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.
