Alaska Railroad SD70MAC and GP40 on bridge

''Princess Tours'' is an

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

n sightseeing

passenger car A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded as ...

service owned by

Princess Cruises Princess Cruises is an American cruise line owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. The company is incorporated in Bermuda and its headquarters are in Santa Clarita, California, Santa Clarita, California. As of 2021, it is the List of cruise lines# ...

and operated by its Rail Division. Princess Tours runs ten cars a day (five north, five south) from

Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...

Fairbanks Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...

on the

Alaska Railroad Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, stopping at

Talkeetna Talkeetna ( Dena'ina: ''K'dalkitnu'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 1,055, up from 876 in 2010. Geography Talkeetna is located at the confluence o ...

Denali Denali (; also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of above sea level. With a topographic prominence of and a topographic isolation of , Denali is the thir ...

, and occasionally Whittier. Each train consists of five cars and is staffed by a crew of 32 people.

About Princess

Princess Tours, a division of Princess Cruises, is responsible for the operation of Alaska Land Tours and the land portion of Cruisetours. Founded in 1972 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, the company offers a wide variety of Alaska Land Tours in conjunction with Princess' Alaska cruises. The largest cruise and tour operator in Alaska, Princess Tours gives travelers the opportunity to combine a Gulf of Alaska cruise with the interior of Alaska. The “land” portion of the cruisetours include Anchorage, Denali National Park, Copper River, the Kenai Peninsula, Prudhoe Bay, the Arctic villages of Nome and Kotzebue and the Canadian Yukon. Princess Tours also owns and operates five wilderness lodge properties and hotels, a fleet of motorcoaches and luxury rail cars, known as Princess Rail.

Princess rail tour

Traveling daily between Anchorage and Fairbanks from May through September, the

Ultra Dome The Ultra Dome is a bilevel dome coach manufactured by Colorado Railcar for various operators between 1988–2007. Colorado Railcar, and its predecessor Rader Railcar, constructed a total of 44 cars. All 44 were purchased by touring companies i ...

cars feature the largest domed windows ever built for a rail car, dining salons, and the only open-air outdoor observation platforms on the Alaska Railroad.

Equipment

Thomas G. Rader started the cruise operation “Alaska Tour Operators” in 1982. The operation was renamed “Tour Alaska” the following year in conjunction with the purchase of four ex-

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad The Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad (CMStP&P), often referred to as the "Milwaukee Road" , was a Class I railroad that operated in the Midwest and Northwest of the United States from 1847 until 1986. The company experience ...

("Milwaukee Road")

Super Dome The Caesars Superdome, commonly known as the Superdome (formerly known as Mercedes-Benz Superdome), is a multi-purpose stadium located in the Central Business District of New Orleans, Louisiana. It is the home stadium of the New Orleans Saints ...

s. These cars held 60 passengers each and featured fine dining on board. In 1986, P&O Princess Cruises purchased Tour Alaska, and in 1988 replaced the Super Domes with four new

cars, rebuilt by Rader from Pullman Gallery Cars which had been used on the San Francisco-San Jose

Peninsula Commute The Peninsula Commute, also known as the Southern Pacific Peninsula or just Peninsula, was the common name for commuter rail service between San Jose, California and San Francisco, California on the San Francisco Peninsula. This service ran as a ...

by Southern Pacific until 1985. These are the cars in use today. The cars came in pairs and shared a kitchen which cooked for the dining rooms downstairs. In 1992, Princess Tours commissioned two new cars to be built, which were introduced for the 1993 season. These cars, as well as the cars built in 1996 and 1999, are all self-contained and can operate independently from the others, unlike the earlier cars.

Railcar classifications

References

External links

History of the Princess Rail Cars

{{Alaska railroads Alaska railroads Princess Cruises