Loaded AS&G
With freshly snow capped peaks of the Talkeetna Mountains standing above, Alaska railroad 4005 leads the AS&G gravel train down the siding at Matanuska junction to meet the northbound MEX. The peaks of these mountains were just about bare when we arrived the week prior to this and as you can see they got a good dumping of fresh snow in that week. The line to the right in the photo is the Palmer branch where the AS&G loads just a couple miles up the line and is the only train to traverse the branch these days. The mainline is out of view and hidden in the woods to the left. The AS&G and QAP gravel trains run in a 1x1 configuration these days cutting out the need for a shoving platform or a run around move even though the AS&G will still shove down from the load out using the wye here at the junction to prevent having to change ends.
Loaded AS&G
With freshly snow capped peaks of the Talkeetna Mountains standing above, Alaska railroad 4005 leads the AS&G gravel train down the siding at Matanuska junction to meet the northbound MEX. The peaks of these mountains were just about bare when we arrived the week prior to this and as you can see they got a good dumping of fresh snow in that week. The line to the right in the photo is the Palmer branch where the AS&G loads just a couple miles up the line and is the only train to traverse the branch these days. The mainline is out of view and hidden in the woods to the left. The AS&G and QAP gravel trains run in a 1x1 configuration these days cutting out the need for a shoving platform or a run around move even though the AS&G will still shove down from the load out using the wye here at the junction to prevent having to change ends.