Shortly after taking the picture of ARR 1801, tied up on a work train in the Portage yard, I had the opportunity to take the attached photo of the 1802 returning from Whittier. This photograph was taken in the Portage yard. The slide date is November 1982.

On this trip the 1802 has brought back from Whittier a trainload of one of the greatest impediments to human transportation yet created, the arterial clogging Alaskan Tour bus. These rambling leviathans of the Seward Highway can create a perfect convoy of sluggishness, bunched and spaced in such a manner as to block all but the most adventuresome of drivers. Somehow these busses have the innate sense to naturally slow down even more when there is a train heading in their same general direction. It’s an uncanny ability for which they will always be remembered.