We had an unusually good summer weather-wise here in the interior of Alaska with good conditions beginning in the last week of April and extending through July. August brought with it the typical conditions of mostly-overcast with interspersed showers, although no heavy rainfall. Usually September reverts back to clear conditions with plenty of sun, albeit considerably cooler. This one has been a mixed-bag so far, except that today–right in mid-September–we are experiencing unusually good, clear and even WARM conditions. This was so much so that I took the opportunity to pull out all my consists which I have been operating this summer to line them up end-to-end. Prior to that I had been running single ones such as this one, seen on the east loop as it makes it turn on the south side of the large loop before returning to Cicely and the west end. [url=i89.photobucket.com/albums/k220/blackburn49/ALCANEX/029-2250.jpg]
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[/url]. As you can see from the leaves, fall is upon us. It won’t be too long before I have to retire all of these trains for the season. The engine shown is one of three AKRR SD Mac 70s I have on hand, numbered 4100, 4101 and 4102. These are particularly attractive and excellent-running model locomotives. Behind it follows a mixed consist. This is unusual for me since I prefer passenger train consists, but I do have a few of these freight trains out there. Obviously, with an emphasis on passenger trains, I do not do operations in the sense that most of you conduct them. However, with so many consists parked around the roughly 250 foot-wide layout, I have to do my own type of operations just to line up these various consists in the desired order. I am now taking a break before resuming this latest “operation” out in the yard. I have been snapping photos as circumstances permit, but there is no way I can show ALL the cars at once. Nevertheless, I can tell you that it is an impressive lineup: Three AKRR consists (one passenger that includes NP and an Amtrak coach and the mixed freight one above plus a 40-2 that is pulling all REA Express freight), an AmTrak pulled by a Genisis III, a mixed group of short passenger coaches pulled by a GN F-3A, a Burlington E-8 pulling a group of BN heavyweight coaches, an FA-FB-FA Milwaukee pulling a group of Milwaukee Road heavyweights, a Santa Fe USA streamliner consist pulled by a Dash-9, an Aristo GN mallet pulling a short CP passenger consist of heavyweights, and a Milwaukee Road doodlebug with an observation car AND a Milwaukee Road caboose.
