RailPictures.Net Photo: ARR 4008 Alaska Railroad EMD SD70MAC at Summit, Alaska by Kevin Burkholder

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Locomotive Details

Location/Date of Photo


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Since added on March 20, 2017

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» Alaska Railroad (more..)
» EMD SD70MAC (more..)

» ARR Mountain Subdivision
» Summit, Alaska, USA (more..)
» March 14, 2017

Locomotive No./Train ID

Photographer

» ARR 4008 (more..)
» ARR 130S (13) (more..)

» Kevin Burkholder (more..)
» Contact Photographer · Photographer Profile

Remarks & Notes

With very special thanks to David Blazejewski and Frank Keller - this has to be THE highlight photo of the trip and the one that was the goal. At 0116 hrs on March 14 - the early portion of our 40 sleepless hours - we pulled in to set up near Summit - mile 312.5 on the ARR Mountain Subdivision. Assuming that we had roughly 45 minutes to an hour, I began unloading equipment with numb hands at -16 degrees F and a stiff breeze blowing. We knew the train was a mere 1,800 tons and not that long, so may make up time along the way. As I set up the first Alien Bee I looked north and saw what appeared to be a distant headlight... Almost simultaneously our train OS'd Cantwell, which meant I had a minute or two at best to make sure everything was where it needed to be. With the plan for an in-camera multi-exposure to attempt to capture the Aurora Borealis that was largely drowned out by moonlight, I opened the shutter for the first frame as the train was just north of my location. I made a few quick camera adjustments and the train came rolling into frame at full track speed (aka NOT slow). With a flash and a look in the LCD screen at the combined image - I felt that the magical moment had been captured. David and Frank reveled at the rear LCD screen view and we were all in awe for a moment as I was pleased with the final product. This was the start of the Great Adventure that included some 5 miles of 0200 hrs snowshoeing for the Riley's Creek Trestle shot. David and Frank deserve a medal for putting up with my sleepless nights and days and entertaining my crazy desires for extreme photos ;-) As an aside - Summit is the 2,363 watershed divide that sees creeks and rivers to the south flow into Cook Inlet and the Pacific Ocean, while Edes Lake - to the east - flows into the Yukon River and eventually into the Bering Sea.

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