After seeing a massive combination rail and container barge pass by Port Townsend a few months ago, I was able to identify the carrier as Alaska Railbelt Marine, based in Seattle.
Further, I discovered that the rail barge connection was a permutation of the old Crowley Maritime “HydroTrain” service, connecting the Alaska Railroad at Whittier to the lower 48 through a facility located at Seattle’s Harbor Island transportation complex.
One thing led to another and I was invited by David Byrne, Operations Manager for Alaska Railbelt Marine (ARM) to have unlimited access to the rail barge during loading operations.
ARM is a subsidiary of Lynden Inc., who got its start as Lynden Transport, whose history is closely linked to the rapid growth of Alaska following WWII. From their humble beginnings running a fleet of trucks on the Alcan Highway, to their present day multi-discipline worldwide operations.
In Part 1, we presented a brief history of rail transport to Alaska and detailed Alaska Railbelt Marine's one of kind combination rail/container freight barges that provides weekly sailings to Alaska. Our “story” continues.
As you may recall from Part 1, these barges are massive. Measuring 420 in length by 100 feet wide, with a 24 foot draft, these barges have three main cargo areas, including deck space in the bows of the barge ...







[Ed. Note: Missouri Pacific, lacking mountain grades, really did not demand "dynamic braking" installations, hence the lack of a dynamic brake "blister" on the machine room body. So called "tunnel motors" were devised by mountain railroads - most notably the Southern Pacific - to draw cooling air into the radiator from as low to the ground as possible when running through tunnels.]
Union Pacific provides the locomotive and ground crew for loading and unloading. To keep the weight of the locomotive off the rail bridge, a set of “idler cars” are inserted between the locomotive and the departing loads.



Once the string of cars is spotted, a tie down crew goes to work to secure the cars on the barge deck. This includes:
- Dumping the air brake system locking the wheel sets
- Setting the hand brakes
- Jacking the cars up off their springs
- and tying the car securely to the deck


All four "corners" of each and every car is secured in this manner. Cars at either end of the string are further secured with wheel chocks.





Alaska Railbelt Marine has a long-term contract with Western Towboat, headquartered up on the Lake Washington Ship Canal near Beautiful Downtown Ballard.
Western Towboat is a family run operation with magnificently appointed tugs that they design and build themselves. Pride in the family tradition is immediately apparent. My Dad spent a lot of his time after retiring, watching Western build new towboats.
Ironically, you can throw a crescent wrench between Western Towboat on the north side of the ship canal, across to the south side and the Foss Maritime tie up! Foss handles the Canadian National "AquaTrain" rail barge link to Whittier from Prince Rupert!


These tugs are more like a motor yacht than a working tugboat, beautifully appointed. Clearly with crew comfort uppermost in design and finish.




Being the most nimble of the crew, I climbed the 16-foot ladder to check temperatures on the Thermal Kings.

The thing that struck me foremost in the wheelhouse of Western's Alaska Titan is that there is no steering wheel. Referred to as a "Z-Drive" propulsion system, (because the drive train roughly resembles the letter "Z") the propeller, surrounded by a nozzle, not only drives the vessel, but can pivot a complete 360 degrees for steering and maneuvering the vessel, eliminating the need for rudders.

Similar to a video game, the multi-purpose joystick controls vessel movement.


After leaving Western's tie-up we traversed the Lake Washington Ship Canal through the Hyram CHittenden Locks.

As you can see, wheel house view is unobstructed. As I was sitting in one of the pilot house settles, looking around at the floor to ceiling windows, I wondered just how terrifying this would be out in the Gulf in a blow. I think this would allow you to see TOO much!

By the time we arrived at Harbor Island, the deck crew had completed the last tie down, and the barge was ready to go to Alaska.





A study released in 2005 details the impact rail barge, container, and roll on/roll off services have on shipping the goods to Alaska. While the numbers are a few years old, it will give you an idea of the importance of these services.
Depending on the weather, the tug and barge will arrive in Whittier in 6 or 7 days, and the process reversed. After the rail cars are unloaded, high reach fork lifts will remove the containers from the over head rack, and the barge will be reloaded for her return trip to Seattle.
Be sure to visit Alaska Railbelt Marine Lines web site for a gallery of photos showing tows at various locations in Alaskan waters.
This was a remarkable adventure for me. I hope I have presented it clearly to you for your enjoyment. This tied a bow around my experience with rail barges and railroading beginning back in 1957, riding on the Miki Class M/V Comet (LT 393) to the rail bridge in Prince Rupert, as I have written about in the beginning of this blog.


This story required two trips to Seattle from my home in Port Townsend to complete.
During the first trip, the Union Pacific had just begun loading the barge, when David Byrne called Western Towboat to find out when the tug would be arriving at Harbor Island to pick up the rail barge. Apparently, they were getting ready to cast off.
I heard Dave ask if they had room for a visitor, and if they would wait for us to get up to Ballard from Harbor Island! Totally unscripted and unexpected! Despite the fact I didn't have a single shot of cars loading onto the barge, there was no way on gods green earth that I was going to miss a tugboat ride!
So I had to return the following Wednesday to shoot all the rail details that got “derailed” with the boat ride! Returning home the second Wednesday, I took the ferry out of Edmonds to Kingston, about 12 miles north of Seattle. I got loaded on an outside lane on the lower port side of the Washington State Ferry M/V Spokane.

I happened to glance up as we were crossing the Sound, and low and behold, there was the “Gulf Titan” pulling on the F/B Anchorage Provider heading up Puget Sound, providing me with the perfect ending shot my grand adventure!
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