First Run! ARR GP40-2 shoves a load of pipe into a brand new industrial spur in South Anchorage. The spur is over 1500 feet long and connects via a south facing switch that branches off the north end of the runaround track tucked in just south of CP1072 off the Coastal Siding. It was constructed through fallow swamp land by Balfour Beatty and is the culmination of a dream of Unique Machine’s founder to have direct on site rail service. Unique Machine is a veteran home grown Alaska Company that became part of the giant Sumitomo Corp. in 2004. They are a long time ARR customer receiving pipe loads from the lower 48 via rail barge service. Historically these pipe loads were unloaded at the ARR's transload yard in downtown and trucked to Unique's mid-town site for threading and final prep before delivery to the oil and gas fields statewide. Unique's growing business necessitated a move to a new and larger facility that was specifically situated to permit direct rail access. This little train is being shoved down to end of track to be placed on display for Unique's grand opening celebration the following day. It is very rewarding to see a new spur built in this modern era specifically for carload freight business, and seems to be a tiny reversal of the trend that finds abandoned spurs leading through the trees to truck served warehouses littered across Anchorage (and every other American city). However, in an odd twist to this story, some 18 months later Unique has yet to receive a revenue load at their facility and continues to partake of ARR's transload services. Someday this will change, but for now the train you see here is the only one ever to traverse this trackage. Note: the photographer is a railroad employee with permission to be on the property and was wearing all required PPE while taking this photograph.
