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Hurricane Turn Page 3

Alaska Railroad Hurricane Turn Flagstop Train

Talkeetna to Hurricane Gulch

July 29, 2007

Story and photographs by Richard Elgenson
RailNews Network writer

   

   

Somewhat further up the railroad, another river is nearby with a beaver dam.

   

   



It appears that there used to be a railroad wye track here, with a pile of rail and empty ballast railbed still visible.

   

Several more miles north, is the line point Chulitna where we picked up more people.  Sunday is a busy day since the train only operates Thursday through Sunday.  One can have a long weekend at a remote cabin accessable via the railroad. 

   

   

Mt. McKinley was around here some place.  It was gone for the next 4 days I was in Talkeetna.  After Chulitna, the railroad runs through a more open area.  I assume this is the view point area shown on the printed ARR route guide.  The Hurricane Turn train does not have high school route guides.  Due to weather conditions, Denali Peak was not visible.  In the below right photograph, Denali Peak would be visible if there were no clouds.  In my original photo, some flank of white snow and ice covered slope is visible one quarter of the way from the right edge.

   

 After the view point, the track has a road crossing of the Parks Highway.  After a right hand curve in the track, the Hurricane Section house is visible in the distance.  The train would continue to the Hurricane Gulch bridge and after pausing on the bridge for a few minutes would return on the siding track to wait for the southbound Denali Star passenger train.

   

This location is the very first place on the Alaska Railroad with remotely thrown switches.  Now, the switches have heaters which work in the wintertime so no train crew members need clean out snow and ice from the rails.  There used to be brooms and shovels at these locations.

Hurricane Flagstop Continued