Alaska Live Steamers chugging toward new chapter

WASILLA — They think they can, they think they can.

One can almost hear that storied railroad mantra Saturday watching Alaska Live Steamers member John Whitney conduct a 1/8 scale motorized locomotive around the club’s tracks.

Straddling a pair of distinctive blue-and-yellow Alaska Railroad engines, Whitney drives another group of enthusiastic kids and parents around the Steamers’ groomed tracks near the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry. It is also one of the last few runs of the afternoon for Alaska Live Steamers at this location.

Starting next weekend, the club hopes to open its new scale railroad experience in south Wasilla. After 21 years adjacent to the museum and the Wasilla Airport, the Steamers are moving.

“My parents back in 1970 started the club,” said Cherish Klingbeil, vice president of the club.

Her parents, Barb and Jack Klingbeil, had the original vision of sharing their love for all things railroad, Cherish said. First, at the old Anchorage Transportation Museum before it burned down, then 15 years at the Alaska State Fairgrounds before moving to Wasilla. Now the club is expanding to a 20-acre space off W. Riley Avenue near the Palmer-Wasilla Highway extension and Knik-Goose Bay Road.

The location will eventually include three loops of track that encompass about triple the distance of the current 1,400-foot route.

“I was born on the rails,” Cherish said, adding her parents “wanted a family activity they could share with their kids and keep them out of trouble. It’s done pretty good so far.”

While it’s a little sad to move from the club’s home of more than two decades, Cherish said she’s excited about the potential for growth at the new location. That expansion couldn’t happen at its current site. The city recently approved an extension for Mack Road and has plans for expansion at the airport that include the property where the tracks are.

To help the club out, the city of Wasilla is leasing the property for the Steamers’ new location for $1,200 a year.

“We have a lot of hopes for expansion,” she said. “We actually have three loops planned, which will be three times the size of this one. Because we have the extra acreage there, we’re planning huge.”

While Alaska Live Steamers plans for the next 42 years, Saturday was about having fun on the rails for energetic young riders like 6-year-old Dylan Pyrah.

“That was awesome!” he yelled as Whitney pulled the train into the station.

After posing for photos with siblings and other family, he described the ride, pointing to a small shed. “We went on, um, this giant bridge. It was, like, 10 feet bigger than that. … Trains are fun and it’s fun to build tracks.”

It was the first time in four years for the Pyrah clan at Alaska Live Steamers, said mom Jill Pyrah. Along with her mother and sister, Jill was keeping up with her four kids: Dylan, Katlyn, 8; Oliver, 3; and Drew, 1.

“They had a blast and they’re ready to go again,” she said.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.