Railroading At 30 Below! With single digit temperatures in Boston last night it reminded me a bit of The Last Frontier. So I figured I'd dig up a few from the northern reaches of the Alaska Railroad on nice crisp 30 below zero day! I remember it was indeed -30 Fahrenheit and dropping on this afternoon in Alaska's second largest city. A Fairbanks yard crew has a lone GP40-2 coupled to a long string of Trailer On Flat Cat (TOFC) flats that they have pulled out the north end of the yard on to the Eielson Branch at MP G1 and over the Noyes Slough bridge. They are doubling these cars to the rear end of the tanks built on the Golden Heart lead down beside Fairbanks' passenger depot to make up the 130S train that will make the 356 mile overnight journey to Anchorage later in the evening. Just another typical day of winter railroading in the 49th state. Fairbanks, Alaska |
