I found the two TrainOrders links for the DMU. You might ask your TO member friends to directly message or email the two photographers to ask for the photos for your site.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1905479
http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,1905689

[Webmaster's note: I do not have access to Trainorders.com. If someone could send me the photos I would greatly appreciate it. Furthermore, if you also send me the photographer's email addresses then I will ask their permission to repost them on my website. Thanks in advance!]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An avalanche temporarily closed the Whittier Tunnel, and another blocked a road in the Portage area.

There were no injuries in either avalanche.

[See story]

PORTAGE -- An avalanche crashed down on an Alaska Railroad train south of Portage, injuring no one but likely closing the track for several days, a spokesman said.

The avalanche late Wednesday smashed into a freight train about 15 miles south of Portage. The snow buried at least 10 of the train's 64 cars and threw some off the tracks, said railroad spokesman Tim Thompson.

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Two avalanches have wreaked havoc near Portage, causing a road and railway closure.

No one was injured.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- An avalanche triggered by the Alaska Railroad closed Portage Valley Road at Mile 5.5 and blocked access to the Whittier Tunnel, according to the Department of Transportation.

The railroad was performing avalanche control when the debris slide occurred at about 2:30 p.m. Thursday.

[See story]

Avalanche Partially Buries Freight Train
Train Crew Safe and No Hazardous Materials Onboard
DATE: March 26, 2009
CONTACT: Tim Thompson, 265-2695

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - An avalanche hit an Alaska Railroad Corporation (ARRC) freight train early this morning near ARRC milepost 49.5, approximately 15-20 miles south of Portage. The three-man crew was not injured but a number of rail cars were buried. The train was carrying lumber, sheet rock and other building materials. No hazardous materials were being transported.

Comprised of 64 rail cars and three locomotives, the northbound freight train left Seward, headed for Anchorage, on Wednesday night. The train crew initiated an emergency stopping procedure around 11:30 p.m. The crew unhooked the locomotives from the rail cars and attempted to proceed north towards Anchorage, but an avalanche halted their progress. Maintenance crews were dispatched to clear the snow and the train crew was retrieved unharmed from the scene.

An aerial inspection on Thursday shows the avalanche buried at least 10 of the stopped rail cars. The locomotives and the remaining rail cars were not hit by the avalanche but heavy snow has blanketed the area.

Avalanche and snow crews are working today and into Friday to mitigate further avalanche activity and to clear existing slide zones. Weather is expected to improve and crews will remove moveable railcars once the area has been assessed and deemed safe for train movement.
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Princess are merging in Alaska, a cost-cutting measure that comes in response to a slowdown in summer bookings.

The new subsidiary will be known as Holland America/Princess-Alaska Land Operations. The combined statewide fleet of large buses is expected to be reduced by about 15 percent to 600, a Princess spokesman said. The reduction in Fairbanks is expected to be about 25 percent.

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FAIRBANKS -- Flint Hills Resources has shut down one of three processing units at its refinery in North Pole because of lower demand, a move that will affect freight volume on the state-owned Alaska Railroad.

Flint Hills spokesman Jeff Cook, speaking by phone, told the Senate Energy Committee in Juneau the move is unprecedented but that company officials hope it will last only a month or so. He said he did not anticipate lost jobs or work hours for the approximately 175 refinery employees.

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JUNEAU — Sagging demand for jet fuel in Anchorage prompted Flint Hills Resources Alaska to shut down one of its three refining units in North Pole on Saturday.

Spokesman Jeff Cook told the Senate Energy Committee the move is "unprecedented" and hopefully only for a month or so. He did not anticipate lost jobs or hours for the approximately 175 refinery employees.

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For years residents here say concerns over coal dust have been railroaded, but now the issue is stirring up again.

Carol Griswold photographs birds, but recently she adjusted her focus to the environment.

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As she chugs along behind the controls of a 25,000-pound locomotive, Linnea Crosby takes in the sights that give Alaska its unique reputation.

"Wow. We get to see great views, good and bad weather. But at night, on the freight runs, the Northern Lights are spectacular," Crosby said.

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Last year was mixed for the Alaska Railroad Corp. Some freight customers shipped less, some more. Passenger counts were up, but so were most costs.

Given all that, the state-owned railroad still eked out a $13 million profit, according to company officials.

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Gov. Sarah Palin has high hopes for a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline. One of her other legacies could be shaping the systems that let most Alaskans flip on a light switch. Palin by the end of the month will propose a bill taking the first steps toward forming a state corporation to oversee power generation in the Railbelt, home to 65 percent of Alaska's population.

[See story]

DMU 751 (Chugach Explorer) ran for the first time on Thursday the 19th.. In the first hour after emerging from the shop building at the final assembly location in Hudson Colorado the car was undergoing running tests with about 20 miles logged Thursday and another 20 plus miles on Friday. The initial quality and performance of the car was fantastic thanks to the dedicated and talented former employees of Colorado Railcar. Testing will continue each afternoon next week while minor interior fit and finish tasks are performed in the mornings. The car should depart Colorado in late March.

Click here for the YouTube video
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Some city executives in Anchorage expected to work through the weekend, refining potential projects that have been on one list or another since late last year. At the Alaska Railroad, strategic planning director Bruce Carr couldn't say for sure Friday what projects the railroad may eventually try to fund with the stimulus money.

"But we have about six days to figure it out," he said.

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Even amid a global recession, one Alaska resource commodity is doing well in export markets. Surprisingly, it is coal.

Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. experienced a strong upturn in coal exports in 2008 from its mine in Healy, located south of Fairbanks. So far, sales for 2009 are looking pretty good, according to Steve Denton, Usibelli's vice president for business development.

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On the morning February 1, 2009, I witnessed ARR 3002 in the middle of the Toledo Hauler power, sandwiched between the mother-slug sets. Later that afternoon, the ARR 3002 was in the middle of the OE Express power, with PNWR 3007 on the south end, and 2306 on the north end.

On February 2, ARR 3002 celebrated the 1-year anniversary of its arrival on 2/2/2008, which was a nice coincidence with the official launch of WES, considering that WES is entirely why ARR 3002 is on the property.

Question to the group is... is ARR 3002 still here, or did it go north and depart, possibly interchanging to BNSF at Linnton?

-Charles
Albany/Corvallis Spotter
MP 691, Brooklyn Sub

A train struck a vehicle near C Street and Raspberry Road on Wednesday afternoon after a woman unwittingly drove her car between closing railroad crossing gates, police said. No one was injured in the accident, which closed Arctic Boulevard and C Street for about 45 minutes, police said.

The accident happened around 4:20 as the nearly half-mile-long train carrying freight to Whittier chugged through Midtown into South Anchorage. A 2004 Subaru Outback driven by Ann Pilch, 49, was traveling south on C about 200 feet from the Raspberry intersection when traffic came to a stand-still, police said.

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An Alaska Railroad train collided with a car Wednesday afternoon, but there were no injuries in the accident, the railroad said.

" The gates were down and somehow this car was inside (the gates)," said Tim Thompson, an Alaska Railroad spokesman. "I'm not sure how that happened, if the car went around (the gates), or if they were already in there when the gates went down."

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FAIRBANKS — Riding the rails to Delta Junction sometime in the future was on the minds of many, judging from the three-deep spectators shouldered up before the Northern Rail Extension exhibit at the Alaska Railroad Depot on Tuesday.

The opportunity to get answers directly from Alaska Railroad Corporation officials, view a wide variety of statewide railroad projects and pick project managers’ brains drew a curious crowd to the early evening open house.

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The Alaska Railroad Corp. is on track to extend its reach toward the Canadian border in the biggest construction project the corporation has ever undertaken.

"This is the first extension of rail for the Alaska Railroad in 50 years," said spokesman Tim Thompson. "The scope of this project is very large and will add transportation access for agriculture, mining, military and the public."

[See story]

The Alaska Railroad Corporation is investing millions to aggressively improve infrastructure.

It's everything from "track rehabilitation," to bridge work, a northern rail extension and much more.

[See story]

The Alaska Railroad Corp. has eliminated 12 jobs after reported declines in freight between Interior and Southcentral Alaska last year. The job losses occurred despite a rise in the number of passenger traffic, according to railroad officials.

Freight declines were the result of the rising costs of fuel and construction efforts at the Flint Hills refinery, located in the Interior, that caused slowdowns there, said spokesperson Tim Thompson.

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DELTA JUNCTION — One scenario under the state railroad’s plan to someday stretch track to Delta Junction would usher train traffic almost straight into the town.

That prospect worries the city’s leaders, who on Thursday night urged a federal transportation board to build a bridge for trains well north of the city and thus avoid land-use conflicts.

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One of the clearest signs the U.S. economic tailspin is hammering Alaska's tourism industry is the steeply discounted ticket prices that cruise lines are offering this summer.....

"It's a real wait-and-see kind of year," said Susie Kiger, the Alaska Railroad's director of passenger sales and marketing. After two years in a row of explosive growth in rail passenger bookings, she said reservations so far this year are "way down."

[See story]

As billion dollar bailouts keep getting voted on in Washington D.C., the state of Alaska is working to save one of its vital resources. The Flint Hills North Pole refinery could face a shut down with dismal market conditions and high state royalty oil costs to blame.

However, the state says that won't happen.

A shutdown of one of our state's three refineries would be enormous as everything from the airlines to the railroads to the port of Anchorage would be affected. Preventing this major disaster is why the state is getting involved.

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FAIRBANKS — Delta Junction falls, in size, between the smaller towns in Interior Alaska and the bigger communities like North Pole and Fairbanks.

The community, which has a population of roughly 5,000 when the surrounding school district is counted, is supported largely by a handful of industries and major landholders — farmers, the Army and the Pogo gold mine.

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Dry, windy weather in Seward has forced a shutdown of coal unloading by the Alaska Railroad, which has a ship ready to receive coal from Healy bound for Chile.

The problem is coal dust, which under unfavorable conditions flies off the train/ship loading facility and settles all over town in Seward. Complaints in 2007 brought intervention from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

[See story]

For weeks, the nation has been celebrating Alaska's 50th anniversary of statehood and the state's incredible history.

Here at Great Projects Film Company, we've been digging through Alaska's history for two years to create "Building Alaska," a documentary on the engineering feats that built the state's infrastructure. In our office, every day is a celebration of the great state, but it is the people who have fueled our passion for this project.

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Philip Lockwood, 67, died at his Wasilla home on Dec. 26. Family members and friends said Lockwood had melanoma and he died as a result of the cancer.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska - State officials are hoping to avoid a shutdown of the Flint Hills Resources refinery in North Pole.

If the refinery was to shut down, it could impact the Anchorage economy, as well as the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and the Alaska Railroad.

[See story]

A shutdown of the Flint Hills Resources refinery at North Pole has potential to rattle the Anchorage economy, and state officials are working with the company to find a way to keep the plant going.

[See story]

FAIRBANKS — Local governments and the state railroad corporation are teaming up to find money for a bridge across the Tanana River, the first leg of what could become a long-discussed extension of railroad track to the southeast.

Congress has used the past two years’ Department of Defense budgets to set aside two-thirds of the money needed for the proposed half-mile-long bridge, according to the Alaska Railroad Corp.

[See story]

ANCHORAGE, Alaska-- Despite record fuel costs and a volatile market the Alaska Railroad still turned a profit in 2008, although not as much as it had hoped.

The $9 million profit was just over half of what the company had originally projected for the year.

[See story]

Colorado Railcar Manufacturing, the company TriMet kept alive the past year with more than $5 million in public money, went out of business last week, unable to attract new financing.

TriMet wouldn't comment on the impact of the closure except to confirm it still plans a February launch of the Westside Express Service. The commuter rail line between Beaverton and Wilsonville will use self-propelled passenger railcars built by the Colorado company.

" They've got everything they need to operate," said Larry Salci, until recently president of Colorado Railcar.

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State officials say they may renegotiate terms in a state royalty oil contract with Flint Hills Resources for the company's refinery at North Pole, near Fairbanks.

It is an effort to help the company, said Kevin Banks, director of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas. And, notes Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, state involvement in the refinery could also influence market prices within the state.

[See story]