Tidewater Bound Three SD70MACs up front lead 70 hoppers of coal with three more MACs DPUed on the rear destined for the export coal terminal at the head of Resurrection Bay in Seward. Loaded at the Usibelli Mine near Healy, the coal will be loaded into a ship destined for Chile (I think as that's where we were sending most of the coal at this time though some still did go to South Korea and there were ships to China as well). In fact this was the peak year for export coal with trains growing to 75 cars and up to four a week operating and 18 colliers calling on the port that year. The last ship sailed from the harbor in 2016 and no coal trains have wound their way south along the shore of Turnagain Arm or battled the loops to Grandview summit and short steep climb to Divide since. The coal loading facility in Seward built in 1984 by South Korean interests and owned by the state since 2003, has been idle ever since. So let's take a look back to those halcyon days when coal was king and I was Superintendent of the Alaska Railroad designing plans to grow the business to 4 million tons and run up to eight trains a week....alas that never came to be but for a short while we had two 70 car trains of aluminum hoppers making the 700 mile round trip cycle to and from the mine. On a cold gray windswept day the coal dust and snow mingle into a gray patina punctuated only by the signature ARR blue and gold. The train is seen here winding around landmark Gorilla Rock at about MP 91.5. South of Anchorage, Alaska |
