The two oldest railroads in northwest Canada and Alaska are, or were, the White Pass & Yukon and the Copper River & Northwestern. This is about the W P & Y. 

It was started in the spring of '98. It was finished with the driving of a golden spike in July, 1900. It was, and still is, a narrow gauge road winding around sharp curves and up steep grades. It starts at the head of Lynn Canal, an arm of the Pacific, in Skagway, Alaska. It runs 112 miles through the western tip of British Columbia to Whitehorse on the Yukon River. The Klondike gold rush boom was over before the line was finished. 

The W P & Y was built by Michael J Heney, a self educated Irish railroad builder who gained his experience working in the construction camps when the Canadians began pushing westward with their transcontinental railroad lines. 

Heney, by chance, met an English financier, Sir Thomas Tancrede, one evening in Skagway in the winter of '97- '98. The two men, over their drinks that night, learned of each other's interest in northern railroading. By morning, their plans were laid. Within a few weeks the financier had secured the funds and the rights of ways and franchises from the governments of the USA, Canada and British Columbia. 

During the same time Heney ordered his ordinance, including a used second or third hand locomotive. He had mapped his route up the precipitous canyon 20 miles through White Pass, down the shores of Lake Bennett, across the 100 foot channel at Carcross, and thence 50 miles of easy construction to Whitehorse. 

The supplies were lightered to shore in Skagway, a shallow water port. Later, a portion of the materials made the long boat trip from Seattle to the mouth of the Yukon and then by paddlewheeler to Whitehorse, nearly a 4000 mile trip.

Twenty-six months later a golden spike was driven in Carcross, Yukon Territory. It was a remarkable feat of engineering skill and rapid construction. The line ran parallel to the foot trail followed by the prospectors. They could now ride in comfort with Eastern nabobs, touts and tourists. They could look down from their coach into Dead Horse Canyon, where only a few months before they had left the bodies of thousands of pack animals.

Average train speed today is about 20 miles per hour. Wrecks and derailments from snow, mud and rock slides are common occurrences during any given year. 

My wife and I spend eight to ten weeks each summer in the Klondike country. Carcross (Caribou Crossing was its original name.) is one of our favorite stops. About 180 people live here. We park our trailer about ten feet from the W P & Y turnaround track. From here we can explore the railroad for old side tracks where we find our dated nails. We can pull from the muck the old railroad telegraph wire that was bulldozed down and under when the Army took over operation of the line during WW II. A modern telegraph line replaced the old one. We can search for the original white ceramic insulators along this part of the 1200 miles of the old Dominion Telegraph line. This later line was built in 1900-02 from Eagle, Alaska, and Ashcroft, B C. It was abandoned just before WW II. And, as a bonus, we can search the brush for the old Conrad Mine Telephone line abandoned in 1912. 

I have insulators from all of these lines. I have 1905 dated nails from the old side tracks. We are always in this area in the fall when the mountains are in glorious colors. We have hundreds of pictures. 

From our campsite beside the W P & Y track (There are no campgrounds, private or public, near Carcross.), we hear and see every train that goes clattering by. Most of the freight is ore, asbestos, lead and silver and copper concentrates. The train goes to Skagway today and comes back empty tomorrow. 

In the summer months, besides the long string of ore cars, one train a day each way will have seven or eight passenger coaches filled with camera carrying tourists. They can travel the entire distance to Skagway, or go only half way to Bennett. Passengers from Whitehorse on the south train get off at Bennett, and, after eating family style in the depot cafe, can either go on to Skagway or board the north bound train and return to Whitehorse. The little cafe is only open for the two trains which meet there daily at noon. The train crews swap trains and return home each night. 

The coaches are all small and 50 years old or older. Some still have wood or coal burning stoves in them. The rest are fired by oil. They are all of wooden construction, with their names painted on their sides, like "Tagish Lake", "Windy Arm" or "Lake Bennett". They all have big view windows. 

As you ride in comfort you can visualize the hordes of weary 1898 prospectors as they trudged on the trail beside you or floated down Lake Bennett on their homemade boats or rafts headed for the gold fields of the Klondike. 

Sometimes the small diesel engines will blow their horns just to hear the echo bounce back from the mountain walls across the way. They have no other excuse to blow them, unless there is a moose on the track. There are no homes or people along the 60 miles from Carcross to Skagway. The only railroad crossing is on top of the mountains where the new highway crosses the track at long abandoned Log Cabin, an old section crew headquarters.

Jo and I rode the train one day from Carcross to Bennett. The crew stopped at an old side track where Keeli, one of our poodles, and I got off. Jo rode on to Bennet, had lunch, and watched on the return trip three hours later while the train stopped to pick Keeli and me up. During the interim, I looked for dated nails and insulators off the old lines.

If you want to make a similar trip, you should plan to do so within a very few years, because the new highway, opened in 1979, will soon eliminate the W P & Y RR. Alas!!! 

("Gold Rush Narrow Gauge", a most interesting book by Cy Marten, tells the story of the construction and subsequent history of the W P & Y line. It was printed by Trans-Anglo Books, Box 2252 Main Station, Los Angeles, California 90053.)