The Route

Because the railroad as finally built was completed in 1911, it was in existence when the Alaska Railroad Commission studied it for its 1913 report as well as when the Alaska Engineering Commission studied it for its 1915 report. Both of these reports can be found as free e-books via the links here and contain detailed descriptions and photos of the line's engineering features and geological conditions. They've been of enormous value in helping me understand the other new on line resources available for studying this railroad.

Here is a map of the railroad in its final state as of 1911:

Here is what appears to be the Official Guide entry as of 1930:

It extended in a broad figure-5 shape from Cordova about 197 miles to Kennicott (the town name is incorrectly spelled on the map). Like many railroad maps of the period, it's misleading in several respects. It depicts numerous "towns" along its route, but the only places with any significant population were Cordova, a new town built to support construction of the railroad, Chitina, and McCarthy-Kennicott. McCarthy was the commercial center next to the mill at Kennicott. During the railroad period, Cordova's population fluctuated seasonally from 1500 to 2000; McCarthy-Kennicott was about 200. Chitina had only railroad facilities and a few stores, bars, and hotels. The other locations on the map had, at best, water tanks and section houses.

Logically, the railroad had two pieces. The "main line" as completed ran from Cordova to Chitina. The dotted extension up the Copper River to the northwest was proposed but never built; it would have continued to Fairbanks and Eagle on the Yukon River. The line from Chitina to Kennicott was intended as a branch; timetable mileages on the branch were calculated from Chitina. Kennicott was Mile 64.5 from Chitina. This portion's "branch line" status was reflected in its grades and engineering features; its grades were steeper and its bridges mostly wooden trestles, while the "main line" had four significant multi-span steel truss bridges.

The map also shows another proposed branch to the Matanuska coal fields, also never built. The main factor that kept the line from being completed as proposed was the Woodrow Wilson administration's decision in early 1915 to select the Seward-Fairbanks route for construction of the Alaska Railroad. However, the CR&NW was built with private investment from Guggenheim copper and J.P.Morgan railroad interests, and it appears that well before 1915, the hostility of both the Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson administrations to developing Alaska's natural resources had caused private investors to lose interest in the territory.

This change in the regulatory environment and loss of interest on the Morgan side was reflected throughout the railroad's history. J.Pierpont Morgan himself died in 1913; he had been in poor health, suffering from dementia, distracted by political controversies, and increasingly preoccupied with his art collection and library before his death. His son was actively but unsuccessfully trying to sell the CR&NW to the government at a distress price in late 1914, but the Wilson administration's decision in 1915 to go with the Seward-Fairbanks rail route to the interior left the CR&NW an orphan.