A Christmas Present For Anchorage

This memory popped up in Facebook reminding me of this day almost exactly three years ago.

This is what I wrote at the time:

Sometimes you just get lucky. Well it wasn't all luck. Frank Keller gave me a heads up that a monster 120N was due out of Whittier at 1130 AM, yesterday December 21, 2017.

Well, we all know it's the shortest day of the year so the window for shooting is pretty narrow with sunrise around 1030 and sunset at 3:30. But this train fit right in that time slot.

And three SD70MACs is unusual for the South end, but this train needed it. At 5,900 feet and 12,000 tons of interchange traffic from both the CN and AML barges it was a "real" train. And, to top it off the MACs still had their festive holiday train garb.

This might have been my last chase of a freight train along Turnagain Arm and it was a good one.

As it turned out it was indeed the last freight I'd chase along the shores of Turnagain Arm after more than I could count over the prior decade. With three big units and leader still decked out with a holiday wreath and bows it looked like a giant Christmas present of freight from Seattle and Prince Rupert...and indeed it was a nice present for me too!

This simple location at MP 73 beside the Seward Highway south of Girdwood has always bee a favorite. And this is a nice bookend to one of my favorite early photos taken at exactly this same spot nearly a decade earlier.