Empties For Healy
Just a simple shot over a decade ago out with some friends shooting what was then commonplace but now is no more. Three SD70MACs have 75 aluminum hoppers in tow as Alaska Railroad train 184N destined for the Usibelli Coal Mine near Healy for another load of black diamonds to take to the export terminal in Seward. This view looks down off the shoulder of the Parks Highway just before the overpass at MP 164.3 and the south end of the QAP gravel loadout track at Pittman.
At the time this was taken the ARRC had just come off a record breaking year in 2011 that saw us move just under 1.1 million metric tons to 18 ships. This was the best year in the history of the Alaskan export coal market, and in fact we were working on plans to get to over 2 million! 70 more used aluminum hoppers had been purchased to make two full consists each of which made two round trip 720 mile cycles each week.
But from those halcyon days the business evaporated just as quickly as hit had boomed, and four years later only four colliers called on the terminal at the head of Resurrection Bay. With only one ship for all of 2016 the final train ran in July of that year, less than four years after the date of this photo, and the ARRC called it quits and laid off the 16 employees in Seward, mothballed the facility, and sold off the hoppers.....none have run since.
In the distance rising to nearly 6000 ft are the impressive Twin Peaks of the Chugach Mountains on the far side of the wide Matanuska Valley.
North of Wasilla, Alaska
Wednesday August 22, 2012
Empties For Healy
Just a simple shot over a decade ago out with some friends shooting what was then commonplace but now is no more. Three SD70MACs have 75 aluminum hoppers in tow as Alaska Railroad train 184N destined for the Usibelli Coal Mine near Healy for another load of black diamonds to take to the export terminal in Seward. This view looks down off the shoulder of the Parks Highway just before the overpass at MP 164.3 and the south end of the QAP gravel loadout track at Pittman.
At the time this was taken the ARRC had just come off a record breaking year in 2011 that saw us move just under 1.1 million metric tons to 18 ships. This was the best year in the history of the Alaskan export coal market, and in fact we were working on plans to get to over 2 million! 70 more used aluminum hoppers had been purchased to make two full consists each of which made two round trip 720 mile cycles each week.
But from those halcyon days the business evaporated just as quickly as hit had boomed, and four years later only four colliers called on the terminal at the head of Resurrection Bay. With only one ship for all of 2016 the final train ran in July of that year, less than four years after the date of this photo, and the ARRC called it quits and laid off the 16 employees in Seward, mothballed the facility, and sold off the hoppers.....none have run since.
In the distance rising to nearly 6000 ft are the impressive Twin Peaks of the Chugach Mountains on the far side of the wide Matanuska Valley.
North of Wasilla, Alaska
Wednesday August 22, 2012