Western Railroad Discussion > Alaska Railroad Denali Star going and coming into Fairbanks

MACS is the common name for Metropolitan Area Commuter System, the transit system here in Fairbanks Alaska. I rode the complete system in two days of being here and was able to get the Alaska Railroad Denali Star in both directions on Friday thanks to MACS. 
1) Shot through a chain link fence along University Ave. This location is reached by the Red Line or Green Line.
2) Looking the other way. Fairbanks the Alaska Railroad runs East West sand the Denali Star heads away from the sun both ways. Train is going toward Anchorage.
3) I took this one from the bluff where the University of Alaska Fairbanks UAF is located. Blue and Yellow Lines got here.

Thank You for Looking!

Jim

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Still amazes me they use two MAC's on a nine car train? One could EASILY handle four times that much. In my '94 visit a pair of GP40's were standard on a fourteen or fifteen car train? The Seward train always had a single GP 38 or 40 and they were older?
JB

3rdswitch Wrote:
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> Still amazes me they use two MAC's on a nine car
> train? One could EASILY handle four times that
> much. In my '94 visit a pair of GP40's were
> standard on a fourteen or fifteen car train? The
> Seward train always had a single GP 38 or 40 and
> they were older?

One MAC will be down to 4 powered axles with HEP running. The other one is usually isolated and is basically a protection unit. It will also be put online when ascending grades to help make time. The 350 mile run from Anchorage to Fairbanks is mostly dark territory and takes a good 11 hours, 15 minutes of crew on-duty time if everything goes right. One little hiccup and it will need a dogcatch crew at the far end. The extra MAC provides some protection against enroute power problems but yeah, aside from that one could easily do the job.

trainjunkie Wrote:
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>
> One MAC will be down to 4 powered axles with HEP
> running. The other one is usually isolated and is
> basically a protection unit. It will also be put
> online when ascending grades to help make time.
> The 350 mile run from Anchorage to Fairbanks is
> mostly dark territory and takes a good 11 hours,
> 15 minutes of crew on-duty time if everything goes
> right. One little hiccup and it will need a
> dogcatch crew at the far end. The extra MAC
> provides some protection against enroute power
> problems but yeah, aside from that one could
> easily do the job.

Kind of the anithesis of PSR!

Keith in Roseburg