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The Relic That Time Forgot There are may old spurs and trackage along the Alaska Railroad, some are overgrown and long forgotten, others still connected but long out of service. In one such place, there are railroad tracks both connected and forgotten, the rails of Fort Richardson, and Elmendorf Air Force Base (JBER)...and among these rails is an old relic of ARR past. Steve Katkus was gracious it giving me a tour in one of his limos of the many spurs and loops of the trackage on JBER this past week, and one of the treasures I was shown was this box car. ARR 11021 was originally a troop sleeper converted in 1947 by the ARR shops into a refrigerated car. For those who may not know, refrigerated troop boxcars are very rare, let alone one this original. ARR 11021 retains it's high mounted brake wheel and rigging, along with the roof walk and it's lettering, no tags, no retirement markings no mars. This car was used in interchange service and had it's Allied Full Cushion trucks replaced with 70 friction bearing trucks. These trucks are in amazing shape with the cotton packing and oil still inside. This old car is about as unmolested as it gets. These photos show you in great detail what these cars looked like in service from the late 1940s to the 1990s in revenue service on the Alaska Railroad making this the last of it's kind and last car with friction bearings on any ARR connected track. 09/08/2020 |
