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

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A week ago I was in Juneau Alaska… for exactly 71 hours… Kyle Wyatt (see the occasional Kyle’s corner on this site) and I were consulting for the Alaska State Museum on how to approach a narrow gauge electric locomotive for a new display…   Their very professional staff generally finds themselves addressing small, less industrial objects… their collection of Indian baskets is spectacular… they have a wide variety of kayaks… there are stuffed and mounted birds and animals…  they have Sarah Pallen’s rifle (it was given to the Governor of Alaska by the NRA, so is state property… and now in the museum… not on display, but down in storage in the basement)

Juneau Alaska has a long and rich history of mining, complete with railroads to support that mining.

The locomotive is a Baldwin/Westinghouse 18 ton, 3’gauge electric, built in 1914 for Alaska Gastenau Gold Mining Company.  After the A-G shut down in 1921, it and a sister, and cars were sold to Santa Cruz Portland Cement in Davenport, north of Santa Cruz.  After Santa Cruz converted to a conveyer system about 1980, this loco and the sister eventually joined the collection of the California State Railroad Museum.  A few years ago this locomotive was given to the Alaska State Museum.

Their staff frequently uses Q-tips to clean objects… a Q-tip is the correct tool when cleaning a basket but is probably the wrong strategy when dealing with a locomotive… The museum’s staff understands Q-tips are not the answer… but needed help in identifying the answer… so we were asked to join them for a few days… we also did a couple of radio interviews, and gave a evening lecture… So our mission was two fold, dealing with railroad locomotives as museum objects, and the stories this told about local history…

So the railroad locomotive as museum object was pretty easy, it is what we both do…  but the history required some work…  We both spent some time… both in Alaska, but also before, catching up on local railroad history…  local mining history…  and local history in general… Kyle went up a week early with his wife Deb… by chance, her grandfather worked for Alaska Treadwell, and he (her grandfather) is considered a notable area pioneer.  Deb left for points south a few hours before I arrived… so Kyle and I were without our local history muse…

Kyle and I had rosters published in the 2^nd addition of Clifford’s Yukon-Alaska Railroads (originally published as Rails North, the new edition is much revised and improved) research in Baldwin and Porter records and some random newspaper clippings… We had access to photos and drawings from the associated Alaska State Archives…  We are both pretty good with Google and web searches…  We kind of looked like the pro’s from Dover… we knew more than anyone else we met…

The talk went well, the radio interviews went well… the Locomotive as museum object went very well (although there is a written report due)

Along the way, we may have solved the great mystery of local railroad history… identifying the remains of a locomotive buried wheels up in the woods… a locomotive that neither of us has seen, but both have seen in photos… a locomotive, apparently built by Risdon of San Francisco, inside geared, of steam outline (but could be compressed air, and may or may not still have a boiler or air tank attached)  Kyle had a newspaper clipping received years earlier… which suggests a Risdon locomotive was being built for a railroad in Sheep Creek for Nowell… of course it is also reported in sources including Clifford as Howell… and while the remains are about 24” gauge the Porter list suggests that Nowell or Howell also bought a 30” gauge loco later…  Sheep Creek was later the site of the A-G operation with 36” gauge haul railroad (home of our locomotive) and a 26” gauge mining operations… so, we possibly have 4 gauges in a single place over a period of 40 years…

It appears that gauge is important… between the three big mines, and their railroads, the two smaller tramways, the two dam construction railroads we have at least 5 and maybe more gauges.  We have steam locomotives (rod locomotives from 5 builders, maybe more, including a shay), compressed air locomotives, electric trolley and electric battery locomotives (with at least three manufacturers represented amount the electrics).

Now home… I am finding more on the area railroads… It turns out a friend, Don Marenzi is the expert of record on the area (we knew that)… He did the rosters in the new version of Clifford, but much of what he submitted wasn’t included…  At this point I suspect Kyle and I know more about local railroads than anyone else except Don… and we know a few things Don doesn’t…  Kyle is pulling stuff out of the Pennsylvania State Archives… I have found some additional newspaper reports and a couple of maps… Don, looking at files he compiled years ago is finding things…

The result will likely be a number of pages on this site covering the railroads near Juneau.

Randy

PS… the blog continues to be a fly trap for spam comments, mostly for on line drug stores, but also shoes and web directories promising to grow out audience… the number is significant… so significant that I generally don’t read them, just id them as spam and go on… if you have a comment it is probablly better submitted on our forum…

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