Anchorage Rail Yard - AK, USA

This Virtual Railfan camera is hosted by Central Environmental Inc. near Whitney Road, overlooking Anchorage Yard, the headquarters facility of the Alaska Railroad with the Chugach Mountains visible across the skyline behind the tracks. The Alaska Railroad is one of the few state-owned railways in the United States, running 470 miles from Seward in the south to Fairbanks in the north, passing through Denali National Park on a route with no parallel road access for significant stretches.

Around 60% of the Alaska Railroad's revenue comes from freight, primarily petroleum products, gravel, and military cargo, with the remainder from passenger and excursion services. Military trains serving Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, the combined Army and Air Force installation immediately north of Anchorage, pass through this yard and appear periodically on the feed alongside switching crews, intermodal staging, and locomotive shop activity.

The Alaska Railroad is the only US railroad that still operates flag stops, where passengers can board and alight at unmarked locations along the route by flagging down the train, a service used by remote homesteaders and cabin owners with no road access. Anchorage itself is home to 290,000 people, nearly 40% of Alaska's entire population, and the yard visible in this feed is the operational heart of the only land-based rail connection between the state's major population centres.

Did You Know? The Alaska Railroad is the only railroad in the United States that still operates flag stops, allowing passengers to board in remote wilderness locations with no station or road access simply by flagging down the train.

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