Railroad Alaska

[BaltACD]

Animal Planet is now showing 'Railroad Alaska'.  About the ARR and the 'off gridders' that depend upon it for their everyday supplies and transportation.  Script is over the top, however, the railroad action is representative of what is necessary to keep operations going in the wilds.

[tree68]

While the tasks are representative, the context is usually "crisis mode."  The entire economy of Alaska will grind to a halt if we don't get this rock off the track!

[gardendance]

You wippersnapper kids changing up the world. In my my day MTV played music television, and Animal Planet was about animals.

At least you put 'off gridders' in quotes. How can they be off the grid if they rely on someone else for supplies and transportation, especially something with as much immediate infrastructure as a railroad?

[Murphy Siding]

     Yeah, right.  Next I suppose you'll be trying to tell me that the History Chanel used to have programming about history. 


     I lived the first 11 years of my life about 2 miles away from the Alaska Railroad main line.  Alaska is so densely forested, that I don't remember ever seeing a moving train there.

[BaltACD]

gardendance

You wippersnapper kids changing up the world. In my my day MTV played music television, and Animal Planet was about animals.

Animal Planet is now showing Mike Rowe's 'Dirty Jobs' - some episodes involve animals.

[Big Boy Forever]

I like the RR action on this show. I watch each show several times. After all, there is no other show about railroads that I know of. It seems hard on the materials, like the steel on the tracks and endless snow causing problems. What would happen if there was a war and the barges with RR cars was blocked? Alaska would be in deep s--t. Supposedly, there is a plan in the works to link the ARR up with the Canadian overland route, so rails can flow directly from the USA. It is interesting how people have to have the ARR bring them propane and diesel to power their generators and heat. Without that they would freeze and be isolated. Also, all the modern food items they have brought up to Alaska from the lower 48, because what items are manufactured there? What can you grow in that climate anyway? Do people have gardens and fruit trees there, or is it not that harsh an environment? But maybe they are better off then those of us who are entirely dependent on technological society and modern business and stores for survival items.

[carnej1]

Big Boy Forever

I like the RR action on this show. I watch each shows several times. After all, there is no other show about railroads that I know of. It seems hard on the materials, like the steel on the tracks and endless snow causing problems. What would happen if there was a war and the barges with RR cars was blocked? Alaska would be in deep s--t. Supposedly, there is a plan in the works to link the ARR up with the Canadian overland route, so rails can flow directly from the USA. It is interesting how people have to have the ARR bring them propane and diesel to power their generators and heat. Without that they would freeze and be isolated. Also, all the modern food items they have brought up to Alaska from the lower 48, because what items are manufactured there? What can you grow in that climate anyway? Do people have gardens and fruit trees there, or is it not that harsh an environment? But maybe they are better off then those of us who are entirely dependent on technological society and modern business and stores for survival items.

I'd be curious as to what other World Power could shut down coastal shipping along the West Coast of the U.S (maybe the Canadians are training a Kamikaze Seal(as in marine mammals, not naval special forces) Corps?)

 The Alaska-Canada-Continental rail link has been in discussion since the Second World War. It could be built but I wouldn't be holding my breath for it to happen anytime soon.

 I enjoyed the episode I of the show I watched last night, but like most of these "vocational reality" programs it was obviously edited for dramatic purposes which I.M.H.O adds an element of fiction..

[cajonsummit]

Sorry to bust everybody bubble but this is a rerun which was originally shown on another cable station last year

[BaltACD]

cajonsummit

Sorry to bust everybody bubble but this is a rerun which was originally shown on another cable station last year

No problem - we do live in a rerun world - if it was worth doing once for the costs of production - it is worth showing again without the costs of production.  For those of us that didn't catch it in its first lifetime it is still new to us.

[Murphy Siding]

     Alaska has short summers, with long days of sunlight.  You can grow cabbage and potatoes until the cows come home, but no grains or vines.  There is ample supply of fish, seeing as it's surrounded by ocean on 3 sides, and has rivers and lakes everywhere.  I wouldn't worry about war.  Alaska is about 1/5th(?) the size of the lower 48.  It's huge.  To control that, a foreign enemy would need about a 40,000,000 man army.

[gardendance]

carnej1

The Alaska-Canada-Continental rail link has been in discussion since the Second World War. It could be built but I wouldn't be holding my breath for it to happen anytime soon.

Will you eat your words once they build the China-Bering Sea-US railroad http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/t/230455.aspx ?

[Geared Steam]

Murphy Siding

     Alaska has short summers, with long days of sunlight.  You can grow cabbage and potatoes until the cows come home, but no grains or vines.  There is ample supply of fish, seeing as it's surrounded by ocean on 3 sides, and has rivers and lakes everywhere.  I wouldn't worry about war.  Alaska is about 1/5th(?) the size of the lower 48.  It's huge.  To control that, a foreign enemy would need about a 40,000,000 man army.

Plenty of moose meat as well, you might not even need a rifle, just walk the tracks for recent "rail kill"

Its already field dressed and processed in hamburger, although you may have to pick a moose hair out of your burger every now and then.   

[Big Boy Forever]

see below

[Big Boy Forever]

carnej1

Big Boy Forever

I like the RR action on this show. I watch each shows several times. After all, there is no other show about railroads that I know of. It seems hard on the materials, like the steel on the tracks and endless snow causing problems. What would happen if there was a war and the barges with RR cars was blocked? Alaska would be in deep s--t. Supposedly, there is a plan in the works to link the ARR up with the Canadian overland route, so rails can flow directly from the USA. It is interesting how people have to have the ARR bring them propane and diesel to power their generators and heat. Without that they would freeze and be isolated. Also, all the modern food items they have brought up to Alaska from the lower 48, because what items are manufactured there? What can you grow in that climate anyway? Do people have gardens and fruit trees there, or is it not that harsh an environment? But maybe they are better off then those of us who are entirely dependent on technological society and modern business and stores for survival items.

I'd be curious as to what other World Power could shut down coastal shipping along the West Coast of the U.S (maybe the Canadians are training a Kamikaze Seal(as in marine mammals, not naval special forces) Corps?)

 The Alaska-Canada-Continental rail link has been in discussion since the Second World War. It could be built but I wouldn't be holding my breath for it to happen anytime soon.

 I enjoyed the episode I of the show I watched last night, but like most of these "vocational reality" programs it was obviously edited for dramatic purposes which I.M.H.O adds an element of fiction..

I don't want to get into political discussions, but "for reasons not to be discussed here" The US military is being downsized and withdrawing from world events, while other countries build up and modernized their military apparatus, so use some imagination about what scenario could happen, but lets hope it won't. The RR land route to Alaska is being discussed now, along with a RR from China to Alaska, which goes right along with what I said above. Yeah it's edited for dramatic effect, but just roll with the fiction and enjoy what reality it does show, maintenance like frozen cracked steel rails, constant snow removal off the tracks and getting all that cargo and supplies to the good people of Alaska, far removed from the lower 48 as they are, so they can enjoy some luxuries of modern US lifestyle.

[Murphy Siding]

Geared Steam

Murphy Siding

     Alaska has short summers, with long days of sunlight.  You can grow cabbage and potatoes until the cows come home, but no grains or vines.  There is ample supply of fish, seeing as it's surrounded by ocean on 3 sides, and has rivers and lakes everywhere.  I wouldn't worry about war.  Alaska is about 1/5th(?) the size of the lower 48.  It's huge.  To control that, a foreign enemy would need about a 40,000,000 man army.

Plenty of moose meat as well, you might not even need a rifle, just walk the tracks for recent "rail kill"

Its already field dressed and processed in hamburger, although you may have to pick a moose hair out of your burger every now and then.   

  My father was on a volunteer crew that processed moose that had been hit on the highway, and sometimes those that were hit by trains where access was available.  They would cut up and package the meat, which was given to charity.

     Moos meat is awful. It's a big, stupid cow, eating sludge off the bottom of a swamp.

[Geared Steam]

I've eaten hundreds of pounds of it as a kid, didn't notice any difference between it and the other wild game we ate as I grew up. But that was 90% of what we ate, wild game.

Of course, now, far removed from those days, if I ate it now I would probably agree with you. 

[Mookie]

Quote Murphy:  " Moose meat is awful. It's a big, stupid cow, eating sludge off the bottom of a swamp"

I think I might have met one of these in a bar - many, many years ago.....

[edblysard]

You met Bubba?

Where….when?

 

[Big Boy Forever]

Not many vegetarians in Alaska it would seem.

[BaltACD]

Mookie

Quote Murphy:  " Moose meat is awful. It's a big, stupid cow, eating sludge off the bottom of a swamp"

I think I might have met one of these in a bar - many, many years ago.....

Moose & Squirrel?

[Mookie]

Few pigs, too. 

[Big Boy Forever]

ALASKA Locomotive in OHIO. http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=488957&nseq=117