Good to be on BB

[Chuck Geiger]

Cool to be here, modeling ARR's APU Spur. Check out the
blog: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://alaskarail.blogspot.com">http://alaskarail.blogspot.com</a><!-- m -->

[steinjr]

Welcome, Chuck. I have seen your layout elsewhere and like what I see!

Smile,
Stein

[Ralph]

Hi Chuck and welcome aboard! Thanks for sharing your blog! Looking forward to updates.
Ralph

[ezdays]

Welcome to Big Blue, good to see you.

[jwb]

My wife and I went on an Alaska cruise in June, and a big reason I worked in favor of an Alaska destination was the chance finally to ride the Alaska Railroad! There have been two layouts based on that APU spur in Anchorage described here, but I think there's another good prototype possibility in the Anchorage area, the South Anchorage main line, below the Anchorage airport. I didn't get the chance to scout around aside from what I could see from the train window, but there are several industries, both open and "shoebox", plus features not on the usual ISL like signals. Here's a shot of what I believe is Alaska Sand & Gravel (maybe someone can correct me here) from the train:    
Intermountain currently has this car in ARR ex-BCOL lettering -- I got one.

[Chuck Geiger]

Thanks for the feedback. Great idea to model the South side of Anchorage as well.
I was modeling The SD&AE in El Centro in N before moving to Alaska.

[Sumpter250]

Thanks for the feedback. Great idea to model the South side of Anchorage as well.
I was modeling The SD&AE in El Centro in N before moving to Alaska.

Chuck.

Your new layout location will require a lot more "greenery" than the San Diego & Arizona Eastern. I had a chance to run a C&NW train on the SD&AE layout in the San Diego Model Railroad Museum, in Balboa Park......not a whole lot of trees there.
hope to see more of your ARR, APU spur, here.

[jwb]

I was taking a closer look at the few shots I grabbed from the train of this area as a result of the post here -- this shot is the next one after the one above, which makes me believe a little more that the one above is Alaska Sand & Gravel:    
For the guys who are into kitbashing bulk trailers, here's another possibility. What I learned on the trip was that the Alaska Railroad has changed a lot from the picture in the 1980s Pentrex video, for instance, with welded rail, a lot of CTC, and a lot of interchange with lower-48 railroads via car floats. It's no longer just a special case, which I like, because I don't focus on a single era, railroad, or region.

[Chuck Geiger]

JWB is this the same: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.alaskarails.org/industries/anchsand.html">http://www.alaskarails.org/industries/anchsand.html</a><!-- m -->

[jwb]

Chuck, I don't believe so. A check for Alaska Sand & Gravel brings up this on Mapquest <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.mapquest.com/maps?cat=Sand%20%26%20Gravel&city=Anchorage&state=AK">http://www.mapquest.com/maps?cat=Sand%2 ... e&state=AK</a><!-- m --> which would put it pretty much where I think I saw it, south of the Anchorage airport. There's also this map on the Alaska Rails page <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.alaskarails.org/maps/S-Anchorage-2008.jpg">http://www.alaskarails.org/maps/S-Anchorage-2008.jpg</a><!-- m --> where what I shot I believe (though obviously not 100%) corresponds to "AS&G Cement Spur". It doesn't help that there's both an Alaska Sand & Gravel and an Anchorage Sand & Gravel that both call themselves AS&G!

But I think you can see from the track schematic that there's just as much interest in the South Anchorage trackage as the APU Spur.