A couple of MACs have just left the mainline at Portage and have entered the Whittier Branch. In the next 12 miles this train will pass through two tunnels, one of which the railroad shares with automobiles, and arrive at the sleepy town of Whittier. Whittier is the railroads connection to the outside with weekly barge service to and from Seattle. And while service may be scheduled as weekly the weather can often have two or three barges stacked up in the Gulf of Alaska, jogging the Icy Straits, as they wait for the weather to clear.
