07-20-2009, 11:31 AM
Operationally, I think there will need to be some compromise from prototype practices. Alaska is about as remote as it gets in the U.S. They would have a yard at the landing where cars to be sent back to the "lower 48" would be stored awaiting the barge. When the barge showed up, the fresh loads would be off loaded, and exchanged for the return cars. I don't know enough about the prototype to know what commodities would be shipped back South. There would probably be refrigerator cars loaded with brined or frozen fish, but I'm not sure what else. I went to Alaska on a couple of Alaskan Fisheries Patrols in the Coast Guard back in the mid 1960's. At that time the Japanese were just building drying buildings in order to utilize Alaskan timber. Prior to that time, the dampness of the Alaskan climate had precluded anyone from using Alaskan lumber because no one could figure out how to dry it before rot set in. If the drying buildings worked, there might be lumber products shipped South. The thing to remember is that going North, most of the equipment would be loads. Probably most of the cars returning South would be empties. When loading the barge, loads would be put in the center with empties on either side in order to keep the barge balanced. One advantage of modeling the Port of Seward is that even though it is on the edge of the mainland and functions as the Port for all freight going to Anchorage, it functions like an island. To my knowledge there is no railroad connection to Anchorage except through the port at Seward. Therefore industries that would be too small to receive rail service in the "lower 48" would not be a stretch to receive one or two carloads per week or even per month. In Alaska, virtually everything is imported from the "lower 48."