Tag: Alaska

Posted on by

Model Alaska Railroad Trains

Eventually, this page will display information on Henry’s Model Alaska Railroad Trains, which will also coordinate with Henry’s Travel Trip to Alaska 2022. These pages will be worked on a little bit at a time until they are completed (or at least mostly completed as model railroading typically continues until one is either unwilling or incapable of adding more to it.)

My accumulation of model Alaska Railroad trains began quite some time ago, with the first recorded item cataloged and given an acquisition date of 12/12/1982. This date may be off by several years because it was 2011 when I created my first version of spreadsheet to start cataloging and tracking my train collection. December 12th, 1982, is the oldest date that I have been able to find on the sticker of a train item that I purchased as a youngster. However, the first model electric trains I can remember receiving occurred during Christmas when I was in the first grade.

My Uncle David gave me a complete N scale Steam Engine train set and built-up layout. The following Christmas, my parents and “Santa Claus” gave me HO scale trains. I have very fond memories of both occasions because at that time, we lived in a small 3-bedroom house in Ellenboro, NC. When I woke up on Christmas morning in the second grade, “Santa Claus” had come, and had dropped HO scale train cars sparingly from the living room down the hallway and right underneath the covering for the access panel to the attic. My room was the last room on the right-hand side of that hallway, so when I stepped through the doorway, on floor in front of me was the first car. I picked up a couple more cars on my way up the hallway towards the living room where I would discover more trains and more presents around the Christmas tree. If I remember correctly, that was also the year, I received my first little red tri-cycle bike, to give you an idea of the significance to me of how grand the gifts were for me at that time in my life.

I am uncertain whether the N scale Alaska Railroad “Car Pac” 50′ Mechanical Plug Door Reefer Box car #11503 was given to me by my uncle in the first grade or if it was acquired sometime later over the next 7 years. All I know for certain, is that it was part of my saved collection that I inventoried in 2011 that had been stored in a trunk in my closet for just about 30 years. I still have this Atlas N scale train car. Apparently, I had been using it as a transition car when I put the cars in storage as a teenager because on one side of the car is a Micro-Trains Talgo knuckle coupler truck and on the opposite side is the original Atlas Talgo truck with a Rapido coupler. In my youth, I had attempted to add more weight to the car by filling it on the inside with green grass (made from sawdust and sold as scenery grass back in those days). I can still remember some of the grass falling out in 2010 when I removed the collection at that time from the trunk in my closet to access what I had to begin working on my N scale Desk Train layout (another project not yet finished or fully published on this website).

{put current photo of ARR11503 here}

The next addition to my model Alaska Railroad trains occurred on June 29th, 2013, when I drove close to Raleigh to purchase a collection of trains found on Craigslist from police officer Anthony of Durham, NC. Among some of the wonderful trains he sold me that day, were 3 pieces of the HO scale Bachmann McKinley Explorer Passenger Car set. While these were great looking train cars that he had upgraded the wheelsets on from plastic wheels to metal wheels, the cars still had issues including not rolling very well on my tracks plus having broken or malfunctioning couplers, and some scrapes and scratches. The 3 cars I received were 85′ Full Dome Passenger cars, very colorful, with McKinley Explorer Westours written on the sides of each one of them. They cars are named and numbered DESKHA #1394, TALKEETNA #513, and KNIK #56 respectively. I received the cars loose, without any boxes or packaging. Interestingly, nearly 3 years later, I would return to Raleigh again as a result of finding another ad on Craigslist and purchased the complete Brand-New Bachmann #00624 HO McKinley Explorer set from Chris. This added the first HO DC Bachmann Alaska EMD GP-40 Diesel locomotive #3015 to my collection, a duplication of 3 of the cars previously mentioned, and 1 new car that I didn’t already have, which is the McKinley Explorer Westours, 85′ Full View Vista Dome passenger car named and numbered: Kenai #50. My model Alaska Railroad trains collection was starting to grow.

In July of 2018, a member of a club in either Tennessee or Virginia, reached out to a lot of train clubs in the NC area. His name was Ken and stated that the widow of a member in his train club had asked him to help her liquidate her past husbands’ train collection. Ken sent out a very detailed spreadsheet for all of us to examine and prescribed a method in which he would use to take and deliver orders from interested parties. There were a lot of great items in McDonald’s collection. I made an offer a few pieces and managed to add a little more to my collection. Among the items added is the N scale Bachmann #24010 McKinley Explorer train set, complete with DC F9A powered loco, F9B Dummy loco, and 3 the passenger cars, track, controller. etc… Although it was a used set that showed signs of being operated, all the pieces came in the original box. Originally, the locomotive ran well when I first tested it, probably on DC tracks. However, over the years, I ran it some more, mostly on my HJR Lonsway Pike DCC layout, until one day, the locomotive just stopped running and wouldn’t run again. Eventually, I would send the locomotive to Bachmann for repair or replacement. They didn’t have any more F9A’s at the time and they couldn’t repair the locomotive. So, instead, they sent me a GP-40 Alaska locomotive like new in April 2019. Upon my request, the returned my F9A shell. I modified the Styrofoam carton in the original box to hold the Shell and the replacement GP-40 from Bachmann which arrived without a jewel case or container. Even though Bachmann’s N scale 2019 GP-40’s received new tooling, the GP-40 #3015 replacement that Bachmann sent me is not the 2019 version. In fact, the repairman had to build the GP-40 he sent so that it would have an Alaska shell and Rapido couplers. I’m not 100% sure that I have test pulled the cars in this set with the new-to-me GP-40 Diesel Engine yet. If I have a video of me test running this loco with this set, I will eventually insert it below:

{video of N scale McKinley Explorer set being pulled by GP-40}

As part of a birthday gift to myself in June 2019, I acquired my first HO scale Sound-Equipped model Alaska Railroad train locomotive during a Train Show in Hickory, NC. The Walthers Mainline Alaska EMD F7-A DCC Diesel Engine locomotive ARR 1532 is a beautiful piece of highly detailed working electrical art. It is classic diesel power provided by Walthers Mainline in a F7-A unit. Based on the colorful freight units used on the Alaska Railroad, the A unit features a Mars light, headlight, and 36″ dynamic brake fan. Other features include: Limited edition (one-time run of these road numbers), Factory-installed handrails, ESU Sound for DCC and DC layouts featuring: 4 function outputs with brightness control by CV, Fully DCC compatible; 14, 28, 128 speed steps; Dual mode DC and DCC, 4 air horns changeable by CVs, 2 bells changeable by CVs, Full 8-notch prime mover sounds, Compressor, Dynamic brake, Multiple realistic lighting effects, Same powerful drive as WalthersProto locos featuring: Five-pole skew-wound motor, 14:1 gear ratio, Helical-cut gears for quiet operation and easy multiple unit operation, All-wheel drive and electrical pickup, Dual machined brass flywheels, Heavy die cast metal chassis, Constant and directional lights, RP-25 metal wheels, and Proto MAX metal knuckle couplers. This locomotive is nicely priced by Walthers Mainline to use with both freight and passenger cars. Alternate Horns via CV163: Leslie A-200 (default), Wabco Single Chime, Leslie S3L, Leslie S5, Nathan M5. Alternate Bells via CV164: EMD Brass Bell (default), EMD Steel Bell. With the arrival of the F7 in 1949, EMD had exactly what railroads needed to begin dieselizing with a vengeance. Geared for freight or passenger service, they were equally at home in either assignment. Over the next four years EMD built over 2200 A and 1400 B units, delivered in a rainbow of schemes for nearly every railroad in America. Tough and durable, many soldiered on into the early 70s and several are preserved today. Talk about a great model locomotive, this one stands out very well and lives up to its production features.

In July 2019, after reviewing a lot of my HO & N scale DC locomotives, and sending 6 that were Bachmann’s in for repair, Bachmann sent me 5 replacement N scale locomotives. Among them was 1 new-to-me N scale EMD GP-40 Diesel Engine #3009. This locomotive, referred to within my catalog spreadsheet as ARR3009 has the new upgraded tooling for the 2019 DC locomotives. However, that new tooling didn’t make the DC GP-40’s DCC ready. It did, however, change the couplers to knuckle couplers by default. With the receipt of this locomotive, if I switch out at least 1 knuckle coupler with the 2 Bachmann supplied Rapido couplers, then I can now double-head my N scale Bachmann McKinley Explorer passenger cars in DC mode with 2 GP-40’s with different road numbers. What I will most likely attempt to do is take 1 of the knuckle couplers off the GP-40 ARR3009 and swap it with a Rapido coupler on the GP-40 NARR3015 (note the different reference name as I have both an HO and N scale version of the 3015 locos). I did this with 2 UP GP-18’s. And this allows me to double-head the locomotives in 1 heading setting and have Rapido couplers on both ends of the consist or reverse the headings of the 2 locomotives and have knuckle couplers on both ends of the consist. That way, if I ever get my hands on newer knuckle coupler equipped N scale ARR rolling stock, I will have a method of double-head-pulling those trains in DC mode without having to make any other changes. In fact, I will be able to swap back and forth at will without future coupler changes.

Almost the same day that the N scale GP-40 #ARR3009 arrived, I acquired an HO scale Alaska Hopper car from a local antique mall. In December, a refrigerated HO scale 50′ box #ARR11507 was acquired from the same antique mall. During birthday month in summer of June 2020, a 6-piece Walthers 932-7820 Alaska Railroad Hopper car set was acquired from a SMH’s consignor after not being sold to others at train shows or online.

Then, I visited Alaska and was able to mark another desired state and train ride off my bucket list, as I combined two of my hobbies together: Traveling and Model Railroading. On August 1st, 2022, I rode on the Alaska Railroad Passenger train from Anchorage, Alaska to Seward, Alaska. I experienced Alaska Railroad’s Gold Star Service on the top level of one of two Vista Dome Passenger cars with a window seat, and breakfast in the dining portion of the car on the lower level. The train ride was fabulous. I have lots of photos and videos form the ride. Eventually, you can read and listen to the full Alaska experience in my travel section on this site.

Early in the morning in Alaska, just after checking in at the Anchorage Alaska Depot, I went through the gift shop. I saw a lot of model trains and wanted to definitely get some trains to commemorate my travel there. However, I was about to leave Anchorage and wouldn’t be back again any time soon. They had several Walther’s 85′ passenger cars. However, upon reading the specifications of those cars, they require radius curves greater than 24″. I mostly have 18″ Radius curves on my tracks, so I didn’t buy any passenger cars. I bought an N scale Athearn Caboose and an HO scale Athearn Caboose, Alaska road numbers 1081 and 1084 respectively, referenced in my catalog spreadsheet as ARR1081 and ARR1084. To be certain these were not lost or didn’t get in the way for the rest of my travel, I do as I have done for decades, and had the gift shop ship the items to me. They were here before I finished my vacation trip to Alaska.

When I returned home, I was eager to put together an HO passenger set for my model Alaska Railroad trains collection. I wanted a set the matched as closely as possible to the consist of trains that I rode on during my trip. I was not aboard the McKinley Explorer Westours trains so the passenger cars in my collection already didn’t qualify as cars that I rode on. Neither did the locomotives I had. So, I geared up to find locomotives the matched what I rode on and took pictures and videos of.

I rode on another train in Alaska as well, and the model Alaska trains that I acquired on August 5th, 2022, at the White Pass & Yukon Route Train Shoppe have already been talked about and displayed a little a project in progress. You can see that project here. I am still working on that project too.

{continue with the next Alaska items acquired}.

While researching the date that Alaska Officially chose its current blue and yellow paint scheme, I came across a document produced by the Alaska Railroad showing an account of their history as of 2024. It doesn’t include any information about their paint scheme. However, I feel this is an important document. You can view below or on the official website. I am republishing this document without asking for permission to do so. Please be aware it may contain copyright material. I make no claims on this material and all content displayed inside belongs to ARR and/or whomever created it. I made no changes to it.

Alaska_Railroad_Historic_Timeline_2024

{tie to travel section affiliated links when available}

Posted on by

Model HO White Pass & Yukon Route Train Set

I have here the beginning of what will eventually become my model HO White Pass & Yukon Route train set. I am posting this as yet another HJR Train Project that is in its beginning phases.

The Impetus

I visited Skagway, Alaska in 2022 and will eventually have a Travel article up detailing that adventure. For now, just be aware that before that adventure, I didn’t know the White Pass & Yukon Route railroad was even a thing. Well, it is. And it has some significant implications and importance for and to Alaska, plus it makes for a great tourist attraction. Wait until you read about my experiences on the real passenger train. Believe me, it was awesome.

When I arrived and took my ride on the real railroad, the railroad had just received a new fleet of stunning looking Diesel locomotives (or so I thought), which I got to see from various distances. (View my onboard videos when they get posted to see exactly what I mean.) When I returned home, I was inspired by those locomotives because then and still up to now, a year later, no model manufacturer has made a replica of the new White Pass & Yukon Route Diesel locomotives. Although I contacted the manufacturer, NRE, of the real diesel locomotives many months ago, they failed to respond to me. I inquired with them to see if I could get a peek at the actual schematic diagrams of the locomotives that were delivered to Alaska because I wish to try to reproduce a 3-D printed shell of the design and try to make it fit on a similar and existing HO model diesel chassis, thereby giving me a Sound Equipped HO scale operating model of the real, newly received, WP&YR locomotives. Therefore, that is part of the goal of this project, which is to end up with an HO scale replica of the real train that I road on during my visit to Skagway, AK.

Step 1.

I will start with the 4-passenger car set that I purchased from the White Pass & Yukon Route Train Shoppe at the depot in Skagway. As soon as I stepped off the train and started a video recording, I made a bee line towards the train shoppe. I bought some post cards, which is one of my things to do on trips and vacations, and I bought the HO scale, Athearn Collector’s White Pass & Yukon Route Overton 4-piece Passenger car set, model #: RND99158. They had a steam locomotive for sale there too, but you may have heard me say in many of my videos that I have been trying to reduce my collection of Steam Era Locomotives. So, I didn’t wish to add another one. Upon buying the items, I had the train shoppe ship the items to me (find out why in the travel section when this adventure gets published).

The White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR) railroad in Skagway is not the only train that I encountered or road on in Alaska. It is also not the only train I bought in AK. I also road on the Alaska Railroad from Anchorage, AK to Stewart, AK. In fact, I did that first just several hours after arriving in Alaska by airplane. As you might have guessed, I also have and am putting together some Alaska Railroad train sets (plural) to commemorate my ride on that train as well. (More on this in both the travel section and numerous posted videos of the Alaska train sets elsewhere on this site.)

My WP&YR train set will probably only have the 4 passenger cars in it, unless someone produces more cars with different road numbers, or unless I find a stealer deal on the same set again as time marches on. Maybe I will buy one more single car and number it the same number as the car I road in. Additionally, I hope to build at least one locomotive that matches the newly delivered fleet of locomotives that arrived in July of 2022 [this is corrected later in this post] at the WP&YR railroad. Right now, I’m thinking that a Kato HO scale P40 or P42 Diesel Engine would make a good base underneath the shell, but such a locomotive would have to have the sound added separately as Kato typically doesn’t produce sound-equipped models. I could use someone else’s P40 or P42 sound equipped model. I actually already own 1 of each type dressed in the Amtrak phase I or phase III paint scheme (3 thick red, white, & blue lines). However, these are much older Athearn Blue Box models that are as heavy as bricks and may not easily be converted to DCC Sound. Plus, they consume enormous amounts of power. So much so that it is almost impossible to get both locomotives to run in DC mode on my Libraryville layout. These 2 locomotives were acquired in April of 2018 from a vendor at the Hickory Train Show in NC. I have test run them, videoed them, and stored them. They have less than 30 minutes of runtime on them during their life, but I just don’t think they will make a good FIT for underneath the shell of my WPYR locomotive. First, I need to get a look at the blueprints or some similar diagram of the real locomotives with measurement details.

Step 2: Research

I took the liberty while creating this post to invest 2 more hours doing some more research. Apparently, I remembered a few things differently or incorrectly from my previous research and even though some of my notes state that I downloaded some copies of pictures and things during the previous research phase, I couldn’t find those today. Anyway, I made some more copies and some more notes. One thing I remembered differently was that the front of the 6 new NRE locomotives had a deeper slant similar to the P40’s I mentioned. It is not that steep and a lot shorter. Also, the NRE’s have C-C (3 axles per truck) arrangements instead of B-B (2 axles per truck), so the P40’s will not be a good fit for my model version. Additionally, I know I read that the newest locomotives were delivered in July of 2022. However, today’s research shows actual removal of the covering began as early as July of 2020 with the last 2, #3005 and #3006, being unloaded from a barge on October 12, 2020. Also, there are some discrepancies as to which PAINT SCHEME will be the official paint scheme used on the 6 new models. I show that at least 2, #3001 and #3002, are painted two-tone Yellow and Green with Black lettering, but the remaining 4 still appear to be Black with Red and White lines and White lettering, as they were delivered. I actually like the Black paint scheme better and I confirmed that the train I was on was at least pulled by a Black locomotive. However, I didn’t get to see the exact road number on it. I have deduced though, that the road number has to be #3004, because 3001 & 3002 were Yellow & Green, 3003 we passed on route to the summit, and 3005 & 3006, were on track sidings in my photos. I’m not sure if there was a locomotive on both ends of the train that I was on. I confirmed the number of passenger cars in my train by counting them (and apparently, I asked, or it was stated by the on-train tour narrator) in one of my videos to be a total of 14. That video shows that we parked in front of the depot, but a Yellow & Green locomotive was on the other side of a crossing that may have either previously been connected to the train I was on, or it is possible the railroad was about to connect it to the train and taxi the train closer to the onboarding area.

I correctly remembered that NRE, National Railway Equipment Company, doesn’t have a diagram, specification sheet, or any other information on their website for the EXACT model E3000CC-DC equipped with a 16-645-E3C engine. They do have diagrams for E3000C locomotives with 16-645-E3B engines. The CC-DC models are what all 6 of the new WP&YR locomotives have in them.

Also, for some reason, thedieselshop.com has dropped the “R” from the railroad’s name / reporting mark and refer to them as “WPY”. I am not sure why yet. Of course, the new locomotives simply have “White Pass” lettered on the side of them, including the quote marks.

The NRE diagrams for the E3000C show a boxy locomotive that is not a match for the slick, slanted, front cab locomotives delivered to WPYR. So, I am going to send them another email tonight again requesting a specification sheet, diagram, or possible blueprint, and maybe even some CAD files, especially if they do not intend to manufacture another of those locomotives, to see if they will allow me to try to reproduce one for my model railroad.

An Unexpected Issue

The other reason for posting this page today is that all week I have been gearing up to report my WP&YR passenger car #211 problems to Athearn. It hasn’t worked right since I opened the box in late June 2023. Car #211 keeps sporadically derailing, and the issue has to be the car as the other cars do not derail. See the Model North Carolina Piedmont Service video where I talk about the issues I have with it while pairing it with 2 Athearn RNCX locomotives.

Today, August 17th, 2023, I pulled out the Athearn WPYR Collectors set again this afternoon after lunch because I wanted to take snap shots of the trucks and wheels that are causing car #211 to malfunction. However, I couldn’t really determine which axle was the worst. So, I put the car on the tracks and hand-rolled it to see if it would come off the tracks. It did, but I couldn’t consistently make it happen or determine the real cause. So, I pulled all the cars out and Consisted them. I hand-rolled them all to see what the problem was. If was hard to tell. Sometimes #211 came off the tracks and sometimes it didn’t. So, I connected my Kato UP4301 SD40-2 Diesel Engine to them (because it was sitting on the tracks at the engine service facility and has knuckle couplers on it).

UP4301 pulled the passenger cars around the tracks with #211 right behind the locomotive. Occasionally, the car would derail. I moved the car to the end of the consist. It didn’t derail. I put it right before the end observation car. Again, it only derailed every so often but most of the time it had a good run on the top loop. I sent it downtown to the bottom loop and on the way down it derailed. It had trouble making it around the backend of the bottom loop. I tried that again and the same thing happened after car #211 derailed twice getting back around to the same spot. I took it off the tracks. I put it down on a table and noticed that it almost seems like the bottom frame is slightly warped or something is wrong with the stabilization of the trucks (maybe both trucks).

Car #211 doesn’t sit perfectly level on all 8 wheels. At least 1 and sometimes 2 wheels on 1 truck are off the flat surface when the car rest on its own. I tried forcing the car downward with pressure and rolling it on the table back and forth to see if that would flatten it out. It didn’t take when I lifted my hands off the car. It still had the same issue. I took some pictures of the entire set unopened but no pictures of the individual cars or car #211. I added these pictures to my collection of pictures of a set similar that I downloaded from the Internet whenever I originally cataloged the set into my train collection spreadsheet / workbook. The pictures I acquired from the net were taken by someone else and the packaging of that set is different / older than my set. My set is newer because pricewise, my set is $60 more than the older set (due to inflation no doubt). The older set has the Roundhouse name on it whereas my set has Athearn’s name on it. So I never did get around to taking pictures or making a video of car #211 derailing time and time again.

I estimated the time I spent examining car #211 and trying to figure out the issues again to be about 30 minutes because I forgot to track the exact start and end times. I had to stop and take a mid-day nap after that as I didn’t get much sleep last night. So, I left all but car #211 on the tracks. I will repackage them tonight and return them to their storage place. [I did put them away around 11:30 pm August 17th, 2023.]

As you can read, my project is off to a slow and jagged start. I really need Athearn to offer me some repair options so that I can get car #211 fixed. My goal for today is to submit my request via their online form before I go to bed tonight. So, if I can get the 2 communications done tonight and the set put back up, that is all I can do until I get answers back from Athearn and NRE. Meanwhile, I will have to keep looking around to see if there is a model HO scale sound-equipped 3 axles per truck diesel locomotive that is similar in shape to the real WPYR NRE E3000CC-DC locomotives. [Have to stop here. I must make dinner tonight and its 9 PM on the dot.]

Activity Log

Date / TimeActivity
2023-08-17
11:50 PM		 I made it back around 11:50 pm to review and posted this page without the pictures, videos, and links. I did not get to the 2 form submissions. Then I went to bed about 1 AM.
2023-08-18
9:35 AM		I resumed editing and adding the pics and links. Once in place and other references tied in, I will submit forms to Athearn and NRE. All of this was completed successfully today by 7:53 PM.
7:22 PM & 7:52 PMReceived automatic response from Athearn. Then received another response from Athearn at 7:52 PM that suggested I either mail the entire set to them so they can review car #211 or contact the seller and ask them to replace it based on their normal return policies.

Also, around 7:50ish PM I submitted NRE contact form requesting E3005CC-DC specifications, CAD Files, Diagrams, or whatever assistance they could provide.
8:32 PMI forwarded Athearn’s 2nd response to the White Pass & Yukon Route Train Shoppe along with a message asking them if they still have any of the collector sets available and can they exchange my set.

Published: August 17, 2023: Last Updated: August 18, 2023.