The Last Chase

Sometimes you just get lucky.  Well it wasn't all luck.  Frank Keller gave me a heads up that a monster 120N was due out of Whittier at 1130 AM, yesterday December 21, 2017.

Well, we all know it's the shortest day of the year so the window for shooting is pretty narrow with sunrise around 1030 and sunset at 3:30.  But this train fit right in that time slot.

And three SD70MACs is unusual for the South end, but this train needed it.  At 5900 feet and 12,000 tons of interchange traffic from both the CN and AML barges it was a "real" train.  And, to top it off the MACs still had their festive holiday train garb.

This might have been my last chase of a freight train along Turnagain Arm and it was a good one.

As it turned out it was indeed the last freight I'd chase along the shores of Turnagain Arm after more than I could count over the prior decade.  It sure was quite the train to bow out with!  Here it is stretching back far to the horizon as it rolls up the long causeway through the wide Portage Valley coming off the Whittier Branch approaching the junction with the mainline at MP 64.2.

Portage, Alaska
Thursday December 21, 2017