Photograph courtesy of Frank Keller

Standing Tall - After 10 days of gloomy weather I expected more of the same on the first day of my weekend, Friday April 24, 2020, however it turned out to be a spectacular day. As luck would have it I had chores to do and wouldn’t be able to get out for any pictures until Saturday. Looking at the weather forecasts it appeared I might be in luck as my weather app was showing another day of clear skies. As it turns out that is exactly what happened. After waking up and finishing up my final chores and did some checking and discovered the south freight out of Fairbanks was running very late. The train was re-crewed at Hurricane, MP 281.4, and had departed at 0830. It was currently 0915 and my goal was to catch the train at MP 206.4 as they emerged from the woods with Denali standing tall in the background. I live in South Anchorage, roughly at MP 105, so I needed to go north 101 miles before the freight traveled the 76 miles south to arrive at the same destination. By the time I left my house it was 0920. It was a calculated risk but I was fairly confident I could beat the train here. I also knew the train had to traverse a few slow orders so that was in my favor. Luck was on my side, but just barely, I arrived at my desired location at 1100 and the train rolled past at 1105. Pretty good timing I say. As this was the only train on the system, I headed for home. Of course that was the same direction the train was heading so I was able to capture a few more shots along the way. This shot shows Denali and Hunter with the train. Earlier I posted a shot with just Denali and the train. I think I like this shot a bit better. At 20’308 tall Denali stands tall and dominates the background in either view.