My Life as Motorcoach Driver/Guide in the Yukon and Alaska, 1990-2013

August 18, 1991: on board an Alaska Railroad train at Whittier. Until the railroad tunnel was upgraded and opened as the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel on June 7, 2000, the only ways to get a vehicle to Whittier were by ferry from Valdez, or by driving your vehicle onto a railroad flatcar at the Portage siding. Whittier wasn't a common destination for us, but I got to take an MCI on a train ride 3 times. In those days, most coaches were 96 inches wide - once 102 inches became the standard, they would just barely fit on the railcars, and driving a 102-inch-wide coach onto a railcar was too dangerous.