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Today there is a great demand for gravel and Anchorage ordinance restricts the mining of gravel within city limits so ready mix plants depend on Matanuska valley for their supply. The railroad operates two 100 car trains daily and more than 1,000,000 tons of gravel is hauled into the city (of Anchorage) each year to satisfy the building boom.
Not a clean and beautiful loco compared to one hauling Denali Express.
You can see one chute that loads gravel. There are six of them, easing the time to load gravel. The track is U shaped curve.
Not a right place for foot-plating. Matanuska Junction to Palmer is 10 mph route and at Palmer, train moves at 0.25 mph, 10 feet at a time to permit chutes to load gravel uniformly.
Snow capped mountain range can be seen in the background.
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