First use of sidebooms - Gold Creek derailment: Three days before Christmas of 1999, a derailment of a southbound fuel train occurred at Gold Creek releasing about 120,000 gallons of jet-A fuel. Due to a winter storm that caused mudslides down around Wasilla and heavy snow from Willow to Talkeetna............... access to the site was delayed for over 24 hours. Once the spill containment operation was stabilized, the re-railing process started. For the first time in the history of the ARRC, sidebooms (aka: sidewinders/pipelayers) that were purchased to handle the new, heavier, SD70MAC's were used. In less than 4 hours on the day after Christmas, these sidebooms re-railed the 3 derailed locomotives......a process that probably would have taken days using the old method of hydraulic jacks (Hoesch) and/or the rail cranes.

Additional remark: A little history tidbit. Those two side-booms were purchased used ($500K each) from a pipeline company in Russia, after it was pointed out in a meeting that at the time we were going to SD70MACs, we had nothing that could efficiently handle the new locos in a derailment...because they were so heavy. After getting the dedicated flats for them set up and having experts from a Lower 48 derailment company train our H.E. operators, their first use was in the Gold Creek derailment (pic) which happened a few days before Christmas of 99. On Sunday morning, the day after Christmas, watching them (at barely above idle), lift the locomotives derailed (leased units)...gave me an ear-to-ear smile all day.