Trains, Planes and Automobiles

Corinne Alaska, Sightseeing 4 Comments

Ok, so the movie is actually called Planes, Trains and Automobiles (staring Steve Martin and the late John Candy). But we are took all these modes of transportation in a different order in a single day.

We decided to park ourselves at the Elks Lodge in Fairbanks for a bit. We had mail to pick up, packages waiting for us, a pantry to restock, etc etc etc. Fairbanks was the perfect place to do it, being the second largest city in Alaska, but NOT as crazy as Anchorage.

We have a thing for train trips, James especially. Fairbanks is the northern most city for the Alaska Railroad. Seeing the mountains of the Alaska Range from a train would be pretty special. So James dug into the subject and came up with a plan for us to take the train from Fairbanks to Anchorage and fly back to Fairbanks…all in one day!

This is the route that the Alaska Railroad takes. We have driven all the roads along this route, but the train near Denali National Park does not follow the road closely. We we going to see some new scenery!
We had an 8:15ish departure time. The train station in Fairbanks is pretty new and spacious and the parking lot can hold MANY cruise ship tour buses!
All aboard the Denali Star!

We opted for Gold Star service on the Denali Star. If we were going to take this train ride, we were going to do it in style.

Gold Star service meant we got to sit on the upper level with a glass roof.
We also enjoyed reserved seating in the dining car, with breakfast, lunch AND dinner included. We ate so much that day!
At the back of our car was an open viewing deck. James spent most of his time back here, a very happy person! They gave each of us a Gold Star pin (on my jacket) to designate we were allowed to be in this part of the train.
And so we left the flat lands of the Interior and Fairbanks and headed south towards Denali National Park.
These are old telegraph poles from way back when. The wires are long gone, but some three-legged poles still have glass insulators on them. At one point a group started to remove the poles. But the historian/preservation types objected and now the pole have protected status. So they remain in place.
A large bird has made a nest of this telegraph pole.
When we came to a place on the train line that had switches, we would see brooms and shovels on pedestals. James’s theory is that they are used to clear snow from the track switches in winter.

Enough talking. How about some scenery?

The Susitna River

The train ride was 11 hours long. We wondered how the crew handled that sort of schedule. Where were they based out of? Well, it just so happened there was a northbound train traveling the same route, only from Anchorage to Fairbanks…the opposite of us.

At one switch yard, we stopped and our conductor (seen waving to us here) and a few other staff got off the train. We then waited for the northbound train to cross paths with us. Our Fairbanks based conductor hopped on the northbound train to finish out his day and return home. Our southbound train took on the Anchorage based conductor and on we went.

The tour guides who pointed out the sights on our train ride were all high school students who took a semester long class in the history and sights of Alaska. Becasue of that class, they are then hired as tour guides. These high schoolers (under 21) followed the same scenario as the conductor, they switched trains mid-trip. However, our Anchorage-based wait staff, all over 21 and mostly European, stayed with us the whole journey, having just spent the night in a Fairbanks hotel. Yes, this kind of thing intrigues us, we often wonder “How does this all work?” So we ask.

And more dramatic scenery.

We saw so much during those 11 hours and thoroughly enjoyed the trip. However, our train ended up getting into Anchorage almost an hour late due to having to wait for other trains to pass us. So when we got to Anchorage, we were the first ones off the train, ran for a taxi and shouted, “Quick….the the airport.”

Rest assured, we made it to the airport in time. On our flight back to Fairbanks, we saw Denali from the air. But to be honest, by this time I was so tired I didn’t care, so no picture. We landed in Fairbanks at 11:00 PM (way past our bedtime) and for the second time in my life used an Uber. We had to go back to the train station to retrieve our truck and then to the RV for a well deserved night’s rest.

So there you have it, Trains, Planes and Automobiles.

After that adventure, we were still parked in Fairbanks at the Elks Lodge for a few days. The Lodge is very close to the train tracks. At 8:26 each morning we would hear a train whistle blow. James would say “And there they go.” It was another run for the Denali Star. We knew the passengers were going to have an excellent day.

4 thoughts on “Trains, Planes and Automobiles”

  2. Linda n Al

    WOW! That is an awesome idea and one I’ll keep notes on. Do you think it would be better to just stay the night in Anchorage after the train and catch a flight the next morning? Other than the cost of an additional hotel, which is never a great idea when you have a perfectly good RV waiting for you. Also, I might note that parking the truck at the airport and taking an uber to the train in the AM might make the late arrival back a little easier?
    My brain is exploding with ideas! Love it!
    Linda D

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