Work train

Work train

Work train

Work train

Work train

On Friday I went downtown, after taking a spin down Turnagain Arm (one of my favorite Alaskan drives). I spent some time watching the finishes of the sled dog teams in the World Championship Dog sled race associated with the "Fur Rondy" ( http://www.furrondy.net ), for the day.

Once the dogs had completed their runs, I was faced with a bit of spare time before Cynthia finished work at ARRC headquarters. So I just hung around the Ship Creek area. After a while I saw GP-38 2001 bringing out a bunch of Alaska Marine Line containers, and shoving them into the port area. Things had been a little quiet around the ARR yard while I was there, so I hustled over to take a few shots.

Shortly after 2001 finished it's activities, I noticed 2006 coming out of the engine shop area solo. I wondered why, for a while, then I saw a consist of 4 GP-40's following her closely. It looked to me like 2006 was simply getting out of the way for this consist to do some real work.

A bunch of switching through the C Street crossing area followed. The next day, after Cynthia and I had spent a night up in Talkeetna chasing Auroras (alas unsuccessfully), we again watched the dogs races finish. Walking back to the parking lot at ARRC HQ, we were kind of trapped in the C Street crossing by a consist of 6 SD70's and a huge coal car train. It was beautiful! 24000+ Horsepower at the front of 70 or so (empty) coal cars.

Things had been quiet all week, but my last 2 days had seen a feast of locomotive power. I attached a few shots.

Photos courtesy of Terry Douglas