Fairbanks In Winter Railfanning is tough in Alaska in December as this image attests. You can gear up for the cold but there is nothing you can do about the light...or lack there of. This is what passes for broad daylight at the north end of the Alaska Railroad less than 200 miles from the Arctic Circle. Here one day before winter solstice the sunrise is at 10:57 AM and sunset is less than four hours later at 2:40 PM! But the weather was extremely and unseasonably mild with temps in the 20s which is shirt sleeve weather in this part of the world more accustomed to temperatures 50 degrees colder this time of year. Here is a short local behind GP38-2 2007 and GP40-2 3007 returning to the Fairbanks yard rolling beside Trainor Gate Road heading south at MP 2.9 on the Eielson Branch. They are just leaving the boundary of Fort Wainwright which they cut through for five miles on their way to North Pole and Eielson as well as to the Airport branch both of which are important and busy sources of traffic. Additionally the base itself is an important customer both for occasional military equipment moves of flat car loads heading to and from deployment and training missions as well as daily deliveries for the base's coal fired steam heating and power plant. Fort Wainwright is a massive facility managing over 1.6 million acres of training and recreation land. The base dates to 1940 when Ladd Army Airfield was first constructed to support cold weather testing and serve as a tactical supply depot. During 1942 over 7900 aircraft were delivered to the Soviets from Ladd flying across the Bering Strait as part of the WWII Lend-Lease program. When US-Soviet tensions rose post war and the Cold War began Alaska's strategic importance skyrocketed and when the US Air Force was created as a separate branch and the base was renamed Ladd Air Force Base. In 1948, the Army sent the 2nd Infantry Division to Ladd AFB with a mission of ground defense. During the Korean War in 1950 and through to 1957 Ladd AFB saw a rise in tempo and an increase in their logistics operations. By 1957, intercontinental ballistic missiles and satellites reduced the role for Ladd AFB. In 1960, with two major air bases in close proximity, coupled with economic pressures, the Air Force stopped flying operations at Ladd and reassigned them to Eielson AFB and to Elmendorf AFB in Anchorage. The Air Force transferred Ladd to the Army on 1 January 1961, and the installation was renamed Fort Wainwright after WWII General, Jonathan Wainwright. Today it is home to the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division. The post is also home to Task Force 49, a brigade-size aviation unit with CH-47 Chinooks, UH-60 Black Hawks and OH-58 Kiowas, as well as support personnel some 7700 soldiers in total. The current mission of the 1-25 SBCT is to deploy rapidly “to a designated contingency area of operation by air and [conduct] operations either as a separate Brigade Combat Team or under the control of a contingency force headquarters.” Equipped with wheeled Stryker armored vehicles, the brigade filled the gap between light forces like the 4/25 BCT (Airborne) and heavy, armored units. Fairbanks, Alaska |
