Alaska Railroading

I know you all just heard from me, but I thought I would share a few thoughts on railroading under the midnight sun and the northern lights.  I spent two summers working in Anchorage, AK, as a bus driver and tour guide, and during my time there I had many opportunities to check out the railroad there.  I thought I would talk about that a little today.  First of all, let me cover some important background information.  The Alaska Railroad is the largest railroad in the state, and is one of just two railroads in the state.  The Alaska Railroad runs from Seward, AK, at the south to North Pole, AK, at the north.  It runs through Whittier, Anchorage, Wasilla, Talkeetna, Denali National Park, and Fairbanks in that distance.  It is one of the only railroads in the country that still operates both freight and passenger trains regularly.

Alaska Railroad route map
www.alaskarailroad.com

The Alaska Railroad faces some unique challenges simply due to location.  It is not connected to any other railroad in North  America, although it does actually exchange cars with other railroads.  This happens by the use of barges, which have railroad tracks laid on the deck.  The barges arrive and depart form Whittier, AK, and go to either Prince Rupert, BC, or Seattle, WA.  The Alaska Railroad sends cars to the lower 48 and Canada that way, and the receive cars from the lower 48 and Canada on those barges.  Any equipment that is built outside of Alaska must arrive on that barge.  Needless to say, this makes it impractical to ship equipment back and forth, unless it is loaded with cargo and making money.  Because of this, the Alaska Railroad has gotten very good at keeping old equipment operating for a very long time.  It was just over a year ago that they retired their last Rail Diesel Car (RDC), which had nearly a half century of service.  Replacing equipment requires shipping out old equipment and bringing in the replacements.  Doing that takes away from space on the barge which could be making money, so it is not worth it if old equipment can still be repaired.

The railroad serves many towns which are only accessible by rail, and some of which have so few residents you could count them on one hand!  It is a lifeline to many of the people who live in the region known as "the Railbelt."  Take the town of Sherman, for example.  The population is two.  The house is located along the railroad tracks, and there is a sign out front that reads,
"Sherman, Alaska
Town Hall
Pop. 2"
It is a husband and wife that live there.  The nearest road to their house is just over 40 miles away.  The Alaska Railroad delivers their mail, supplies, and any visitors.  It also gets them to town when they need to go.  When they need to get on the train, they simply go out to the tracks and flag the train down.  Once on the train, they can ride into Talkeetna, which, at 800 people, is big enough to have whatever supplies they may need.  This is not a young family either.  They moved there nearly 50 years ago, and are now in their 80s, but love the slow paced, relaxing lifestyle.  They are not unique.  There are dozens of such towns along the railroad, which depend on the railroad for basic survival.

Winters in Alaska present interesting challenges, as the snow can get very deep and temperatures very low, depending on location.  It probably will not surprise you to learn that the Alaska Railroad spends more money on snow management than any other railroad in the country.  In the mountains, the snow can get as high as 500 inches!  Avalanches present a constant danger, especially in the spring when the various layers of snow begin to thaw and shift.  Short daylight hours make things even more challenging.  In Anchorage, there are just over four hours of daylight in December, and in Fairbanks, there is only about 90 minutes.  Besides the snow and darkness, it can be very cold.  Anchorage and Seward, which are fairly close to the coast tend to be more mild in the winter, only getting to about -15 degrees.  However Fairbanks can be nothing short of brutal, often dropping well below -45.  Besides that, the moose tend to be a problem in the winter.  Winter is mating season for the moose.  The male moose get a bit feisty as they try to find mates.  They get aggressive as they look for a female.  It is not uncommon for them to believe that a locomotive offers competition in their quest.  When a moose feels threatened, it charges, and if it feels threatened by a locomotive, it charges the locomotive, in an attempt to resolve the problem.  Well, resolve the problem it does, although it creates quite a few others!

In the summer, railroading in Alaska gets a lot easier.  The weather gets warmer, the moose calm down, and the sun comes out for more than 20 hours every day.  The railroad also gets busier  Tourists begin to arrive, and more passenger trains move.  Freight traffic also picks up a bit as more stuff gets shipped.  One of the biggest changes to the railroad is passenger service.  While the Alaska Railroad does maintain passenger service throughout the year, there is considerably less in the winter.  In the winter there is a weekly train from Anchorage to Fairbanks every Saturday, which returns to Anchorage every Sunday.  Additionally there is a weekly train from Anchorage to Talkeetna and back every Thursday.  In the summer, there are daily trains from Anchorage to Fairbanks, Seward, and Whittier, and from Talkeetna to Hurricane.  The trains go from a couple of cars in the winter to 16-20 cars in the summer.  Tour companies, including the one I worked for, send their guests on the train to Talkeetna, Denali Park, and Fairbanks.  Because of this, I had a lot of opportunities to check out the trains while on the job!

The most frequent thing I did involving the railroad was pretty simple actually.  I would shuttle people either from a hotel in Anchorage to the train station, or from the train station to a hotel.  In the morning, I would pick people up at the hotel and drive them to the train, so they could ride the train to Denali.  In the evening, I would wait around at the train station so I could drive people to their hotel who were coming in from Denali.  It was a pretty simple assignment, but very often it meant spending an hour or more hanging around the train station, and having someone pay me to do it!  I usually had my camera close at hand.  One morning I had some time to kill after dropping everyone off at the train, so I pulled the bus into a parking lot near the tracks and waited for the train to leave.  When it pulled out, I shot a video of the process, which you can see below!

In the video, you see that the train is in sections.  Of course, it is operated by the Alaska Railroad.  They own the locomotives and most of the passenger cars.  All the blue and gold ones belong to Alaska Railroad.  This train runs to Fairbanks.  Since it serves Denali National Park, which is a very popular destination, other companies put their own private cars on the back of the train for their guests.  They pay Alaska Railroad to pull their cars.  In this video, five cars belonging to Holland America Tours are on the train.  It is also common to see cars belonging to Princess Tours and Royal Celebrity Tours.  They each have their own tour schedules, and that is what determines which cars, and how many of them end up on the back of the train.  The Alaska Railroad adjusts their portion of the train depending on demand as well, so the length can vary quite a bit.  The shortest I have ever seen this train is nine cars, and the longest is 23 cars.  Typically it is right around 16-18 cars though.  It was an easy assignment to shuttle people to or from the train, but it gave me a lot of opportunities to get pictures and videos.  The Alaska Railroad was a unique operation.  I really  have only scratched the surface.  In future posts, I will describe some of the more unique and interesting aspects of operations there, but it is just too much to do all at once!

For more videos of the Alaska Railroad, and others, check out our YouTube Channel!  We are still adding videos to it, so check back often.