You might be interested to know that the ARR did
have an overnight train with sleeping cars in the 50's and early 60's.
They ran it in the winter and called it the 'Midnight Sun'. The AuRoRa
ran in the summer. My first Alaska Railroad trip was in 1956 (I was
9 years old) from Fairbanks to Anchorage on the overnight train.
We were moving to Anchorage for my father to take up his new job as PR
man for the ARR. The overnight service was very convenient because
you could travel overnight, spend the day in Anchorage (or Fairbanks) and
travel back that night, so you essentially lost only the day in the other
town. The sleeping car we travelled in was the Lake Minchumina.
It was a 12-section, 1 drawing room sleeper. We rode in the drawing
room. When the Mount McKinley Hotel burned down in the early 70's,
the old heavyweight sleeping cars along with some ones purchased from the
UP, were moved to Mount McKinley as a replacement. My wife and I
stayed in the drawing room of the Lake Minchumina again! The other
2 heavyweight sleepers had compartments and drawing rooms.
© 1999 Stephen Sheldon