Big Time Coal!

10 units - count 'em - curl north with 113 empty coal hoppers along the icy shores of Turnagain Arm beneath the snowy peaks of the Chugach Mountains.

This is by far the longest unit train ever run by the Alaska Railroad, in fact, 1.5 normal trains combined. Two days prior to this shot, due to high winds, unloading operations were suspended in Seward with one train only half empty. The road crew turned out with 4 units and half the train. Meanwhile, the following day the other consist (Alaska Railroad at the time had two 75 car unit coal trains cycling around the clock each operating with 7 units over the hill between Anchorage and Seward) showed up. It was dumped successfully and doubled up with the other half still in Seward and came north to Anchorage as a monster train stretching 7000 feet in length that you see here stretched out beside the icy waters of Turnagain Arm near MP 88.5.

I was the Superintendent of the railroad at the time and in conjunction with my chief dispatcher (an ex-Espee man that wasn't scared of big trains) and with approval of our Director of Operating Practices (an ex-BN Powder River man) we did the unprecedented.

My boss...the VP and COO was not amused however (despite the flawless run) and a train this size was not ever repeated. Fast forward to today and export coal trains are but a memory and the hoppers have almost all sold off. This was truly a one time occurrence.

A few side notes:

Jeff McCrea asked, "Were all the units on the head end? No DPU?". Dave replied, " Yes...it was just an empty train so we didn't come close to exceeding drawbar limits up the hill so threw them on the head end to be expeditious. I think three were online."

Leon Butler added, "I was the Conductor on this one. It took a long time just to do the air and power test on the locomotives. if I remember right it was the longest train out of Seward anyone could remember. Nash Road to the dock. Combined most of two trains and all the engines. I believe Cederberg was the Engineer. Interesting trip for sure."

Photo courtesy of Dave Blazejewski