The two new ARR locos were at the UP's Argo yard here in Seattle at 8:30 AM today.

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MAT-SU — With the Port MacKenzie Rail Extension Project nearing federal review, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough is concentrating on the details.

The Borough Assembly has passed a resolution outlining several issues it hopes the Surface Transportation Board (STB) — a federal board that will approve a new spur line to the port — will consider in its review of the $220 million to $330 million project. The route will be decided by STB, likely sometime in 2009, with completion projected in 2012.

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The two ARR locos were at the UP Fife yard in Tacoma about 2:30 PM yesterday.

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A friend tells me that there are two SD70s on their way to the ARR. As of noon they had not arrived in Seattle. Over on Harbor Island there is a dome car painted light grey with a wide dark blue stripe. The only lettering on it is MRLX 9410 in about two inch letters at one end.

[Webmaster's note: It is one of the cars ARRC leased for the past two seasons being returned to the owner.]
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The IHB is scheduled to pull the two (4327 and 4328) out of EMD LaGrange on Monday the 3rd.. IHB will hand them off to the U.P. at the Gibson yard, U.P. will service them, fuel, water, sand etc. and work them west to Seattle on the auto rack originating out of Gibson on the 4th or 5th??

[Webmaster's note: Okay all you railfans, get out there, take photos of these locomotives and send them in for my next Picture of the Week!]

PALMER -- A rail route branching off the Alaska Railroad line from Houston and running south to Port MacKenzie got the highest marks among eight possible routes studied in a recently completed review. But members of a team evaluating the potential rail lines are avoiding calling it the preferred route.

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The cars sold to Iowa Pacific are due to leave Anchorage in the next couple of days. The sold cars are:

HALX 509 CHENA
HALX 510 CHULITNA
HALX 511 NENANA
HALX 551 KOBUK
HALX 554 KASHWITNA

They are heading from Anchorage to the San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad in Alamosa, Co.

HALX 513 TALKEETNA has been taken out of mothballs and placed back in the active fleet for McKinley Explorer. It will join Budd full domes 1394 Deshka, 508 Matanuska, and 512 Tanana, bringing the active Budd full dome fleet to four. The total active Holland America Tours active fleet is now up to 14. There are zero cars for sale.

It's a great day for a train ride!
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With Thanksgiving just two days in the past, Fairbanksans turned out by the hundreds Saturday for a holiday celebration at Pioneer Park. The shining black Engine No. 67 of the Tanana Valley Railroad was decked with so many Christmas lights its battery had started to drain. Chestnuts were roasting outside the railroad museum, and the line for rides stretched all the way around the side of the building.

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PALMER — As the Mat-Su Borough continues to debate a new rail spur line to Port MacKenzie, federal agencies are weighing in on the potential environmental impacts of the project.

The Borough assembly has examined several proposed routes to Port MacKenzie, including ones through Willow, Big Lake and Houston. Borough and railroad officials have said the new $300 million line would provide direct rail access for companies that export resources from the Interior by 2010 under current plans.

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PALMER, Alaska -- Officials with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough envision a new rail system for the Valley.

The high-speed freight train would begin in Point MacKenzie, although the extension's route is still in the works.

New information about the proposed rail extension was presented at last night's borough Assembly meeting.

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Iowa Pacific has completed a deal to acquire five former Santa Fe dome cars from Holland America. The cars were last used in service for the cruise line on the Alaska Railroad, running between Anchorage and Fairbanks via Denali National Park. The cars will be moved to the lower 48 and will also be used on San Luis & Rio Grande excursion trains.

The domes were built by the Budd Company for the Santa Fe in 1954 as part of an order for 14 full-length domes. The first eight cars, AT&SF Nos. 506-513, were for El Capitan and Chicagoan/Kansas Citian service. Two years later, the Cap went hi-level, and the domes were moved to the Chief. The last six cars, Nos. 550-555, were for the San Francisco Chief. Auto-Train Corp. purchased 13 of the cars in the early 1970s, with Santa Fe retaining one car, which today is part of BNSF's executive-train fleet. Two cars have been scrapped, but the other 12 cars survive today.
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Alaska Railroad Corp. board chairman John Binkley said a Ship Creek ferry dock would fit in well with railroad plans to build an "intermodal" facility at the Ship Creek rail depot.

The $60 million facility would remedy inefficiencies at the existing depot and, eventually, let passengers change from rail, air or marine traffic to buses, taxis, private cars and other methods of travel.

" (We) are very interested in how Ship Creek develops. Our plan does include having a ferry docking facility on Ship Creek that would allow not only for ferries but also day cruises," Binkley said recently.

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The Seward Chamber of Commerce, Conference and Visitors Bureau, announced Friday, Nov. 2, that the historic railcar located on the corner of Jefferson Street and Third Avenue is for sale.

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Alaska Railroad crews pulled six flatbed rail cars and several pieces of steel out of the Nenana River recently at a section of river called Cable Car Rapid.

The rails cars were placed there in the 1970s by the federal government to stabilize the riverbank, and have long been considered a safety hazard.

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HOUSTON -- Houston residents would eagerly accept a branch of the Alaska Railroad through their city, but only if it brings jobs and industry to the struggling local economy, some said at a recent meeting.

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A proposed $300 million extension of the Alaska Railroad to Port MacKenzie in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough is still in the early planning stages, but the project has aroused a lot of curiosity.

More than 300 people turned out for community information meetings at Big Lake, Willow, Wasilla, Knik and Houston in late September and early October to ask questions and voice concerns about the proposed project.

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Down in Seward, they're already planning for their first holiday event, the Holiday Train on Dec. 1. Each year, the Alaska Railroad takes a trainload of folks to Seward for the day. It's great fun -- the whole town gets dressed up. Santa Claus is on the train -- and there's plenty of caroling and fun activities. The cost for the train ride is $99 for adults. Go to the railroad's Web site for more information. The kids' fare is $49, www.alaskarailroad.com.

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International businessmen are in Anchorage this week hoping to drum up support for an Alaska-Siberia rail link. A delegation from the Inter-Hemispheric Bering Straight Tunnel and Railroad Group is advocating the rail at the Arctic Technology Summit. The group wants to build a 68-mile-long tunnel between Uelen, Russia, and Wales, Alaska. The idea isn't new.

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ARR passenger car #557 was on its way to harbor Island at about noon. It will probably go north on the Fairbanks Provider.

[10/19/07 addition] The ARR #557 and barge Fairbanks Provider were gone by 7 AM today. In fact the Harbor Island yard was just about cleaned out.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- A group of Russian and international businessmen are in Anchorage this week to push their idea for an Alaska-Siberia rail link.

A delegation from the Inter-Hemispheric Bering Straight Tunnel and Railroad Group is working the rooms and members of the Arctic Technology Summit at the Egan Civic and Convention Center. 

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- The Alaska Railroad is reminding visitors to a popular viewpoint along Turnagain Arm that they could be breaking the law.

The railroad just replaced the no trespassing signs near the tracks at Beluga Point.

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WILLOW -- A rail line splitting Willow would sacrifice the area's recreational identity and endanger some of the area's most valuable assets: fishing, wildlife and trail access, some community leaders say.

"It'll destroy this community, that's what it will do," said Linda Oxley, Willow Area Community Organization chairwoman. "It'll make it an industrial community."

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WASILLA -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough wants a rail line to connect the Alaska Railroad main line north of Wasilla to Port MacKenzie, and hopes trains are running on it by 2012.

There are several hurdles, however. Before a single railroad tie is laid, the borough and the Alaska Railroad need permission to build from the federal Surface Transportation Board, which oversees railroad rates, mergers and new routes.

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Board denies conditional exemption for new Alaska line

The Surface Transportation Board issued a decision today denying the request of the Alaska Railroad (ARRC) for a conditional exemption from prior approval requirements for authority to begin work on a new 80-mile main line. The line would extend southeasterly from Mile 20 on ARCC's Eilson Branch near North Pole (just south of Fairbanks) to the Delta Junction/Fort Greely area. Known as the Northern Rail Extension Project, the line would host both freight and passenger trains and is expected to bring new tourists to the area.

In today's decision, the STB commented: "ARRC requests that we conditionally grant the requested exemption authority by advancing the transportation aspects of the project in advance of the environmental issues. Even though no construction could begin until the environmental review is completed and the board issued a final decision allowing construction to begin, if appropriate, ARRC asserts that a preliminary decision on the transportation merits would enhance its ability to secure funding and allow it to finalize details relating to the engineering of the project, procure equipment and materials, plan and arrange constriction contracts, and work on permitting requirements ... ARRC asserts that it must be certain that regulatory approval for the project is obtainable before it undertakes these tasks."

The board acknowledged that it had approved such conditional exemptions in the past, but said "the benefits to a construction applicant have always been open to question" because a possible outcome of the environmental review is rejection of the proposal. The board said the current case "reflects no unique or compelling circumstances" and said the railroad has not demonstrated that "a two-step decisional process is necessary for it to obtain funding."

The board's Section of Environmental Analysis (SEA) is currently preparing a draft EIS on the project.
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PALMER, Alaska -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough launched a series of public hearings on the vision of a railroad extension to the borough's port at Point MacKenzie.    

The project's cost is estimated at approximately $300 million, although no one seems to have any idea where the funding would come from.

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There was a barge in this morning that unloaded three passenger cars. They were lettered RQAX #4001, 4013 & 9407. The last one was a dome car. It was too dark to get the barge name.

[Webmaster's note: These are three of the Montana Rockies Rail Tours railcars that were leased by the Alaska Railroad and are no longer needed.]
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North C Street is now officially closed between First Avenue and Ship Creek Avenue.
The closure will be in effect for the next two weeks, allowing the Alaska Railroad to work on a construction project near Ship Creek. Crews will be installing electrical and railroad signals, as well as constructing storm drainage structures and piping.

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PALMER — The city’s historic railroad tracks running through downtown are an important part of Palmer history, even if they are used only once a year.
That was the message some residents brought to Palmer City Council at a recent meeting to discuss the future of the railroad tracks through the city.

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