Alaska Railroad Mate 1 slug and Master 1826
by Pat Durand.

The roster section provides historical details on the Alaska Railroad experience with slugs. These units were used in the Anchorage Yard and also at the Healy yard where extra adhesion was needed to move long cuts of cars at low speed. My model of Mate 1 originated with the remains of an old Hobbytown plastic kit rescued from my junk box.  A set of Athearn AAR road switcher trucks with the gears removed were cut down to bolster height. The deck was built up on styrene channel and .020 sheeting. 4/40 bolts and nuts were then used to attach the trucks to the bolsters with the nut secured by reaching through an access plate on the deck.   Sander boxes and cut down hand rails were mounted on each end and a pyle headlight housing encased a grain of rice lamp. Paint and some weathering indicate the slug is near the end of its service life.

Master ARR 1826 started life as a second hand GP7L mounted on AAR switcher trucks. Rebuilt with AAR Road trucks and a chopped nose she is shown here in her second reincarnation. While paired to mates the masters had a solid yellow nose and frame rail with no black stripes. Starting with a P2K GP7 the steps taken were:

• Swap the Blomberg trucks out for AAR road switcher trucks from a P2K Alco PA unit.
• Chop the nose down to scale height and then fill in the front of the cab with new windows.
• Relocate the front and rear facing single chime horns.
• Install exhaust spark arresters and the winterization hatch.   
• Form and install the sheet metal (paper)cover on the most forward fan.
• Install the operating beacon.
• Drill out the weight under the winter hatch to allow installation of an LS-112 .56" oval speaker for the sound system.
• Add speed recorder and the two step lights under the frame below the cab.
• I mounted the cab door on the right side in an open position (it gets hot in Healy in the summer).
• Install the all weather window extensions on each side of the cab.
• Verify location and mount all the grab irons.
• Windshield wipers everywhere.
• Install the Soundtraxx DSD-LL 110LC  DCC sound decoder.

1826 and Mate1 see regular service in switching duty on the Northern Lights Model RR Club and the Consolidated South Western RR of Marty Quaas.   Two more locomotives can now join my roster building toward the goal of one loco of each class in each color scheme used by the Alaska Railroad.