Alaska Railroad 4015 "The Spirit of North Pole" in the shop at Anchorage, for new shoes.

Alaskan Nights

As summer wanes the nights finally begin to get dark and the brilliance of the northern sky can be seen. Knowing that Aurora were forecast on this Friday night I pa... (more)

Sometimes you get lucky. I was out looking for some wildlife to photograph and found a large Bull Moose along the boardwalk at Potter Marsh. As I took a few shots and followed along the boardwalk ... (more)

ARR switch job Anchorage Airport spur switching jet fuel cars.

A respectable mile long train of single stacked containers is nearing the end of its journey from Whittier to Anchorage. It's seen here on the mainline passing an SD70MAC on the adjacent Coastal ... (more)

Only F I ever saw riding on Alco trucks. It looks pretty cool and probably pulled better. Unfortunately I don't think any of the As got this treatment.

With the sun setting after 11 PM in July there isn't much chance for fireworks in Alaska. However if the day is nice one can shoot a few passenger trains returning to Anchorage late in the evening... (more)

Southbound barge train leaving Anchorage.

With the export coal market all but dead I was thankfully surprised to learn we would soon be running a few trains of export coal from Usibelli for a customer in Japan, I believe. In any event the... (more)

The sun has yet to clear the Chugach Mountains but by all accounts it looks to be a beautiful start to the day. The company work train is backing out of Brookman Siding at MP 82 on the Kenai Sub. ... (more)

The company work train is loading rock on the mainline at Bird Point. After completing their loading they will run up the hill to MP 59 and dump, then repeat. Spring has arrived in the Last Fronti... (more)

In 2010 the Alaska Railroad was still running a freight north to Fairbanks 7 nights a week. The usual departure time was between 2000 and 2030 after the arrival on the southbound Denali Star. Duri... (more)

ARR southbound passenger extra arriving Anchorage.

The Alaska Railroad has decided to upgrade the APU spur and as such has been replacing track panels between the AK Mill and CEI. Today I caught the company work train backing down the spur to ball... (more)