Evening Rail

Last Thursday, I was assigned to do an evening rail transfer from the location where the train drops off, to the Anchorage Railroad Depot. I parked my coach on Railroad Hill, where I would wait for a couple of hours, until the train arrived. I would just wait there, as usual, until they called me down the hill to the rail lot, where I would meet my passengers. As I was sitting on the hill, I told Sarah I should be off by 9:00pm. I had been on since 9:00am, and she was picking me up from work. As far as I knew, the train was operating on time. As I was sitting there, I got some news, which I knew would change the evening a little.

One of the other drivers came to my coach to inform me that the train, which was in Willow at the time, had just had a collision with a vehicle at a grade crossing. Details were unknown, but a fatality was suspected. I heard this, and immediately knew the delay would be at least two hours, so I called Sarah back and told her to expect me no earlier than 11:00pm. I continued to sit on the hill, expecting that we would just be called down the hill a couple hours later.

After waiting a while, dispatch called out seventeen different coach numbers, told all of us to listen up, and then told us the new plan. First they explained that the train had hit a car, and would be delayed. They then explained that we were not going to wait in Anchorage for the train. We would be meeting it somewhere else. We were all instructed to go to Wasilla and wait either in the Target, Fred Meyer, or Carr's parking lots, since those were rather large ones. One of the drivers, Martin, was designated as the leader of this operation, and it would be through him that dispatch would contact the rest of us once we were out of town and out of radio range. We all started our coaches and hit the road. There was a line of 17 coaches driving up the Glenn Highway and into Wasilla. Once there, we all scattered. Martin, Clint, and I all ended up going to Carr's. I talked to Martin there, and he asked me to sort of be his assistant in this whole thing.

Most, if not all of us, figured we would be meeting the train at the Wasilla depot. We figured they would clean up the accident and bring the train down to there. I thought it was a little strange that they would bring it to Wasilla and not all the way to Anchorage. As it turned out, this was not the plan. Dispatch had just wanted us to hit to raod, so we would be able to be underway at least before they had everything figured out. In Wasilla, we got a few more details. We were to continue on to Willow, where they wanted us to stage at the Willow Community Center. In the evening like that, the parking area would be empty, and would be about the most space we would have in that place to put 17 coaches. You have to understand, Willow is a very small place. Only about 1,600 people live there, so this was the biggest thing that had happened to them.

At about milepost 66.5, on the Parks Highway, there is a small laundromat and sort of truck stop. There are bathrooms and showers available there too. It is closed at night. Actually, I wonder if it is ever open. It is located next to the railroad tracks, and is about three miles south of the downtown area in Willow, of you can even call it a downtown area. There was a parking lot there, which was big enough to stage a few coaches. I saw this place, with a different coach in it, and suggested to Martin that we use that as a place to stage as well. The Community Center parking lot was not big enough for all 17 coaches. I pulled off there, as did several other drivers, and well all got in position quickly there so we could leave without much delay if necessary. We surveyed the area and talked to dispatch, who was in contact with the Alaska Railroad. It was decided that we would use this location as the place where we would disembark the train. It was three miles from the accident, so the train would pull up to there as soon as possible, and we would transfer everyone to the coaches, and take them back to Anchorage. It was also the only reasonably flat area around the railroad right of way, and therefore the safest place to be letting people off the train. The only problem was there were 755 people on the train, and the area we had to let them off was only about 15 feet along the track. Once away from the track a bit, there was quite a bit more space. This meant we could only use one door on the train at a time.

As we remained in contact with the railroad, they estimated that investigations would end and they would get the train to our location at about 10:00pm. I called Sarah again to give her this update, and tell her about the earliest she could expect me to get off was about midnight. That would be if there were no further delays, and if I was able to head back to Anchorage fairly quickly after the train pulled in. She decided she would go to bed and just get up when I got in. I would call her, and she would come get me.

We all waited for the train, and as we did so, more support arrived at the scene where we would transfer everyone to the coaches. The entre Willow Volunteer Fire Department arrived with their fire truck. They came with two ambulances following. We did not expect any major injuries on the train, but we figured there may be some minor ones, and they were there to help with that. Several railroad employees also arrived to help out. We started setting up lights in the area where we would unload the train. We also cleared the area of obstacles, which were mostly larger rocks. We did have to move one 40 foot segment of rail out of the way as well. Fortunately there were a lot of people there to help with that! We got that out of the way. We also got some shovels from the fire truck and filled in holes in the ground so there would be as few opportunities for someone to trip or twist an ankle or injure themselves in the dark. After a collision, we were looking for as little additional incidents as possible.

Ten o'clock rolled around, but the train did not. Several of us talked about the logistics of unloading the train. Each railcar is 85 feet long, and has a door at just one end. The train had a baggage car on the front, with wbout 1,400 suitcases on it, followed by two Alaska Railroad first class cars. behind that there was a Club Car, Dining Car, and four Alaska Railroad coaches. Behind those, we had five McKinley Explorer coaches and five Princess Tours coaches. There were 19 cars on the whole train, and 755 passengers on board. We would be taking everyone off the train, whether they were travelling with the Alaska Railroad, Holland America Tours, or Princess Tours. All passengers would go to Anchorage by coach. As we discussed the best and most organized way to unload the train and get people to the coaches, we had a few important things in mind. First, we wanted to fill each motor coach before sending it away, since the number was limited, and additional coaches were nearly two hours away. Also, we wanted to be able to escort people as much as possible from the train to the coaches, and give them as few opportunities as possible to get lost or hurt. We also decided that we were going to make sure no luggage was lost as a result of this.

Since the baggage car was the first on the train, we decided that we would unload that, and then make rows of luggage which people would walk through on the way to the motor coaches. They would claim their luggage and bring it to the coach they boarded. Other drivers and a few of the railroad personnel would help load each bag in the coach its owner boarded. This way, it would not be lost. After that, we would pull the train up a couple cars at a time, and unload a couple cars at a time, rather than try to unload everyone through one door. Also, everyone helping the passengers would have at least one flashlight. Small groups of people would be escorted through the luggage area, where they would be able to claim their luggage, and then on to the coaches. The motor coaches would all be idling and have their lights on, to add as much light as possible to the scene. The one handicapped person on board would be personally taken off the train by the firsfighters. She would have to be carried off the train to a motor coach since there was no way to get her off in her wheelchair, and it would be very difficult to roll it across gravel. At the motor coach, she would be put back in her wheelchair, where she would get on an accessible coach.

The train did not arrive at 10:00pm they way the railroad had predicted. The investigations and clean up took a little longer than anticipated. At about 11:05pm, the rails began to sing, and a rumble coule be heard. Pretty soon the whole area was lit quite brightly by the headlights of the train. One of the headlights was out, and as the train got closer, it became apparent that it was broken as the result of the crash. There was, among other things, a hub cap from the car, still stuck on the nose of the locomotive. The hub cap happened to be the biggest remaining piece. Besides a couple minor scrapes in the paint, the broken headlight, and some more gruesome details, the locomotive was not injured. There was no damage to the actual body of the locomotive. The rest of the train showed no signs of a crash.

As the train pulled in, the Conductor stepped off the locomotive with his radio to spot each car. We had him pull the baggage car in first. We created two lines of people, on at each door, and began unloading. Four people climbed up in the baggage car and started passing luggage to someone at the beginning of each line on the ground. Each piece of luggage was passed down the line until it reached a spot it could be placed for claiming. I happened to be the first one in line, catching luggage as it came off the baggage car. I am not sure why, but I had a surprising amount of energy at that hour, 14 hours into my workday. One of my supervisors actually commented on that. I was unloading four bags for every one he unloaded. He told me to share! We got about 1,400 bags off that car, with no injuries, in less than 15 minutes. It was remarkably fast. It takes more time to load and unload when the railroad uses forklifts normally!

Once the baggage car was unloaded, we pulled the train up two car lengths, to unload the Alaska Railroad first class cars. I then helped people find their luggage and get onto the right motor coach. Once the first class cars were confirmed to be empty, we pulled the train up three more car lengths and unloaded the four Alaska Railroad coaches. Once those people were on the right motor coaches, we pulled the train up four car lengths and unloaded the first three McKinley Explorer cars. This procedure continued until every car of the train could be confirmed empty.

My motor coach filled up with people form the McKinley Explorer cars, and I left the area at 12:15am. Most of the people on board were tired, and with one exception, all were just happy to be going somewhere again. I turned the lights inside the coach off and let them sleep. I did have one woman who was quite irate about the whole situation. She kept telling me she was from New York and should not have had to deal with this. She was hard to take seriously really, especially when she told me, through some rather foul language, that I ought to be ashamed of myself for letting such an accident happen. Apparently she thought it was my fault the crash happened at all. After several minutes of her yelling at me, swaering at me, and reminding me that she was better than this, because she was a New Yorker, I finally had enough. I told her (pardon the French) that I didn't give a damn where she was from, but she could quietly board the coach or she could start walking. Perhaps it was not the most polite way to finally handle the situation, but it worked surprisingly well. She shut up and boarded. I did not hear another word from her the whole way back to Anchorage. She had been awake less time than I had been at work, and had been responsible for no more than sitting on her butt all day. I had run out of patience for her nonsense, and her attitude about being from New York.

Aside from her, well, to say complaining would be polite, the trip was uneventful. I really did not have any complaints besides this woman. Everyone was just happy to be on their way to Anchorage again, and happy to get a two hour nap. It was a very quiet trip into town. I dropped most of my passengers off at the Hilton, and then the remaining four at the Alaska Railroad Depot. At that point, it was after 2:00am, and it was time for me to call it a day. I called Sarah, and told her I was headed back to the coach yard. I went back there, did my paperwork, and went home.

The next morning, I got up about 7:00am to drive Sarah to work, and then I went to work myself just after 10:00am. By the end of that day, I felt like I had been working two solid days, with just a couple of naps here and there. I was quite exhausted. The whole thing was an interesting, though rather intense experience. It was a lot of hard work, late at night, after a more than full day of work.

If you are interested in the details of the crash, it happened on Willow Station Rd., in Willow. The woman driving the car was a 66-year old Talkeetna resident. She was driving a standard transmission vehicle, which was new to her. When she stopped for the train, the vehicle rolled out in front of the train. The train broadsided the driver's side of the car, going 63 mph, and killing the woman on impact. The vehicle was dragged under the train, which finally came to a halt just about a mile later, with the vehicle then under the 18th car of the train. Sadly, almost every passenger on the train had witnessed part of the accident since the vehicle had been dragged under most of the train. There were no injuries reported on the train.

Carnival Chaos

Today the Carnival Spirit was in Whittier again. That ship is almost done its summer voyages in Alaska. Today however was a weird day as far as that went. I was assigned to take some of the crew from the ship to the airport, and later to take dock employees to Whittier. I left Anchorage at 4:00am, and got to the tunnel a while before it opened. Actually, the opening was delayed because of maintenance. I was only in Whittier for a few minutes. The crew boarded very quickly and several people loaded their luggage, and we were ready to leave in less than five minutes. I was surprised at how fast it all happened. On the way back things were weird. It was a truly strange trip. First of all, on the Seward Highway, I crushed a rabbit, and when I got into town I also made contact with a cat, which was probably the family pet to someone. The cat probably did not like that kind of contact. That was my first double kill trip. In fact, those were my third and fourth this week, and I've never had more than one in a week.

Apparently that was not quite enough excitement for one trip. One thing about large vehicles is that they take significantly longer to stop. Most yellow lights do not give you enough space to stop, so you run an alarming amount of red lights. That is where the air horn becomes very useful! That happened twice between Minnesota Drive and the airport, which is only about five minutes. It seems that killing two animals and running two lights, in an hour, would be enough excitement.

It was not over yet. I went downtown, so I would be nearby for my next departure, from the Hilton. Once I parked the coach, I went to pick up trash and generally tidy things up for the next group. I discovered as I walked back that someone had, as we call it, left a presentation. I discovered a nice puddle of vomit on a seat and the floor beneath it. It had been just over an hour since I had left Whittier, and that was the end of the trip. Some way to end! Well, I got out the biohazardous waste cleanup kit, and, trying to hold down nearly a pound of M&M's I had eaten to stay awake, scooped up all the vomit, disinfected the whole area, and myself several times, and then returned the coach to the yard for a much more thorough cleaning. It had to go out of service until it can be completely sanatized.

I got a new coach and went about my assigned duties. The rest of the day was a little less rediculious! I drove the afternoon crew down to the dock in Whittier, and then brought a few of the morning crew back. One of the morning crew was Merry. That was just weird. I'm not sure what to think of her anymore, but that is a different and unrelated story. I drove her and some of her associates back into town, and then did an airport shuttle. Everything went just fine, until I got back to the yard.

When I returned to the yard, I realized I was fortunate to not have had a major fire. As I was doing my port trip inspection, I discovered that the seal over the wheel hub had come off on one of my rear wheels. With the seal missing, all the oil in the hub had come out. I am pretty sure it came out on the highway, because there were black dots splattered all over the back of the left side and the rear end of the coach. I guess that is where the oil went, probably while I was going 60 mph. With no oil and an enormious vehicle on that and seven other wheels, there is a pretty good chance the bearing will overheat and set the remaining oil residue on fire. Fortunately, that did not happen! I reported that to the mechanic, put that coach out of service, and went home in Kate's 1966 Mercedes! Of all the vehicles I came in contact with today, the Mercedes worked the best!

Tough Life

Last night was significant because it was the first time I was home in several days. On Monday, I went to Whittier and picked up 43 passengers who had just disembarked the ship. They were the Green disembarkation group. We left Whittier and went through the tunnel, to the Begich, Boggs Visitors' Center. We spent a couple hours there and at the day lodge right next door. That was also our lunch stop. When we left there, we headed out to the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge, in Cooper Landing. We made a rest stop on the way, but other than that we went to the lodge. This is where they started spoiling me. I was put up for the next two nights at the lodge. Of course, I got paid for all the driving I did, but in addition to that, I got an extra $18/day for being out of town. At the lodge, I stayed the two nights for free, had my meals all available to me for free, and all the amneties of the lodge available to me for free. As if that was not enough, the tour available to the guests were also available to me for free, with an understanding that I would tip the tour providers. It was a tough assignment, but someone had to do it!

We arrived at the lodge in the middle of the afternoon on Monday. I dropped everyone off at the lodge, and then went and parked the coach. I brought my stuff up to the driver rooms. I had my own room, so I left my stuff there, and then went with Ben, the other driver on the same run, and we washed our coaches. It took a couple of hours to do that, but we got it done well before dinner still. Again, dinner was free in the employee dining room. We could eat in the restaurant too for a good discount, but we decided to go for the free food. The Kenai lodge has good food for the employees. After dinner, I went to a sled dog demonstration. One of the dogs there had raced as the lead dog in four Iditarods. That is a lot of runing. Each race is 1,050 miles, and this dog completed all of them. She had also raced in several other big races. There were several dogs there, and three puppies as well. The puppies were eight weeks old, and they had a lot of energy! Actually all the dogs had a lot of energy, but the puppies were the noisiest about it. It was actually a very interesting demonstration. I liked it a lot.

On Tuesday I had the day off at the Kenai Princess Lodge. That was great. I got to clock in for four hours to clean my coach, even though I had done it the afternoon before. I also got the $18 just for being away from Anchorage. I decided to go on a tour on Tuesday afternoon. It was a 12 mile rafting trip on the Kenai River. This was not white water rafting or anything, just a gentle float trip really. It was quite interesting though. It took about two hours. We saw a lot of Bald Eagles as we floated. We also saw a Brown Bear catch a fish, which was about the coolest thing in the world. I had always wanted to see that. There was no way to get a picture though, it happens so quickly. The bear just grabbed the fish right out of the water, and walked off into the woods with it. We also saw the combat fishing on the Russian River. The joke here in Alaska is that no one has trouble catching fish. There are so many fish that you don't need to fight for them. You just need to fight for space in the river to be able to put your line in the water. We saw some of that in the Russian River, where it met the Kenai River. It was very crowded. People here call that combat fishing.

On Wednesday I got up and got my coach over to the luggage loading area. Ben and I loaded all the checked luggage for our passengers under our coaches. We went around and picked up everyone at the lobby area of the lodge. We were both heading to the Mt. McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge. We had the same passengers again, which was nice. They had seen us around the lodge, and so it felt like I was getting to know some of them. We stopped for a brief photo stop on the Seward Highway on the way to Anchorage. In Anchorage, I dropped everyone off at the Captain Cook Hotel for a couple hours to give them the time to get some lunch. Two people left me there. That was as far as their trip went, but everyone else was back on board two hours later.

During lunch, I went to get a bite to eat, and then just staged with the coach on railroad hill. While I was staging there, Sarah texted me to ask if I was back in town. She knew I would be gone for a few days. I told her I was, but just for lunch. She asked if I was home, so I explained I was staging downtown. She asked what my coach number was, so I told her I was in #197. I knew when she asked for the coach number that she would probably visit in the next couple minutes. Sure enough, she and Crystal came along and visited for a little while. Sarah is a girl who works as a Guest Service Host on ship days, at the Hospitality Center, and Crystal is a girl who works in Property Claims, who I really only know because she has been around a few times when I have hung out with Sarah. They're fun to hang around.

After a couple hours and some food, it was time to get underway again. I told Sarah and Crystal that they ought to visit me at McKinley Lodge. Sarah said they would think about it and text me. There was a short discussion about what we would do there, since the mountain would not be out to look at, and she decided we ought to use the hot tub. I told them I did not have a swim suit here, but we could probably think of something. They left the coach at that point and I went back around to the Captain Cook Hotel to pick my guests up again. They were all happy to be back and underway again. We headed right up to the lodge, which is about 15 miles north of Trapper Creek. It was a good trip. I explained to everyone as we were arriving at the lodge that I would be leaving them there. They would get a new driver up to Denali, because I would head back to Anchorage the next day. A lot of them told me I should call my dispatcher and keep driving them. It was good to hear that. They wanted me to keep going with them. As they got off, they tipped really well. I have never had such a big pile of tens and twenties! Those people paid my rent for the month of August and then some! I dropped their checked luggage off to be delivered to their rooms, and then parked the coach. When I parked, I had a message from Sarah. She and Crystal had decided to come visit, and by then were on their way. Apparently Crystal knew how to get there.

I got my coach put away and got my room key. While I was walking around to take care of all that, I got a call from Sarah. She didn't sound so happy, and she was asking for directions. I guess they had gotten to the Talkeetna road junction, and Crystal did not remember if the lodge was in Talkeetna or father up the Parks Highway. We always say it is in Talkeetna, but it is actually about 45 minutes from there, further north on the Parks Highway. So I gave Sarah directions to get there. It made me laugh. I think she was a little frustrated with Crystal's driving. After that I got my stuff put in my room. I was the only one in there, even though there were three beds. I met up with Rachel there, who was also at the lodge overnight, and we went to eat in the Employee Dining Room. The food there is not that great. It is not good at all, but it fills you up, kind of. I didn't like it, but it was free. While I was eating, I got another call from Sarah. They were there. I asked where at the lodge, and they had no idea, so I was a little confused, and asked if they were really there. It was funny. We had a weird conversation about that, but then they came to the employee dining room while I finished my meal.

After dinner, the big question was what to do. Well first thing, we went to my room. They had a car, and I didn't want to walk all the way back up that hill. I already had twice that night! When I was in the car, Sarah handed me a bag and explained that she had bought me a swim suit, so I could go hot tubbing too. I guess Crystal thought that was a bit awkward, but it really didn't bother me, and it certainly didn't bother Sarah! We decided to go in the hot tub for a litte while and then figure out what was next after that. We all changed, and then walked down there. We ended up sitting in the hot tub for about three hours! When we got out all hiked back to employee housing to change. The original plan was that Sarah and Crystal would just use the two empty beds in my room, and leave really early in the morning, since Sarah had to work in the morning. The decided it would probably easier to just stay up and drive home late, rather than get up early to go back to Anchorage. So they left just before midnight, for the 150 mile drive back to town. They made it back.

Yesterday, Thursday, I came back to Anchorage. I had a 2:00pm departure from the lodge, heading to the Captain Cook Hotel. That went fine. After that I had a few hours to kill downtown, and then evening rail. It was probably the least exciting day this week, but it was still good.

A few other notable things happened this week. I drove my 5,000th passenger, and I drove my 12,000th mile in a motorcoach. So basically I have driven the same as about halfway around the world in a motorcoach!

July Statistics

For anyone who is interested, these are the statistics of my driving for the month of July. This is only commercial driving which I did for Holland America | Princess-Alaska.

Miles Driven: 4,952

Passengers Carried: 1,902

Hours Driving: 154.25

Hours Worked: 265

Average Speed: 32.10 mph

Percentage Driving: 58.2%

Average Hours/Day: 9.81

Days Worked: 27

Incidents/Accidents: 1

The incident was a gentleman who accidentally cut his hand on one ov the overhead baggage compartment doors. It was minor, but he still needed a bandage, and so it was considered an incident. After a quick wash of the cut and a bandage, he went on his was without any more problems.

Destinations included Whittier, Seward, Talkeetna, Wasilla, Portage, Girdwood, and many local Anchorage locations.