This picture was taken in 1955 at the Anchorage, Alaska train station. I’ve been rooting though my stepfather’s pictures of days gone by. We used to go by train from Whiitier to Anchorage and return on weekends when Pop was stationed in Whittier. The old engine sat on a pedestal outside of the station. It suppossedly was the first engine of the Alaska Railroad in olden days. Anyone able to identify it as to type or whatever.
Rudy, According to info I have:
That engine was built by Davenport in 1907. It was purchased used from the Isthmus Canal Commission where it was number 802. Originally narrow gauge, The Alaska Engineering Commission brought it to Alaska in 1917 and numbered it 6. Converted to standard gauge in 1930 and used as a shop switcher. In 1947 it was renumbered Alaska RR 1 and placed on display at the ARR headquarters in Anchorage.
And, I think it’s still there.
Have a photo somehwre I took when we went up there several years ago.
Richard Smith said:
Rudy, According to info I have:That engine was built by Davenport in 1907. It was purchased used from the Isthmus Canal Commission where it was number 802. Originally narrow gauge, The Alaska Engineering Commission brought it to Alaska in 1917 and numbered it 6. Converted to standard gauge in 1930 and used as a shop switcher. In 1947 it was renumbered Alaska RR 1 and placed on display at the ARR headquarters in Anchorage.
Curmudgeon said:If it's still there after all these years that really is something. With the Alaska winters they would need to really keep up the maintenance on it for rust and so on.
And, I think it's still there. Have a photo somehwre I took when we went up there several years ago.
If it was California they would have built a parking lot!
http://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=fe14a686-d64f-4a20-9927-b82d69d5242b
2008, I think.
Still there.
Curmudgeon said:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotos-g60880-d519647-Alaska_Railroad_Depot-Anchorage_Alaska.html#168842002007.
Doug Arnold said:A Parking Garage 10 stories high.
If it was California they would have built a parking lot!
There is another engine on static display in Anchorge. First saw it in 1985 and was still there in 1998 when I left the state. Remember that it was standard gauge and located on a corner spot in the city’s park strip. Edited to add the following
(http://www.steamlocomotive.com/consolidation/ar556.jpg)
Delaney Park, 9th Ave. & E St., Anchorage, AK Joe
Yes, park over towards Turnagin.
Big 2-8-0.
Gotta rotary on display on the way down to Seward.
Joe Bartolini said:
There is another engine on static display in Anchorge. First saw it in 1985 and was still there in 1998 when I left the state. Remember that it was standard gauge and located on a corner spot in the city’s park strip. Edited to add the following(http://www.steamlocomotive.com/consolidation/ar556.jpg)
Delaney Park, 9th Ave. & E St., Anchorage, AK Joe
You know, looking at these locomotives and being inside the cabs of a few of them that are on display here and there all I can say is that one had to be a man’s man to work in those. Imagine the conditions the engineers and firemen had to put up with. That just hit a bell…Back in the 60’s I worked under this supervisor for a couple of years and she was really into supervising a bunch of men around. The way she tells it she was a fireman on a locomotive during the WW2 years when a lot of jobs that normally were done by men were done by the ladies. I tended to beleive her.
