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May 30, 2002
Bridge Cam views from the Dawn Princess
May 30 was a 5-ship day in Skagway,
with two large cruise ships at the Railroad Dock. The Dawn Princess
was one of these ships and was in the fore position, that
closest to town. Throughout the day, the ship's bridge cam was
in an ideal position to monitor the movements of the four trains
(two actual trains, each with an AM and a PM run). The cameras
clock displays GMT. By subtracting eight hours from this time,
you can determine the local Alaska Daylight Time. The day begins
with the two trains being pushed down to the docks at about 7:30,
one on the main line closest to the mountain side and the other
on the siding, closest to the street. After loading with passengers,
they're pulled away for their 3-hour journey to the Summit. The
mid-day return is interesting as the two trains which return
on the main line and siding have to move their locomotives from
one end of the train to the other. The morning passengers leave
the trains, the trains are cleaned and prepared for the afternoon
runs, loaded with afternoon passengers and once again, the two
trains are pulled away from the dock to head towards the Summit.
On the return later in the afternoon, each train again returns
pulled by its locomotives and again has to move the locomotives
to the other end of the train to be pulled back to the coach
yards and Shops area. As a train agent (narrator) in 2000, I
raised the eyebrows of some senior trainmen by referring to all
of these coordinated motions as railroad ballet. Once
you've figured how this is done, consider the task at the Summit—typically
three trains on two tracks (main line and siding) arrive at the
Summit—and find a way to move the locomotives from one end
of their respective trains to the other end and keep the
trains in order: the trains arrive at the Summit in 1-2-3 order
and return to Skagway in the same order.
Click on a time
period below to view the images
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