Crescent-Zephyr

The photo was a screen-grab from a video posted to YouTube. I would have liked to get up to Strasburg, but health issues have me pretty well confined to home.

It was a great event. I chuckled at the thought of doubleheading those 2 but they were some of my favorite runbys ive ever seen.

Side note- and I’m saying this friendly- photographers GREATLY appreciate it if you give credit when sharing photos. :)

I don't suppose folks have looked at the cruse ships that bring the guests to the railroad?

None of them look like a classic ocean liner.

Brian

They may have had little choice, their Alcos were getting long in the tooth, Richard Zmijewski posted this photo on facebook: "Too little, too late for us. On our vacation last summer the lead loco caught fire several miles out of Skagway. The crew cut it off and pulled ahead. The trailing unit pushed the train back to Skagway, where it was aborted. All we got was a short trip and a full refund. Bummer." The alternative is to do a full rebuild of the Alcos obviously, but the chance to tack these new units onto an existing Australian order proved too compelling

The most "classic ocean liner." I can think of was CPR's TEV Princess Patricia which was actually built in 1948-1949 for Vancouver-Victoria-Seattle "Triangle Service."

CPR refitted "Princess Pat" for 8-day Vancouver-Skagway-Vancouver Summer cruising. She was withdrawn in 1981, served as a hotel ship for Expo 86 and was broken up in 1989.

To put things in perspective, WP&Y 73 is less then 2 years older.

Phil Mulligan

#1 - This is not true. Disney Cruise Line ships, which are some of the most profitable per ship, were designed specifically to look like classic ocean liners.

"You have to develop a ship that looks like a ship" - then Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

"the imagineers embarked on their assignment - conjure the art deco romance of past ocean liners." - Imagineering Story.

And #2 - the ships that do not look like classic ocean liners were still designed by highly paid ship designers to represent the brand of the company that they are serving. They didn't buy on to an existing freight-liner order and modify them for passenger service.


Again that's a bigger point and food for thought in operating a tourist / entertainment operation. I personally think these locomotives work with the White Pass brand.. they look pretty good in the paint scheme they chose.

I'm going to stick my head out of the hole and broadcast to a wide audience that I expect that in the future, originally 2-3 years after these diesels entered service, now postponed by COVID, that we would see a sightseeing car like the Bernina Express cars on the RhB.

I will now withdraw into my frozen hole in Alaska...

That’s certainly possible. Also possible that they could create a car like the Knight Sky in Durango. It’s “modern” but it fits the brand and image of D&S. I’m always torn between the knight sky and Coach.... I like to be in the closest coach to the locomotive to hear her work up the grade... but I can the locomotive better around the curves further back and see the scenery so much better in the knight sky. That’s why you can’t just ride one time when you’re out there! :)


Back to your point, I actually think a modern 1st class sightseeing train would be a good 3rd brand for white pass. The steam train, the current diesel train with “historic” coaches and a modern 1st class train. Make a big deal about the observation windows and 1st class service, cruise line passengers would eat that up.

It didn't say "Strasburg" on the tender for a year because of the N&W Reunion of Steam. The rest of the time...

Agreed.... as I quoted “conjure the Art Deco romance of past ocean liners”

Historically they are not classic ocean liners... they conjure the feel of them. That’s what I’m saying.... on brand.

Branding is so important. That’s the point.

The first engine was delivered to Skagway today.

Via WP&Y's Facebook page :https://www.facebook.com/134141213264664/posts/3129283290417093/

Also rumors popping up today that Durango & Silverton has in turn bought a pair of the DL535's from WP&Y.

According to comments on this fb post these units weren't merely tacked on to an order by Qube in Australia, they are two demonstrators and two canceled units from an order of ten originally. The demonstrators, now 3000 & 3001, are being reworked at Mt. Vernon and Silvis, while 3002 & 3003 are the two cancelled units. One comment says the remaining two units of the order were cancelled "probably because they're the most unreliable locos qube have." We'll see if NRE can get the bugs out.

No longer a rumor.

Okay, I'll bite - Does that statement mean that Mr. Harper has acknowledged the purchase or does it mean the rumor has been debunked?