Branchline Loadout

It's a murky summer solstice in the Last Frontier as a pair of SD70MACs have arrived with the morning 87 car Anchorage Sand and Gravel unit train (Alaska Railroad symbol 155W), and they are shoving it into position beneath the loadout at MP A3 on the Palmer Branch.

With the old QAP and CPP pits no longer in service this loadout is the only freight customer on the little branch that in days of old once stretched far out the Matanuska River valley to coal mined at Sutton and Chickaloon. These days, other than these season gravel trains, the only trains to operate on the branch are a dozen or so special passenger trains to and from the annual Alaska State fair celebration held at the Palmer fairgrounds.

Palmer, Alaska
Wednesday June 21, 2017

Photo courtesy of Dave Blazejewski