Alaska Railroad at 100 years!

“Have you been to Alaska?” is the question often followed by, “Did you ride the Alaska Railroad!?”

Barb and I have been there several times. Once you have visited our 49th state, you know why it is called ’the last frontier’.  It’s vastness is unlike anything we have ever seen.

This year marks the 100-year anniversary of the Alaska Railroad’s last spike that was laid in a town called Nenana, and it completed a railroad whose story is unsurpassed.

The Centennial Celebration held July 15, 2023 was a grand event! We were blessed to be there to see the festivities in this small town, ‘where two rivers meet’. We met the president of the Alaska Railroad, the governor of Alaska and the Federal Railroad Administrator. The pride the ARRC (Alaska Railroad Corp.) employees take in their work and the company that is Alaska Railroad was easy to see. 

I would venture to say, there is no other railroad in the USA that compares.

Cruising Alaska is wonderful, but until you have ridden the Alaska Railroad, you have not seen ALASKA! I’m sharing several photos that I took while there. They are only photos, so I encourage you to go see for yourself!

Alaskan’s are proud of their state and rightly so. We are excited to launch our Build-a-Train for the Alaska Railroad, and we hope you come on this journey with us. Our first release is a coach named for the location of that last spike.

All aboard for ALASKA!

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Lowell Smith

A native of Portland, Oregon, Lowell Smith married his church choir sweetheart Barb in 1978. After a lifetime of rail-fanning, Lowell and Barb ventured out in 1992 to launch a new business in Portland, Oregon. Read more

2 Comments

  1. Mike Kearney on August 3, 2023 at 6:51 am

    Wish we could have been there! We lived in Alaska for 13 years. How about an SD70MAC in the Centennial paint scheme?

  2. Donald Eikenberry on September 19, 2023 at 8:49 pm

    Just Got My First Alaska Passenger Car Today, Looks Great, Goes Really Nice With My 4 F7’s Alaska Unit, Will You Being Doing The SD70 Unit To Go With The Cars To Have The Whole Anniversary Train, If You Do I Wil Take One.

    Don

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