Gloomy Morning Gravel
On a gray late summer day a pair of SD70MACs are slowly shoving as they work to load an 87 car Anchorage Sand and Gravel unit train (Alaska Railroad symbol 155W) beneath the conveyor fed 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.
Dominating the background is snowcapped Granite Peak rising to 6729 ft in the Talkeetna Mountains about 18 miles away as the raven flies.
Palmer, Alaska
Thursday September 14, 2017
Gloomy Morning Gravel
On a gray late summer day a pair of SD70MACs are slowly shoving as they work to load an 87 car Anchorage Sand and Gravel unit train (Alaska Railroad symbol 155W) beneath the conveyor fed 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.
Dominating the background is snowcapped Granite Peak rising to 6729 ft in the Talkeetna Mountains about 18 miles away as the raven flies.
Palmer, Alaska
Thursday September 14, 2017