Some good exposure for the White Pass, he must be a steam nut...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3812091/Duke-Duchess-Cambridge-early-start-packed-day-beautiful-Canadian-gold-rush-town-Whitehorse.html

Sorry about the Daily Mail it's an awful site.

Long live the Queen! (I'm not sure that the future King has a lot of common sense!)

But Prince Charles is known to be a big supporter of historic preservation, so he deserves some credit for that at least.

-Philip Marshall

Philip -

Of course I was referring to Prince William and his balancing act with Kate and not Prince Charles. Good to know though, that Charles is interested in historic preservation.

Les

There must be an interesting back story why they didn't pull forward a few feet. Would the crew even do what they did?

Yes indeed global exposure that you cannot buy.

WP&Y quite lucky that all the camera's turned on 73 during the bridge shimmy.

Royals arrived / departed Carcross by road from/to Whitehorse and did not actually ride the train.

Can't help thinking the WP&Y missed an opportunity by not clearing out a couple of mile of track north of Carcross and having them ride the train in from the north reprising the Queen's visit in 1959.

TH

You just know someone at the WP&Y offices saw that photo and read the riot act to the crew for making the royal couple shimmy out into that bridge, instead of pulling forward a couple car lengths...

The attraction of the royal couple is that they are young, athletic, and modern. It is better press for them to be seen climbing towards the engine, rather than the railway making a big fuss to bring the train to them.

I sure hope none of the crew got shit for that, I suspect the Royal heads just turned up all of a sudden next to the gangway with a "can we have a look". From the coverage on local TV the train was not a part of the official agenda, the couple were there to meet with the local First Nations community and tour a massive new mountain bike park opened by the local band. The train just looked like it was some "set dressing" in the background, it was certainly a great idea to have the locomotive and train there, whether it was the idea of the town of Carcross or the W.P.&Y. you can't buy publicity like that. On a side note, does anyone know if the White Pass still has steam qualified Canadian crews, or did US crews work it right through from Skagway. I know steam usually only goes as far as the Canadian Customs post at Fraser Meadows.

Pat

White Pass has two other restored engines, Guatemala #40 and White Pass #69, but I have seen no evidence of these in service. All of the service appears to be performed by #73. What is the story?

#40 is no longer on the White Pass.

ex-IRCA #40 was lease in 2000 for a reported five year period. But the White Pass terminated the lease in 2002, three years early. It returned to the operator of the Georgetown Loop operation. When that operator's lease/concession for operating the rail line was not renewed it was removed along with the rest of the operator's equipment. The #40 was moved to Colorado RR Museum in Golden for storage and occasional operation. The owner has it and #44 listed for sale on the Ozark Mountain Railcar website.