Windmill train + Railbarge = Railfan Heaven!, Seattle, 6-20-2012

[@julietwhiskey01]

Barges! Tugboats! What a lashup! It's not something we'll see here on the east coast of the Rockies and I'm glad you took the time to put it up for us. Thanks!

[@tommyw8514]

The specially designed barge is amazing- what a modeling project this would make for a model railroad Thanks, Tommy

[@Timrathmore]

Nothing can beat that...YOU are a real railroad fan!!! Great video.

[@SmokeStack684]

WOW! That was one of the best videos I've seen yet. Fantastic!

[@landjeager123]

That was a great video! I could have watched that all day. LOL Thanks for loading it up. Love seeing something a little different.

[@cartersol38]

This was a very interesting video. I had no idea that Alaska was installing these 'generators', much less having them Rail-barged to their destination. Great video, lots of action, and switch crew did a great job of loading. Thank you for sharing a piece of Rail -History with us all!

[@SeattleRailFan]

Yeah, it was cool to catch this part of the project. The Fire Island Wind site (fireislandwind.com) has pics of the blades and other parts arriving and being installed.

[@knarfmo]

Thanks for the video and the explanations about all that was happening. I was watching a video of a European passenger train being loaded onto a barge and wondered how the ferry could get lined up with tracks.

[@stevenscott841]

Great video! You did a great job showing this unusual site. Kudos to you!!! Thank you for your video.

[@jmkramer872]

Wow!! Great work! Thanks for taking the time to do all the research and pointing out the little details I probably would have missed.

[@JawTooth]

Great video! I was going to watch it later bc how long it is but I couldnt stop watching it. That was very interesting.

[@baggerolli1]

Awesome Footage I saw the barges in 2009 and now I knoe the purpose, Great Video! Thanks a lot! Oliver

[@BrianBaldridge]

Fantastic video. Answered every question I had and some I didn't know I had! Thanks!

[@MarieMandolin]

Very interesting to watch. Love those sort of things going on. Always wonder how they did it. Now I know. Thanks for posting the video. Marie

[@fueldriver27]

Okay thanks for the comeback. Seen other interesting loads go north. The steam loco from the ARR an family had in Yakima (on flat car) And rebuilt ARR diesel locos. So the ramp can support the weight. I guess without diesel fuel.

[@SeattleRailFan]

Alaska Marine Lines runs the railbarge. They also run weekly barges loaded with containers to various cities in Alaska. The railbarge only runs between Whittier and Seattle.

[@stevep100100]

I really enjoyed this vid all the info added to explained what was going on brilliant,. I also enjoy your switching vids same reason. Keep it up

[@Crosshead1]

Fascinating stuff. Thanks for posting.

[@BurlingtonNorthernModeler]

This video was great! This is really interesting and your camera work was amazing. I look forward to many more videos

[@roysnelgar1820]

Great video SeattleRailFan quite impressive mate, Keep the video's coming.

[@SeattleRailFan]

It was a tough shoot as I really wasn't sure what was going to happen next. When shooting a train, normally you know what will happen: the train approaches, passes you and continues on. Here, I had no idea of the whole procedure.that was involved. I just kept shooting and edited it all down afterwards. It was definitely a challenge.

[@cajunrescuemedic]

Nice video, thanks for posting it.

[@johnmoore8016]

Thanks for a very good video.

[@stevenmichael2845]

Title 100% correct. Very cool sir!

[@StewartLucrative]

I remember being on a road trip and seeing a windmill blade on the back of a flatbed semi, it wasnt a normal trailer it was rediculously long, and the blade still had a huge portion hanging off the end. It wasn't as big as these but it was still huge. I had no idea they were that big.

[@jerematthewjohnson5677]

thank you for posting

[@maciejqantas5535]

Very impressive and interesting video! Greetings from Poland, from Polish fan of American Railroads! :)

[@SeattleRailFan]

Maciej Qantas Thanks! Glad you liked it.

[@geomodelrailroader]

from Seattle the barge will head to Whittier where a local begins which will take the cars to Seward and from here a steam ship will take them to Fire Island where they will be installed on the towers.

[@bettyboop65340]

last summer of 2013 saw a trainload of these heading east on union pacific,thru nelson mo.

[@hdtraincam]

wow !! we see them trains all the time on cp rail and some go to alaska -great video

[@SeattleRailFan]

No, this barge is owned and operated by Alaska Marine Lines. They have three of these railbarges that run regularly to and from Whittier. They also run other barges without railcars to other cities in Alaska. The barge lines are very popular for shipping stuff cheap to Alaska if you don't need the item super fast. In my day job as a small package courier I've delivered many items to AML for shipping up to Alaska: furniture, rugs, construction supplies, just about everything.

[@OnlyTheEd]

There's a possibility that these blades were manufactured in Fort Madison, Iowa. Siemen's corporation (spell check?). They get sent out via rail as well as via truck shipping.

[@lucaslaughing]

Awesome video - thanks for uploading!

[@SeattleRailFan]

It'd be a complicated build, but it would definitely be a one-of-a-kind addition to a layout.

[@SeattleRailFan]

The barges are listed as having a capacity of 48 railcars. That's 6 cars on each of the 8 tracks. With car lengths of 50-60 feet, figure 300 feet of rail x 8 = 2400 feet of track, roughly. The overall length of the barge is about 420 feet.

[@TheGreatSovietUnion2]

Great video! Thanks for sharing :D greetings from Canada

[@mafarnz]

Cool video, neat operation to see.

[@eddieg749]

Very cool video!!

[@johnnycab23513]

Interesting and unusual. Thank you.

[@geomodelrailroader]

just watched Railroad Alaska that post next to the containers on the tracks is called a knuckle post the cars hook up to that before they chain them to the deck this also prevents the cars from hitting the containers and trailers they have on the barge so the load does not shift in route to Whittier. at Whittier a reach stacker unloads the barge and places the containers into wellcars owned by ARR the trailers are also unloaded and placed on TOFCs.durring the time this is going on 3000 the Whittier yard goat unloads the cars and takes them to Anchorage. outbounds are loaded into the barge at Whittier and sent to Prince Robert Canada where they are given to Canadian Pacific or taken back to Seattle and given to BNSF and UP.

[@fueldriver27]

I work for the fuel company that fuels the ARMN reefers at this location. Wondering if you know how long the 3 transfer cabooses and the I assumed bad ordered covered hopper have been here? Normally the cabooses are the idler cars with the hopper. These 4 idlers have been there at least 9 years I know of.

[@SouthernRailfan]

Great video.

[@AC44CWCTE5695]

Great video!!!

[@DetroitLove4U]

The most impressive part of this video was the three tankers as idlers.

[@ModelingSteelinHO]

Thanks.

[@DasPibe]

Thanks!

[@fueldriver27]

If the barge is being loaded we cannot do any fueling. Have to pull the fuel hose over 4 sets of tracks to reach the reefers. Our trucks carry blue flags has required for protection of each track.

[@markbomchill7688]

nice video

[@SeattleRailFan]

I don't know. I've only been into railfanning for about 3 years so even that is "before my time".

[@ziggypwner]

How long of rail is there on that barge?

[@jamesburnside3023]

Very cool

[@ModelingSteelinHO]

Is this the Foss Marine rail barge bound for Alaska ?

[@markbomchill7688]

strong train

[@keithgammie125]

well i enjoyed that

[@NS-vr5so]

so freakin cool!! subbed