A Marvel Of Modern Logistics Three barges owned and operated by Alaska Marine Lines (a member of the Lynden family of companies) are constantly cycling between Seattle and Whittier, Alaska carrying up to 40 railcars on 8 tracks with 32 rows of containers stacked two or three high in the racks above. The rails are flush with the deck so that high reach fork lifts equipped with twist locks can drive on and off the barge before rail cars are loaded to pick or stack the containers. To add to the fascination AML owns flat decks they they lash anything and everything to and then stack on top of the containers. I've seen graders, excavators, campers, fire trucks, boats, and even prefabricated outhouses! Oh, and if that wasn't enough the upper level is also wired for 480 volts power so refrigerated containers can be plugged in to be kept cool in summer and warm in the sub zero winter months. There truly is nothing else like it! While the slip is owned and operated by the Alaska Railroad, their trackage ends right behind me where these rails meet solid ground. ARRC owns no trackage on land in Seattle and has no locomotives of its own with which to switch the barge. The Union Pacific is responsible for pulling and spotting the barge since it is the railroad that owns the trackage on Harbor Island that connects to the ARRC's barge slip. The ARRC interchanges with BNSF and UP here, but in days of old the BN owned their own slip in West Seattle and the barge would have to move from one to the other loading cars from each road. Around 2000/2001 an agreement was made where BNSF would hand off their cars to UP on Harbor Island so the barge could load/unload here only and their slip could be abandoned. Unlike in Whittier the containers are not handled in the same location as the railcars so a barge arriving from Alaska will stop here first to unload railcars then be moved to AML's yard down on the Duwamish waterway to be unloaded and reloaded. Northbound the process will reverse and the barge will stop here to load railcars before beginning their thousand mile 7 day trip up the Inside Passage and across the Gulf of Alaska. This particular barge is the Whittier Provider built by Gunderson in 2001, and it is 420 feet long and 100 feet wide with 3190 linear feet of track on the deck and a dead weight of 15,300 tons! Movement of the barges is contracted to Western Towboat and at left can be seen one of their vessels, the Arctic Titan. Built in house by the company in 2012, it is 120 feet long by 35 feet wide and powered by two 5000 hp Caterpillar C175 engines. Note: the Seattle skyline off to the northeast across Elliott Bay and the Crowley fuel barge berthed up nearby. To see the UP working the barge here check out this shot from a different day. Harbor Island |
