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Old 05-06-2018, 01:55 PM   #21
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Railroad to Alaska, re: Flat bed rail to Alska

I lived in Alaska for 46 years and moved to Elma WA two years ago. The only railroad in Alaska is within Alaska and makes for a tremendous trip to view the great state of Alaska from the rails with beautiful scenery to look at all along the way. One of the features of this railroad is that they stop to pick up passengers along the way so sometimes it becomes a bit longer than planed.

The Alcan Highway or the Cassiar Highway make for a wonderful road trip but I'd highly recommend purchasing the Milepost book prior to leaving for mile by mile information both for the trip to, and other trips within the state.

The ferry would be expensive because not only your tow vehicle is taking up space but also your towed vehicle.

Happy traveling.
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Old 05-06-2018, 07:19 PM   #22
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We have driven to Alaska and back. We looked at taking ferries but some are over 8-12 hours between ports. You do not have access to your truck or trailer between ports and propane refers must be turned off. Worse, pets are not allowed inside the ship and must stay in the truck or trailer. No way to access them for potty breaks. They are pretty rigid about that. I'v asked them about how to keep a pet in a trailer for 12 hours without a break and their answers are not they have never had a pet before. We passed.
Washington ferries are a lot more friendlier with access to the pets and dogs allowed on board.
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Old 05-06-2018, 08:37 PM   #23
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Originally Posted by A W Warn View Post
Has anyone gone on the White Pass and Yukon Railroad? It goes from Skagway into the interior. I know there an intersection/rail crossing near MacRae, YT on the Alaska Highway.
Considering there is no direct rail into Alaska, there is no way to make that type of trip. Even if you were to ship your camper, no company will allow you to stay in your camper. The Alaska Ferry does not allow anyone to stay in their vehicle and you don't have access when at sea. And shipping as freight by the sea cargo companies can take up to two weeks (ships and barges make stops at port along the way--Ketchikan, Wrangell, Juneau, etc).

No commercial company will take on the liability of anyone traveling inside anything they ship.

Having lived in Alaska, I've been asked about taking a train directly to Anchorage from Outside (lower 48). It can be done, just like driving from LA to Hawaii---only in your dreams.

The only way to get your AS is either drive it yourself or ship it and meet it on the other end. And while it's long, driving the Alaska Highway is a great experience you and your traveling partners will talk about for a lifetime.

A side note, the Whitehorse and Yukon railroad is a narrow gauge railroad and does not match the standard rail of the Alaska Railroad. No way to transfer railcars between the two. Whitehorse and Yukon only runs inside the Yukon and never gets into Alaska.
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Old 05-06-2018, 08:46 PM   #24
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We have driven to Alaska and back. We looked at taking ferries but some are over 8-12 hours between ports. You do not have access to your truck or trailer between ports and propane refers must be turned off. Worse, pets are not allowed inside the ship and must stay in the truck or trailer. No way to access them for potty breaks. They are pretty rigid about that. I'v asked them about how to keep a pet in a trailer for 12 hours without a break and their answers are not they have never had a pet before. We passed.
Washington ferries are a lot more friendlier with access to the pets and dogs allowed on board.
Whoever told you that was giving you a line of BS. We have had our dogs on the ferry and were able to check with the purser. We were accompanied by a crew member and able to walk the dog on the vehicle deck. They also had a sand pit they were able to do their doggie duties. But you need to check with the purser as soon as you get on board and make sure your reservations list you are traveling with a pet.
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Old 05-06-2018, 09:18 PM   #25
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We are at least a year away from doing any traveling with our trailer, it's currently completely gutted out. Mostly in the dreaming stage of planning future camping trips with it, Yellowstone, Bad Lands, etc. Started talking about an Alaska trip and the in-laws mentioned this, it was probably at least 30 years ago and I'm sure all the details are wrong, especially since there is no rail service that goes where they said, lol
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Old 05-06-2018, 09:47 PM   #26
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Whoever told you that was giving you a line of BS. We have had our dogs on the ferry and were able to check with the purser. We were accompanied by a crew member and able to walk the dog on the vehicle deck. They also had a sand pit they were able to do their doggie duties. But you need to check with the purser as soon as you get on board and make sure your reservations list you are traveling with a pet.

It was May of 2012 and we were told by the Alaskan Ferries customer service number three times on different days hoping 1 out 3 times to get a different response. All the same.
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Old 05-06-2018, 11:17 PM   #27
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For pets check with the purser when you board. On longer trips (southwestern AK, Kodiak and out the chain) they generally make an announcement every 6 hours +/- for folks traveling with pets. You must clean up after your pet and access usually lasts 15 min or so. You can access the car deck also when the vessel is in port. Passengers must be accompanied when accessing the car deck at sea so by checking with the purser you can be made aware of possible times that pet owners can check on things. Good to be aware so you don't miss a possible announcement, crew members 'on watch' are generally busy and typically can not break away to assist randomly. The purser who is on board will be your best contact.
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Old 05-07-2018, 12:08 AM   #28
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We are at least a year away from doing any traveling with our trailer, it's currently completely gutted out. Mostly in the dreaming stage of planning future camping trips with it, Yellowstone, Bad Lands, etc. Started talking about an Alaska trip and the in-laws mentioned this, it was probably at least 30 years ago and I'm sure all the details are wrong, especially since there is no rail service that goes where they said, lol

Thank you, as the original poster, for this clarification.

Good luck with this "dreaming stage of planning," and with the complete renovation of your AS.

Peter

PS -- Over and out . . .
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Old 05-07-2018, 09:58 AM   #29
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I was talking to my in-laws last night, discussing a possible future trip to Alaska, and they mentioned having a friend who loaded his camper onto a flatbed railcar in Seattle or possibly Vancover and stayed in the camper while the train took them all the way to Alaska. Has anybody heard of this? I just did a quick Google search and didn't see anything but I'm going to look into it more.

Sounds like they were mixed up with the locations and were talking about the Railroad in Mexico that DID carry RV's and passengers up till the early mid 1990's. There were a few Airstream Caravan trips on the railroad back then and lots of photos in the history section of the Airstream Club. In discussions about those caravans, it was discontinued due to safety concerns; the same happened with a River Barge RV Tour that was on the Mississippi River going out of New Orleans. The Coast Guard stopped it cause they did not want passengers inside the RV's while the barge was underway. Its same reason they do not allow people to stay in cars on auto ferrys in the US. The Cape May-Lewis Ferry is best example. From NJ to DE is about 3 hours and they get everyone off the car deck into spaces above.

The passenger railroad running today in Alaska is operated by Holland America Cruise Line. Runs from Anchorage to Fairbanks with stops at the NP. It also goes south from Anchorage to Homer and Seward but all of these are only passenger trains.

As previously discussed, you CAN load your RV onto a ferry in Seattle (Bellingham) and ride it to Alaska but you have to rent a cabin on the ship or sleep on deck in a tent.
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Old 05-07-2018, 10:27 AM   #30
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Purchase a bottle

I think they have it all wrong, purchase a good bottle of whiskey in Canada and serve to parents for better hearing. LOL
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Old 05-07-2018, 10:43 PM   #31
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It was May of 2012 and we were told by the Alaskan Ferries customer service number three times on different days hoping 1 out 3 times to get a different response. All the same.
And you trusted the word of a contract rep who obviously wasn't aware of on board procedures? That's what supervisors are there for. And your really think crews aren't aware people need/want to check on their pets?

Hopefully your trip up the highway was memorable in a positive way.
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