Hello And Goodbye Just another in a long list of photos featuring happy Alaska Railroad employees. I was riding the Denali Star southbound this day...alone mostly with my thoughts after the greatest summer of my life spent as a tour guide with Premier Alaska Tours. My last tour was a post trip (I met my guests 'post' their Royal Celebrity cruise leg) that began in Seward and ended in Fairbanks after six days on the road with stays in Anchorage, Talkeetna, and Denali. After saying goodbye to 35 amazing humans I could have flown home in an hour with everyone else but instead I had Premier put me on the train for a 12 hour ride that turned out to be my last trip across the length of the railroad. 356 miles that had become a part of my soul after more than a decade and more days on the rails than I can remember. It was beautiful, it was melancholy, it was joyful, it was peaceful, it was contemplative....it was moment in time....or as Curt Rudd would say the end of a chapter in this 'Book of Life.' Whatever hardships they face the railroaders in Alaska ALWAYS showed a smile to their passengers. And this giant grin and big wave out cab of P31 on the north end of for Hurricane Turn just typifies this spirit. I'm not 100% certain but it looks like this is Conductor Kyle Bergner here making everyone in the passing southbound Denali Star feel welcome. This is Chulitna Siding at MP 379, the first siding south of Hurricane Section and the normal spot where the flagship of the fleet runs around the little flag stop train. The Star will run express to Talkeetna and then on to Anchorage but the turn will take it's time getting back to that little outpost at the end of the road as it stops to pick up hikers or locals along the way who live 'off grid' in this 50 mile stretch of roadless wilderness accessible only by rail. Chulitna Siding |
