Southbound Mixed Over The Knik Here is another oldie I've never shared anywhere. I honestly don't even remember this day or where exactly I hiked from to get up on this bluff south of the river in the days before drones made shots like this easy. This is the southbound weekly Winter Aurora passenger mixed train running with a pair of SD70MACs leading two coaches, a diner, a baggage car and six empty freight cars. There is no other regularly scheduled revenue mixed passenger train like this left in this country adding yet another item to the long list of operations that make the Alaska Railroad truly unique and fascinating amongst the general homogeneity of modern railroading. They are seen here coming across the 800 foot long Knik River Bridge at MP 146.4. This bridge dates from 1937 and consists of nine original 80 foot pony plate girder thru spans and one 100 foot span that dates from a 2004 rebuilding. In that year the Alaska Railroad installed new concrete pilings and caps and shifted the old 80 foot spans over and installed a broad new 100 foot span, which is the one closest in this image and featuring a large yellow ARR logo. The Knik River is 25 miles long flowing down from its start at the foot of Knik Glacier which is one of the largest ice fields in South Central Alaska flowing down off the Chugach Range. The river here forms the boundary between the Matanuska-Susitna Borough at the Municipality of Anchorage which the train is entering, despite being 30 miles away from downtown still! In the distance 20 miles away almost due north sparkling in the afternoon spring light are the 6000 foot peaks of the Talkeetna Mountains surround Hatcher Pass. Knik River |
