Alaska Railroad Photos

[Nato]

              The fairly recent Thread about Kato soon to release Alaska Railroad Passenger Sets prompted me to dig out all my Alaska locomotives , freight and passenger cars. These photos once again by Bob Gilmore would have been posted about a week ago, but Bob had some computer (glitch) problems. These photos represent the early to mid 1990's era on the railroad. I tried to match train consists with what I viewed in the Pentrex DVD series "Alaska Railroad Part 1" The E Units were used in the late 1980's very early 90's time frame. The two GP49 Diesels in Yellow and Blue are custom painted and road specific detailed Atlas GP 38 conversions done by a good friend and fellow N Scaler Ralph Huddleston.          The two GP 30's in the older paint scheme are custom painted and detailed by Scale Rail Lines (BLW) one loco and Richmond N Scale in Michigan. The passenger cars are Kato (only models of UP cars the road bought) painted by Ernie Geese of Model Railroad Customizing, the E Units are custom from the old Hobbies Emporium in Reno, NV. Dome cars are Bachmann. Missing, but used on the railroad Korean Coaches, in a different Blue & Yellow scheme and a few of the new Ultra Dome Cars (think Bachmann HO), just coming into use. Yes the DVD did show GP 49's on the passenger train without any heater car (unit).                                                                                                                                                 Freight trains include the "Artic Fox" TOFC train which used cabooses, a Unit Coal Train that ran from mine to power station, no caboose, no UP col cars were not used, but we couldn't photo shop the name, and a mixed freight train no caboose , cars matched to DVD types. There was also and all tank car train not modeled here. I' am only posting a few of the photos here to view more A** hats will need to go to Flickr and look for Nate Goodman Gallery photo sets. Be sure and use magnifier feature to look at the amazing resolution in photos (Hell & Gone Focus) and details in some of the scenes. N joy. Nate Goodman (Nato).

[Nato]

      Here are the remaining Alaska photos on here (TRW) the rest may be viewed at Flickr. In the late 1940's early 1950's the ARR passenger train the Aurora was nick named the "Moose Gooser". Light weight cars were made from converted hospital car, the diesels  military MRS locos received streamlined shrouds ltat looked like a cross between an E Unit and a Alco PA. No I have no models of this train. Nate Goodman (Nato).





















Link to photos in Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/57600286@N04/

[ljudice]

I had a chance to do a little railfanning on the ARR when a friend and I spent two weeks driving from Anchorage to Disaster Creek (on the Haul Road) - at the time the furthest north you could drive without a permit.

Lots of interesting operations and this was long before the SD70MAC's - even a few black locos were still running.

I remember we walked around the yard/shops in Anchorage and it was like a railroad museum.  Tons of old, cast-offs sitting around.

[jmlaboda]

Thanks for sharing your shots... they are really great!!!

The period that is represented by your modeling is one of the most interesting times on the line and if I were so inclined I would be modeling it as well.  Not shown in your photos were the Budd corrugated and slab-sided cars that were brought in as "replacements" for ARR cars that were being rebuilt with HEP power, most being former Southern coaches and a few slab-sided Budd dome - coaches from Amtrak that were used while the rebuilds were away.  Consists were mixed in a variety of ways and while it would take some work these "replacements" can be modeled to expand on anyone's pike, if they are willing to do the work.  Definitely made for some interesting consists...

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=283513

For any interested in what can be done in regards to the ARR's diverse passenger car fleet (except from the HEP coaches which had a number of additional windows added when they were rebuilt, and the Ultradomes) the Alaska RR page at the N-scale Varnish User's Guide details what can be done now in N-scale...

http://n-scalevarnish.info/index/varnish/UsersGuide/ARR.htm