Back At Moose Pass

I shared one of my all time favorite Alaska Railroad shots here not too long ago. If you missed it this is the one I am referring to. 

Almost five years to the day after that I got another chance to get trackside with Frank for this very rare Seward freight move. By this date export coal had been gone for several years and with Northland Service having been absorbed by Alaska Marine Lines (Lynden) they no longer called on Seward in the spring. Other than the rare pipe ship or lumber barges for Spenard Builders Supply or irregular high/wide move there was very little freight action on the spectacular southern 60 miles of mainline.

So when the word came out that there was a southbound freight heading all the way south Frank and I went back after it just like those good old days. And just like five years prior it was once again a pair of SD70MACs and a long string of empty flats.

There wasn't any snow to throw this time, but with a cobalt blue sky and cooperating clouds this spot was no less gorgeous as seen in this tighter trackside angle as they hustle south across the frozen waters of Trail Lake at MP 29.5. Prior to 2011 this bridge was an old wood pile trestle and limited to 10 MPH leading to some delays on the mainline to Seward. But with new steel bents and stringers courtesy of the ARR's B&B crew, trains glide smoothly across at 25 MPH.

Moose Pass, Alaska
Sunday March 26, 2017

Photo courtesy of Dave Blazejewski