You can view a gallery with all the photos from both parts here.
We begin with the northbound Denali Star pulling into the Denali National Park station with SD70AC-H's #4319 and #4322, a consist of blue and yellow ARR passenger cars and two Wilderness Express passenger cars on the rear.
Again, two Wilderness Express private cars were on the rear. This is a private car tour service that attaches to the rear of ARR trains. I'm sure there's some service differentiation, but I don't know what it is.
My fried had chosen a lesser tier of service for the remainder of his journey and so was relegated to single level dome car #521.
Heading north from Denali the train followed along the Nenana River. Alaska State Route 3 also traveled in this "corridor" as evidenced by this truss bridge.
Denali Star running through the Nenana River gourge.
Because of the PTC mandate even the TWC/DTC territory is having to get outfitted with signaling infrastructure. Your tax dollars at waste.
Near the town of Healey a coal powered power plant was served by the railroad, which had several on-line coal miles.
A small yard complex at Healey featured a layup track for the Princess Cruise tour cars.
One of those coal mines I was talking about was located 4 miles away in the town of Usibelli.
Here's a video montage of what it was like to stand on the open air viewing platforms.
At the town of Nenana, the Nenana River joins the Tanana River. Here we see the ARR looking under the modern day AK Route 3 Bridge.
The Nenana station is one of the better surviving examples. From here the northern end of the line at Fairbanks is only 59 miles away, while the southern end at Seward is 411 miles away.
Sitting adjacent to the tracks in Nenana were 1 and a half former ARR heavyweight cars being used for tourist purposes.
To gain enough clearance over the Tanana River, the main line makes a giant U loop away from the river starting at Milepost 412.
Heading back to cross the Tanana River, the Mears Memorial Bridge is regarded as the one of the more impressive engineering feats on the line. Built in 1923 and with a main span of 700 feet, it is still one of the longest steel trusses in the world.
The nearby road bridge has to make due with two truss spans and an island.
MoW tank car on a dump siding north of Nenana. The southern portion of the line featured a good amount of 60mph running, but north of Denali it is mostly 30-40mph.
End of the main like at Fairbanks! Milepost 466.8.
Mixed intermodal and oil train about to leave Fairbanks Yard with SD70MAC #4016, #4015 and #4008 for power. In case you haven't noticed, the ARR blocks its locomotives into number groups where the first two digits equal the amount of horsepower the engine produces. So we can see these freight only SD70MACs are rated for 4000hp, the -H units 4300 and the GP40's 3000.
Because even the main highway routes between Anchorage and Fairbanks are dirt, intra-state intermodal transport is a thing on the ARR.
Pulling into the passenger terminal while GP40-2 #3005 and SD70MAC-H #4324 idle in the yard.
Note the enlarged windows on #3005 to provide visibility when ploughing slow.
GP38-2's #2004 and #2007 also fit the hp related block numbering scheme. Behind them is the ARR's Fairbanks locomotive shop complex. The ARR is an all EMD operation.
We finish with a shot of the rather spartan passenger platform at Fairbanks.
From here my friend had a day in town before catching a small flight back to Seattle. He highly recommends taking the train all the way to Fairbanks and then flying out of there instead of heading back to Anchorage and its larger airport. Even if the flights are less frequent because in the summer the sun shines 23 hours a day, there is plenty to see and plenty of time to see it.
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