LEFT: The northbound Coastal Classic skirts a pond in great evening light near Milepost 67. The railroad’s passenger trains are strongly linked to the growth in Alaska’s tourism. BELOW: A train passes below the Seward Highway at Divide. You can see the steepness of the grade and really see and hear the loco- motives work at this location. BOTTOM: While normally the northbound coal train will have all six units on the head end, sometimes during the winter months several of the units will be pulled to use for one of the barge operations. Seen here at McHugh Creek.
road at the crossing of the Snow River on a through truss bridge and then crossing underneath the highway. A very nice shot can be had at this loca- tion. The highway will cross over the tracks again at Divide — nice shot in both directions here — and the tracks will disappear again as they enter a tunnel. They will rejoin the road again a few miles outside of Seward and will parallel the road the rest of the way to town.
Seward is truly a photographers dream with props of all kinds available for the photographer willing to look around a bit. At the very south end of town sits the restored Seward depot. The railroad no longer operates this far south but the photo is worth the extra couple miles needed to capture the sta- tion with dramatic Resurrection Bay in the background.
Alaska is a fantastic place to enjoy a railfan vacation. I hope the information provided will make your visit a bit more enjoyable and allow you to capture a bit more of the often elusive Alaska Rail- road. Hopefully you will come away with some fond memories and some ex- cellent photographs.
The National Railway Historical Society 2013 National Convention will be based in Fairbanks, Alaska, from September 13-17, and then in Anchor- age through September 22, 2013. For more details and to make your reserva- tions for this event, please visit their web site at
www.nrhs.com.
Visit the 2013 NRHS Convention web site at
www.nrhs.com/events/2013-alaska-convention
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