Railroad
 |
| Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted Budd Cans On The Bridge You can't ride these here anymore and you certainly can't do this....glad I caught the tail end of an era here. Good memories that from what feels like a lifetime ago. A pair of classic RDCs (#s 701 & 712) on the Hurricane Turn pause on the train's namesake bridge to allow passengers to get off and walk around. As you can see a decade and a half a ago things were much more casual on the Alaska Railroad than they are now. 701 is an RDC-3 built for the New Haven Railroad in 1953 as their number 126. 712 is an RDC-3 built for the New York Central in 1953 as their number M380. This would be the last season for the classic "Budd Cans" as the railroad's crews called them as time and the increasing popularity of this train finally caught up to them. Hurricane, Alaska Sunday September 7, 2008 Ken Heitzenrater shared |
 |
| Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted Geeps On High This was arguably my best catch ever from my secret camp spot and overlook high along the north ridge of Hurricane Gulch. While not a revenue freight train, the company work train always put on a good show usually rating classic original, built new, home road GP40-2s for power and trailing any combination of a string of ballast hoppers, side dumps, gons, flats, the depressed center car with a piece of heavy equipment or more...and always punctuated by one of the Alaska Railroad's three remaining cabooses. On this spectacular fall day it dawned clear and colorful as Frank and John and I awoke in Talkeetna and after a (nearly too!) leisurely breakfast we made the hour drive up the Parks Hwy to the trailhead and hiked in the mile. When we heard them blowing for the crossing while still trekking in it became a mad dash through the woods, and Frank damn near barrell rolled in through the brush just as engineer Gordon Larson inched slowly out over the Gulch in charge of train 591W with four matching geeps (3010, 3005, 3002, 3004) punctuated on the end by ARR 1092, an ex CN wide vision van! Located at MP 284.2, this bridge spans 918 ft and rises 296 ft above the floor below. This famous arch is arguable the signature location the on the entire ARR mainline and was the most expensive and difficult engineering project on the entirety of the railroad. The American Bridge Company started construction in early 1921, erected steel in June and finished in August. To construct the bridge, they strung an aerial tram across the gulch and construction proceeded from both sides. The first passenger train crossed Hurricane Gulch Bridge on August 15, 1921 culminating the $1,200,000 project. Hurricane, Alaska Friday September 15, 2017 Viral Media posted The company work tran crosses the iconic Hurricane Bridge with a matched quartet of GP40-2s. The train matches the surrounding landscape pretty well. Dave Blaze Rail Photography posted Eight Years Ago Today [Sep 15] Fall was in full swing in the Last Frontier and this was one of my best days of photography in the decade I lived there. [The rest of the description is the same as above.] |
 |
| Google eBook, p638 |
 |
| Google eBook, p639 |
 |
| Photo via AlaskaRails via BridgeHunter |
 |
| AlaskaRails, Photo courtesy of Anchorage Museum of History and Art, BL79.2.301 Freight train crossing Hurricane Gulch, date unknown. Hurricane Gulch Bridge was completed in 1921. |
From the AB archives: 104 years ago, American Bridge Company began constructing the Hurricane Gulch Bridge in Alaska. The project involved a 918’ [180m] long deck arch railroad bridge with a 384' [117m] arch span over the gorge. The arch was erected by the cantilever method, using derrick cars so that construction could proceed from both sides simultaneously. The bridge also included two 120' deck truss spans, one 50' plate girder span, and a 240' viaduct. The bridge has an elevation of 297' [90m] above Hurricane Creek and is the longest and tallest bridge on the Alaska Railroad.
 |
| 1 |
 |
| 2 |
 |
| 3 |
 |
| alaska Title taken from front. View of Alaska Engineering Commission Railway construction on railroad bridge over Hurricane Gulch, Alaska, with crane in center of photo and construction workers on bridge. Also from front: "A.E.C. G1889." An Alaska Engineering Commission photo. Photographer's number G1889. Aug. 8, 1921. Photographer: H.G.K. Original photograph size: 6 1/4" x 8 1/4". |
 |
| Brad Nicholson, Jun 2022 |
Road
The link for the road bridge was broke so I have just the info that is in the index.
 |
| Bridge Hunter Index |
 |
| Brandon Taylor, Sep 2023 |
 |
| Rockford Weber, Jun 2019 |
 |
| OnlyInYourState, Dr. Cherepanov / Google Maps, this website has a lot more photos and a drone video "It is 558 feet [170m] long and soars over the gulch at an impressive 254 feet [77.4m] high....The railroad bridge with the same name, the Hurricane Gulch Bridge, is the tallest bridge in Alaska. For the span of a couple of years, it was actually the tallest bridge in America....That bridge also crosses over Hurricane Creek and sits 296 feet [90m] high." |
 |
| Seth Jones, Jun 2021 |
Sep 2025 Update
Hurricane Gulch empties into the Susitna River.
 |
| G Hine, Jul 2023 |
I need to remember to read the descriptions all the way to the end. "Hurricane Gulch" is not only in Google Maps, it is in my notes. Instead of cutting to the chase, I followed the railroad on topo maps and Google Maps north of Talkeetna until I found it.
 |
| 1950/54 Talkeetna, 1951/51 Healy and 1954/56 Talkeetna Mountains Quads @ 250,000 |
I noticed there is not a road on the topo maps. Indeed, the Parks Highway Bridge was not built until 1971.
So that today's research is not a total waste of time: things I learned along the way.
The railroad goes through Chulitpa Pass between snowy mountains.
There is an "Alaska Railroad exhibit."
 |
| J Prall, Aug 2025 |
 |
| Paul K, Aug 2024 [Google Maps won't give me a correct URL.] |
No comments:
Post a Comment