Time Honored Tradition....On Short Time This the the real deal....not a shoving platform and not a work train. This is conductor Eugene Owens in charge of the AS&G gravel train just out of Anchorage destined for loading on the Palmer Branch. It's sometime shortly after 0400 in the Last Frontier and on the waning days of summer it's still dark at this hour. His Engineer and Brakeman are 82 empty hoppers ahead of him but he is in charge of this train from the rear in a real live working caboose! The warm light illuminates his desk equipped with radio as he has his bulletins and train list and other tools of the trade strewn before them. In these days before the ban on personal electronic devices Gene is seen on his cell phone calling the gravel company giving them an ETA so they can start firing up their conveyors. Incidentally the horrific Metrolink Chatsworth, CA wreck that would precipitate the new federal regulations was destined to take place the very next day. Within three weeks EO26 would be issued in the Federal Register and railroading would, yet again, change forever making scenes like this taboo. This is wide vision caboose ARR 1092, acquired from the CN in 2000, it was built in their Point St. Charles shop in Montreal in the 1970s. But the days of this tradition are waning. Gravel season has a bit over a month left in Alaska before the ground freezes and construction projects wind down for a long winter slumber. When the world awakens next year and the trains return the caboose will be gone...replaced by a soulless EOT. Shortly thereafter the ARR's fleet of a dozen cabooses was reduced to only three for work train service....and 1092 is one of the lucky ones that still plies the rails of the great north country. I must admit here that in my management role at the Alaska Railroad during these years I was the one responsible for figuring out the new operating plan to eliminate the caboose from this last train and also to oversee the sale and disposition of the fleet. It broke my heart to do so, and I tried to somewhat make it right by documenting the last days when I could. Somewhere north of Anchorage, Alaska |
