McCarthy Update

My first post on McCarthy in 2016 is here. In revisiting the subject, I've found a good many additional photos that shed much more light on the railroad facilities there. The first is a photo of the depot pre-1938, with a speeder on the track in front of it:

You can see what is apparently the freight house to the left of the depot and the end of the engine house at the far left. Next is a crop from an aerial photo of McCarthy taken in 1938 at nearly the end of operations:

The main line headed to Kennicott runs from lower left to top center. A spur runs from behind the depot at center left down to Shoshana Street. The building with the diamond windows at the far lower left along the spur is called the Mother Lode Warehouse. This still stood in the 1950s, and speeder excursions to Kennicott from McCarthy seem to have used it as a starting point:

The engine house is at the upper center. The turntable is at the far right just below the enginehouse. Several other railroad structures appear above the enginehouse. What looks like a mikado is on the spur leading to the turntable.

The spur that led past the Mother Lode Warehouse went farther down along Shoshana Street to the Mother Lode Power plant. This is visible with the stack at the far left of this view:

This building has its own entry on Wikipedia:

The McCarthy Power Plant, also known as the Mother Lode Coalition Mining Company Power House and the Mother Lode Plant, is a historic power plant building in the small community of McCarthy, Alaska, in the heart of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve. It is a three-story wood frame structure with a clerestory roof, located on the banks of McCarthy Creek. It was built in 1917, after the arrival of the Copper River and Northwestern Railway in the area kicked of a building boom. The coal-fired power plant was built to provide electricity for the operation of a tramway and other facilities of the Kennecott mines. Most of the transmission lines and the tramway were destroyed by avalanches in 1919, and other changes made soon afterward made the power plant unnecessary, and its turbine was moved up to Kennecott.

The presence of the stack probably dates the photo to the period 1917-1919. Here is a more recent photo:

The building still exists. Here is a plat view of this part of town as it currently exists:

Equipment: Pile Drivers

Because the Copper River & Northwestern laid a lot of initial trackage on pile trestles that were filled in, as well as maintaining trestles over wide alluvial deposits, it had a number of pile drivers. Some were rail mounted, while others were on skids. All seem to have been home built, with some fairly substantial like the one below in Cordova during the construction period:

The one below could be an upgraded version of the one above, or something entirely new. It's being pushed by a 70 class loco in later years.

The same unit is shown below, also in later years:

The one below looks like it's been disassembled for transport. It has either a crude wooden structure or a tent covering the hoisting machinery, with parts of the driver itself laid out on flat cars. In fact, the whole assembly seems to be mounted on skids and loaded on the flat car. This is a construction-era train at Tiekel, the end of track as of 1910.

In later years, it appears that at least one pile driver was permanently located at the Copper River bridge at Chitina. This regularly washed out and must have needed constant work.

Two skid-mounted pile drivers working toward each other. The one nearest the camera seems to be the skid-mounted one shown in the photo at Tiekel:

An early view at the McCarthy trestle. The pile driver seems to be the larger one in the photos above.

Katalla Update

Since my major effort on this blog in 2015, I've revisited other possible sources on the web, and new information and photos have come to light. However, the previous posts were made under an older version of Blogger and HTML, and I find I can't easily update existing posts without reloading photos. In some cases, this would be a major task. As a result, i'll be doing updates with new posts unless circumstances require a more complete re-edit.

This cropped version of a 1917 USGS map shows what is probably the completed line of the Katalla project as of 1907. Some of the track and equipment appears to have been in some type of operation at the time as the Alaska Anthracite Railroad:

Here is a map of th 1906 survery:

Although much of the equipment used to start the original Copper River and Northwestern project in Katalla was moved to Cordova after the 1907 storms by the Morgan-Guggenheim syndicate, some was left in Katalla. This included at least some wooden coal or gravel dump cars and at least one locomotive. According to Wikipedia,

The Alaska Anthracite Railroad Company was formed about 1907 by several people to exploit the Bering River coal fields after the Alaska Syndicate that consisted of M. Guggenheim & Sons and J.P. Morgan & Co. left the area for the Copper River copper. It was after the 1907 winter storm destroyed their Copper River and Northwestern Railway (CR&NW) in the Katalla - Palm Point area and access to the Bering River coal fields.

However, since the US government had withdrawn the coal leases in the Bering River fields, getting access required effort, and the new group made progress only by 1916.

It appears that in 1916 the Alaska Anthracite Railroad Company began building their railroad from the Controller Bay area to the coal fields about 20 miles to the north. The railroad actually began at a place called Goose City on the Bering River. There were plans to extend it south to Controller Bay, but it never happened.

The Wikipedia entry says the railroad lasted in some form until 1922. Here are two photos I've found of equipment that was left behind by the Katalla Company on the south side of the Copper River before construction of the Copper River and Northwestern began on the north side in Cordova, which seems to have had some continued use by the later project. The larger cars in the left rear appear to be Hart ballast cars.

Above is a 1922 photo of a Dickson loco and other equipment that was left behind at Katalla.

Here is a later photo from the air of the same equipment, much deteriorated. A more complete discussion of the Katalla project appears in this post.

Traffic And Operation

I've been thinking about the overall level of traffic and how that affected daily operation on the CR&NW. The best description of what ran on the railroad in earlier years is in the 1915 Alaska Engineering Commission report:

The traffic over this road during the months of June, July, August, September, and October, 1914, consisted of the movement of one mixed train, Cordova to Kennecott and return, scheduled to leave at intervals of five or six days, meeting the Alaska Steamship Co.’s boats northbound from Seattle. At infrequent intervals specials were operated for some particular purpose, and the train service was further supplemented by passenger motor car as occasion demanded. This service was increased in November.

The 1913 Alaska Railroad Commission report shows a somewhat different picture:

Three through trains a week are operated between Chitina and Cordova, in addition to a daily freight train from the Kennicott branch.

The overall impression from both of these reports strikes me as somewhat garbled. I think it's generally recognized that the only significant freight traffic source on the CR&NW was the Kennicott mill.

A schedule that appears to be in the Official Guide from 1930 shows a daily train, likely a mixed, between Cordova and Kennicott that took 12 hours for the run.

This would have been interrupted frequently due to snow and washouts, especially of the Copper River crossing at Chitina. For two years in the 1930s, the line did not operate at all, and afterward, it did not operate in the winter.

The statistics in the Wikipedia entry on Kennicott give an idea of how much this traffic was over the years: "In the 27 years of operation, except for 2½ years of shutdown, Kennecott produced 4.625 million tons of ore[.]"

So 25 years of production is 9125 days. During peak years, the mines operated seven days per week, all year. 4.625 million tons divided by 9125 days gives about 508 tons per day. So averaged over all the years of production, leaving out 1933-35 when the mines closed and the railroad shut down, the traffic amounted to about ten 50-ton capacity cars of ore per day. (Since the ore traveled mainly in sacks on steel flat cars, I'm assuming these were 50 ton capacity.)

This suggests that, on average, the daily freight from Kennicott to Cordova mentioned in the 1913 report would have had ten cars. In later years, with the line shut in the winter and the mines producing at a lower level, the freights would have run less than once per day. The peak years for the mines and the railroad were about 1916-1925, when the freights would probably have been longer, but quite possibly not more often than once per day.

So trying to make some sense of the conflicting reports from 1913 and 1915, it sounds as if during peak years, there was a mixed train, possibly from Cordova to Chitina, three times a week. A daily freight ran from Kennicott to Cordova and return. Passenger specials ran as "cruise train" excursions coordinated with steamship arrivals. Other passenger moves were via Model T speeders as needed. After about 1930, operations would have been less, probably combining the mixed trains with the Kennicott freights.

Considering the manual unloading process for the ore sacks at Cordova, it seems unlikely that facilities there could have handled much more than 10-20 cars per day at any time. I would guess that the need to shift cars on the wharf for unloading in years of peak production might have required a switcher in Cordova, presumably one of the lighter locos.

On top of that, there would have been a need to operate rotary outfits during the winter months. Other work extras to fill sinking trackage in the Baird Glacier area and clear rockslides in Abercrombie Canyon would also have been needed with some frequency.

Snow And Rotaries

The 1913 Alaska Railroad Commission report said, "The depths of snow to be expected between Cordova and mile 101 is [sic] from 4 to 14 feet, necessitating the operation of a rotary plow ahead of all trains during the winter months over this section of road." The 1915 Alaska Engineering Commission report expanded on this:

The snow conditions on certain sections of the road in the Copper River Delta are somewhat serious. The snow in these sections stands several feet deep on the level, and the strong prevailing winds blowing down the Copper River Valley cause drifts to form across the track. In some few sections of the line the train must immediately follow the rotary snowplow in order to secure a clear track, so quickly does the drifting snow fill in the opening made. These conditions make it desirable to attach an extra engine and snowplow to the rear of the train, to make it possible to cut back if the train is blocked ahead. The rotaries work on the road, in an average year, from December 1 to March 1.

Here is a photo that appears to show four locomotives on a rotary outfit, with a rotary in front and in back:

Here's a photo from the 1915 Alaska Engineering Commission report:

According to Lone Janson, the CR&NW had four rotaries, "the smallest with a cut of 10 feet 7 inches, the largest with a cut of 12 feet, 6 inches." It appears that all four saw frequent use during the winter. Here us a shot showing two rotaries that worked toward each other:

A steel-bodied rotary appears in a number of photos:





In addition to the rotary, a great deal of manual shovel work was needed to clear the line.


This photo may show a mixed train immediately following a rotary, as described in the 1915 report:



However, in spite of all this effort, the railroad could still be blocked for weeks at a time during the winter. In 1932, the Kennicott mines shut down due to low copper prices, and the railroad largely shut down as well. When the mines resumed production in 1935, the railroad still shut down entirely during the winter to avoid the snowfighting expense.

Equipment: Passenger Cars

Both Poor's and Moody's investment guides to railroads from 1916 list seven passenger cars for the CR&NW, six "first class" cars and one "dining car". The "first class" cars are actually just day coaches, divided into two combines and four coaches. Of the combines, one had a railroad roof, and one a turtleback roof. Of the coaches, one had a turtleback roof and three had railroad roofs. Here are the three railroad-roof coaches and the railroad-roof combine, in an enlargement from a panoramic photo of the first train of ore to leave Kennicott:

Here is a closer view of two railroad-roof coaches behind a 2-8-0. The one closest to the camera is numbered 100. The one behind the loco is numbered 102.

This photo shows both the turtleback-roof combine and the turtleback-roof coach. I haven't been able to discover numbers on these.

What is usually called the "dining car" is probably best described as a diner-lounge-observation, used in conjunction with excursion trains to the "Million Dollar" bridge. Both the US government reports of 1913 and 1915 note that the railroad operated these trains, and the 1938 ICC abandonment petition noted that the railroad had continued to run them into the late period. They would have been day excursions over the 49 miles to the bridge and back, operated in conjunction with steamships that were providing what we would now call cruises, and the "dining car" would probably have provided some type of premium meal service, perhaps with passengers in the coaches rotating through different seatings. This type of amenity continues on Alaskan railroads to the present.

Here is a general view of the "dining car" about to leave Cordova on a cruise train:

Considering the crowd, this was probably a special event, quite possibly President Harding's visit to Cordova during his 1923 Alaska tour, which ended in his sudden illness and untimely death. The lady seated fourth from the left in the view below of the observation platrorm may be Mrs Harding:

This is a later-period cruise train, since the "dining car" is evident as the last car in the train:


While the "dining car" was apparently used almost exclusively in cruise service, I believe it's the last car on the train shown below, since all five of the cars are railroad-roofed. Considering the bunting, it was some type of special train run in the 1920s.

The regular passenger service on the CR&NW was via mixed trains. The government reports from the 1910s say they were three round trips per week. The ICC abandonment petition indicates that by 1938, they had decreased to two round trips per week. In earlier years, additional cars were added to the rear of the mixed when needed to accommodate the passenger load:

By the end of operation, this had been reduced to a single car.

Equipment: The 2-6-0s

The CR&NW had three Alco 2-6-0s built about 1907, numbered 100-102. They were the smallest modern locos on the railroad and seem mostly to have been used on construction trains, passenger excursions, specials, and rotary outfits. Almost no photos show them on the line beyond Chitina. The first photo is of a very early excursion in Cordova in 1909, clearly not yet converted to oil:

Here is 102 about 1911 in snowy conditions with canvas stretched over the cab and tender:

An early photo of one at Bridge 27A. Given its condition and the low maintenance apparent in later photos, it's probably almost new here, and the train may be made up for the camera:

One of the class on the inspection train carrying then-Lieutenant Frederick Mears on a 1914 Alaska Engineering Commission inspection of the CR&NW:

One of the class pulling the first train into Chitina in 1910. It looks like it is still a coal burner at this time.

Here is Loco 101 at the Bridge 49 construction camp in 1910, also still a coal burner:

Here is Loco 101, according to the caption in use by the US Army in Cordova following abandonment:

However, the last car in the train appears to be the CR&NW's "dining car", which makes me wonder if it is actually a late-period excursion run in connection with a steamship arrival in Cordova.

The 2-6-0s turned up frequently on rotary outfits; the standard assignment was four locos, with the 2-8-2s apparently least used in this service. The first two locos on this outfit appear to be 2-6-0s:

The loco in the foreground is a 2-6-0:

Regarding disposition, as I mentioned earlier with the 2-8-0s, the Alaska Rails site has pointed out that what we have for the CR&NW is largely misinformation. Lone Janson says that at least one, and possibly all three, of the 2-6-0s went to the Alaska Railroad, but the Alaska Rails roster of ARR steam locos does not list any from the CR&NW. While the ARR had many 2-6-0s, these came from the Panama Canal via the AEC, and the ARR was beginning to scrap them when the CR&NW put its locos on the market in 1938. It did not take any from the CR&NW.

For anyone who might consider modeling the CR&NW or some of its equipment, the Bachmann HO 2-6-0 is reasonably close to the CR&NW locos.