Alaskan Outpost - While few people realize it, the ARR does own trackage outside the Last Frontier. Not much though! The ARR owns the barge slip on Harbor Island in Seattle that they use as their interchange point to the UP and BNSF and the greater North American rail network. The ownership is actually 50/50 with Seaspan Corp (a Washington Group company) although Seaspan has never used the slip. Over time ARR’s ownership stake gradually rises since they presently pay for all maintenance and upkeep on the structure. ARR’s trackage ends adjacent the nose of the unit (hence the ARR logo on the sign) meaning the railroad owns about one car length on solid ground. A UP Seattle based yard crew is seen here beginning the process of stripping the weekly barge that has arrived from the 49th State. Three barges owned and operated by Alaska Railbelt Marine (a member of the Lynden family of companies) are constantly cycling between Seattle and Whittier, AK carrying railcars on 8 tracks and containers stacked three high in the racks above. It truly is a marvel of modern logistics. Since the ARR owns no yard trackage in Seattle and has no locomotives of its own with which to switch the barge, the UP provides this service since it is the railroad that owns the connecting rails on Harbor Island. This yard assignment is normally just a two man RCL crew, but on barge days an engineer is called and the barge is worked by a conventional three man crew. In this view the UP crew has reached in with their handle (in order to keep the locomotive off the slip itself) consisting of a covered hopper and three old cabooses to begin pulling cars off the southbound ARMS voyage 1023 (the 23rd sailing of 2010). This particular barge is the Fairbanks Provider built by Gunderson in 2001 it is 420 ft long and 100 ft wide with 3190 linear feet of track on the deck and a dead weight of 15,300 tons.
