As things work out in life, sometimes you are handed something unexpected and special. It can be something small or large, but always it will be a real treat. One of these special treats was handed to me as a new brakeman with the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad in Alaska.

I might take a moment to fill this story out a bit. I have been a boat captain for many years, but reached a point in my life where a change was in order. With that thought in mind, I set my sites on the Trains Magazine / MODOC Railroad Academy scholarship to become certified as a conductor and engineer. As it happened, I won this honor and spent all winter attending classes in Sacramento, California. What an adventure that turned out to be!

Fast-forward eight months: I finished the engineer training program, and it was time to go to work. My chosen railroad of White Pass and Yukon Route offered me a position as brakeman….. So back to Alaska I went. For those of you who do not know this railroad, it’s a wonderful narrow gauge line that has trackage from Skagway, Alaska to White Horse, Canada. They have been running trains for over a hundred years moving people and supplies to interior Canada. (Except for a four-year period of shut down in the 1980’s)

Their equipment is an interesting assortment of vintage locomotives and passenger coaches that range in age from the 1890’s to brand new. One thing to be said about the White Pass and Yukon Route is their dedication to historic preservation and attention to detail. They spend a great deal of time, effort, and money keeping things looking and running good.

As with all machines new and old, no matter how well you take care of them you will sometimes have mechanical problems. On a beautiful sunny spring day the train I was working had an unforeseen problem with one of the power units.

To move all the trains up and down the mountain to a place called “White Pass”, there is a bit of a dance at the top to get everything headed back in the right direction. The power consists are always set up so we can do a “run-around” rather than turn the entire train. Once the power is on the other end of the train, off we go back down the mountain in the other direction.

To successfully accomplish this task, the engineer moves to the opposite end locomotive from the one that was used on the way up. On this particular day, the controls wouldn’t work correctly on the new lead unit. The solution was to have the engineer operate the train from the middle unit and have a safety watch up front. And who do you think was assigned to this job?? ME! What great luck this turned out to be.

The conductor I was working with this particular day said he had “Ridden The Point” only once in the number of years he had been with the company. And I had the honor to be chosen early in the first year of working! What good fun.

So off we went heading down the mountain. Some of you might have had the pleasure of taking a “cab ride”. This trip was more than a cab ride, as it was up to me to watch for any potential problems with the track. With this section of track there are lots of curves, bridges, and tunnels. I found I had to be watching every minute and have my radio “at the ready”. But, boy was it ever worth the effort!

The view from the lead power unit traveling down from White Pass is like no other in the world. What you see is a vast green world expanding out in front of the train dropping away like you will need wings to make it down. The rail line drops 2888 feet in less than 20 miles, which requires some areas of track to be almost a 3.9% grade. For those of you who don’t know what that means, well… It means it is really steep.

Add into the mix that along the “High Line” section of track, the rail bed is chipped out of the side of sheer rock walls with nothing below but the river bottom some 800 feet down. With a perspective of looking out of the locomotive windows, we are talking a LONG way down! In other places you travel across narrow wooden bridges that span over nothing but…., well nothing. What a rush.

As the rail line moves down the mountain, you start to see the ocean and the town of Skagway far below. For the passengers this is an unsurpassed photo opportunity. They can see the cruise ships that brought them to Skagway looking like nothing more than toy boats. It might also be noted here that the vegetation changes dramatically on this trip. The vegetation varies from barren high tundra at the top, to lush temperate rain forest at the bottom.

You also find that things change from snowdrifts higher than the top of the coaches in some spots and ice on the summit lake (and this is in JUNE!!) to a pleasant 60 degrees temperature, clear, calm and sunny only 20 miles away at the harbor in town. Simply speaking, there is just not any other place like it in the world.

As we get closer to town we start to encounter people along the way. There are some popular camping areas near the tracks and of course as we get into town all of the tourists want to get in close to the train for just the right photo. Boy am I ever paying attention now! A fun aspect of all the tourists crowded around the train is that some place out in the world there are photos of me being the engineer. (Little do they know....)

Ah..... All good things must come to an end and so did my "Ride Of A Lifetime". I do not consider myself a big “rail fan”, but this ride down the mountain could certainly change that. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity that added to a summer that was great to start. Sometimes just being in the right place at the right time is better than all the planning in the world.