WASILLA, ALASKA: WHERE THAT LONESOME WHISTLE BLOWS

Yesterday evening’s southbound ARR Aurora Winter Train rumbles past Bella Vista West apartments, a few hundred yards after the locomotives emerged from beneath Dog Wash Overpass. Sancho the drone’s camera did manage to upload this image and recycle in preparation to shoot passenger cars too, but I didn’t like the results. On Wednesday evening, the southbound Aurora will again pass this way. If weather and sky conditions are the same and the train arrives at least 10 minutes later than it did last night when it came in approximately half and hour past schedule, I could conceivably try again.

I don’t think I will, though. I’ve got another shot in mind, a bit further down the tracks. Come Sunday, we go onto Alaska Daylight Savings. After that the Aurora and then, in May, the Denali Star, will pass through Wasilla in broad daylight until after we go back to standard time next fall.

The Aurora, btw, is a flagstop train. Passengers out in the roadless back country who need a ride to town can flag it down. This is why it typically runs behind schedule.