Nolan Gregory
Whittier, Alaska
The port town of Whittier serves as the Alaska Railroad's main connection to the rest of the North American railroad network. Here, a barge from Seattle Washington arrives at least once a week, heavily laden with containers and mixed freight traffic from the lower 48, destined for places throughout the state. Being situated on the western edge of Prince William Sound, the town is well known for its horrible weather and lack of sunshine, however this day proved to be a rare exception.
All three color schemes of the Alaska Railroad are represented as this Anchorage based crew makes their last moves after unloading the barge which can be seen in the background next to the somewhat tall concrete Buckner Building. The building was constructed in 1953 to house the 1,000 US soldiers stationed here when the town served as a U.S. military base. Whittier was the perfect place for such a purpose, being a deepwater port capable of hosting large maritime vessels and being basically immune to airstrikes due to the constant low cloud cover and surrounding mountains. Today, the military operates out of other locations elsewhere in the state, but Whittier remains an important hub for both tourism and freight business via ocean vessel and the Alaska Railroad. This crew will soon be relieved by another that is tasked with loading the barge and then bringing the inbound traffic to Anchorage.
Whittier, Alaska
The port town of Whittier serves as the Alaska Railroad's main connection to the rest of the North American railroad network. Here, a barge from Seattle Washington arrives at least once a week, heavily laden with containers and mixed freight traffic from the lower 48, destined for places throughout the state. Being situated on the western edge of Prince William Sound, the town is well known for its horrible weather and lack of sunshine, however this day proved to be a rare exception.
All three color schemes of the Alaska Railroad are represented as this Anchorage based crew makes their last moves after unloading the barge which can be seen in the background next to the somewhat tall concrete Buckner Building. The building was constructed in 1953 to house the 1,000 US soldiers stationed here when the town served as a U.S. military base. Whittier was the perfect place for such a purpose, being a deepwater port capable of hosting large maritime vessels and being basically immune to airstrikes due to the constant low cloud cover and surrounding mountains. Today, the military operates out of other locations elsewhere in the state, but Whittier remains an important hub for both tourism and freight business via ocean vessel and the Alaska Railroad. This crew will soon be relieved by another that is tasked with loading the barge and then bringing the inbound traffic to Anchorage.