So, since the trip (see last blog post) to Alaska, Alaska has become the research project of record.
I regularly find myself lost in research, chasing one lead to the next. Sometimes it starts with a photo… and I go looking for information… other times its something in an article… maybe it starts with a question… On this occasion it was the intersection of all of the above…
It started with a question on the PacificNG prototype Locomotive forum, about an now preserved Porter locomotive from the Cliff Creek railroad in the Yukon (Alaska and Yukon railroad history is frequently intermixed, not always in ways that make things clear…) It turned out that the locomotive in question was on the Coal Creek line, not Cliff Creek… (there is also operation on Bear Creek.) The roster research lead me in two directions… to the locomotive’s origin (a steam dummy line in Spokane) and to one of the other engines on the Coal Creek line was for the Yukon, unique, a small Lima shay, working among 0-4-0t and 0-6-0t Porters.
I “chased” the shay to a railroad near Juneau Alaska (note, not the Yukon, really Alaska) where it was used to build the Salmon Creek dam and associated hydroelectric plants… that lead to a porter 0-4-0t, (now restored and owned by a gentleman in Nevada) from a little known Alaska line, the Berner’s Bay Mining Company. Research into both Salmon Creek and Berner’s Bay followed, that in turn lead to Annex Creek and it’s railroad, which also supported a dam and hydroelectric project…
Other projects interviened, and my interests moved on…
Then, in April I received a question via email about “lost” locomotive from Gabe Emerson… He is from Down East, (although now living in Minnesota) and has a blog about the abandoned machinery found in coastal Alaska and was in search of an engine from the Furner Bay railroad. (A railroad sufficiently obscure that it isn’t mentioned in Clifford’s Alaskan/Yukon Railroads, and about which Google only finds 6 references, two of which are Gabe’s) We exchanged a couple of emails, including a mention of an engine left upside down in Sheep Creek… A known but somewhat mysterious artifact.
Soon after, I found myself in Juneau Alaska with Kyle (see my previous blog post.) That project revolved around a 18 ton electric railroad locomotive. The project was more about locomotive as museum object, but as a museum object history is important, and Kyle and I are probably incapable of looking at a railroad object without considering its history, and since we were working with the Alaska State Museum (and Archives, they are closely tied) we had access to lots of historic documents. To make things more interesting, The museum’s electric locomotive was used on a line up Sheep Creek… and drew its electric power from the Salmon Creek and Annex Creek hydroelectric plants, and since he was in Juneau, Kyle asked about the Sheep’s creek mystery engine…
As part of the project Kyle and I put together a presentation to be given at the Museum… a part of it was a survey of the local railroads… We both had brought our notes on Alaska and its railroads, and in Kyle’s notes, he found a newspaper report that may make the mystery locomotive less mysterious… More on that later…
The presentation went well, and we looked like the “Pros from Dover” (gratuitous MASH reference) but in creating the presentation we realized how much we didn’t know, which on return has lead to research…
Now, back in the lower 48, I have had several long conversations with Don Marenzi, a friend who is probably the leading expert on Alaska railroad history… Don’s information lead to more research… Research which continues… I wrote a blog post for this site about our trip…
Gabe has since made a trip that included a trip to Nevada to visit the locomotive from Funter Bay he was searching for… (it is in a private collection with another engine from the Salmon Creek and Annex Creek dam projects, and a third from an Alaskan copper mine) More emails have been exchanged… I believe I have found a fellow traveler… Gabe and his blog and website, particularly his page on Obscure railroads of Alaska. I highly recommend it.
Randy