train. Parking spaces for motorcoaches line most of the platform, which is entirely behind a chain keeping all waiting passengers 20 feet back from arriving trains. Additional amenities along the train platform is a small non-descript brown painted station house with a green with a historic-looking font sign saying Talkeetna Depot and a separate more modular building containing restrooms (with separate entrances for each gender but combined under one roof).
There is a second platform servicing Talkeetna located about 2.5 miles south of the Main Talkeetna station on the MCKI – is what the signs at each end say – perhaps McKinley Siding? McKinley Lodge is the name of the Princess Wilderness Lodge located about an hours drive north of Talkeetna. This station is entirely a tour bus to train station. This completely open-air platform with just a few wooden benches along the chained off ballast along this siding next to a dirt road at the end of Woodpecker Avenue. There are also some portable toilets.
The station is used by at least (from reviewing YouTube videos) the Princess Cruise Lines (exclusive) Direct-to-the-Wilderness train service that operates directly from Denali and Talkeetna (serving two of its wilderness lodges) directly to the cruise port in Whittier (skipping Anchorage). The main McKinley Explorer train – that anyone can purchase a ticket on through the right ticket broker – stops at the regular depot in Talkeetna (walking distance from town). This secondary stop allows charter trains to layover as long as they need to without be blocking the main line since the main Talkeetna Station is along a single track section of track.
Photos 1-32: May 25, 2024
