OCT. 20 SOCIAL MEETING PROGRAM of the WM Chapter NRHS will be held at 7 PM in the Cumberland Railroad Museum at 17 Howard Street among the shops at Canal Place. Nearest parking is available in the lot along Howard Street beneath the Interstate Route 68 bridge, opposite the historic Footer’s Dye Works building. Parking is free on a first-come basis. Be careful when crossing Howard Street because motor vehicles do not always fully stop at the bottom of westbound Exit 43B ramp. The meeting is open to the public at no charge.
Meeting Program Chairman Jeff Geiger will continue to show more spectacular views of Alaska as seen in the video program series “Great American Rail Journeys,” Alaska’s Gold Rush Train operating on the narrow-gauge White Pass & Yukon Route. The journey begins in Skagway, one of the best preserved Alaska frontier towns and home of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park. Six blocks of downtown Skagway are designated as a National Historic District. These buildings are being preserved by the National Park Service to honor the struggle of the stampeders of the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-1899, an important event in both Alaskan and American history.
The first part of the WP&YR train trip runs parallel to the Skagway River. Six miles along the journey is Denver stop, where passenger may rent a caboose during their hike to the nearby glacier. While the WP&YR train travels uphill, it ascends grades as steep as 3.9 degrees. After fourteen miles, the train stops at Glacier Station, where a helicopter tour is flown above the Laughlin Glacier. The WP&YR train travels over the high bridge above Glacier Gorge and into the 600-foot-long tunnel. After making its twenty-mile journey, the train arrives at White Pass Summit. The WP&YR is distinguished by its scenic beauty and engineering achievement.
Don’t miss this train trip!
Western Maryland Chapter National Railway Historical Society 