The Alaska Railroad's gondolas were built by Mount Vernon Car in 1943, apparently for the U.S. Government, but given to D.R.G.W. to operate. They were acquired by the Alaska Railroad in 1947 and are now used in Maintenance of Way (MOW) service only (The 50 year rule dictates they can no longer be used for revenue or interchange). Currently, you will generally find these 40 footers hauling scrap, pipe, logs, etc. However, they were used for hauling drilling pipe during the oil boom days. Later, some of these were loaded with scrap, taken to Seward and the whole car with load was dumped into a ship carrying scrap metal.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| GA4 & GS4 | 13203-13649 | 39 | 1943 | General service instate compant business only |
| GB6 & GS6 | 13800-13846 | 18 | 1944 | General service instate compant business only |
Click on the pictures below for a larger view.
 |
Pressed Steel Car Co. built these gondollas in March of 1947. The ARR obtained them in 1947 and still use some of them for MOW service. |
| These gondolas were built by Mt. Vernon Car Mfg. Co. in 1943. The ARR purchased them from D.&R.G.W. in 1947. Only a handfull of these are still in service. The rest were scrapped. Photo taken in Seward Yard, 1991. |  |
 |
You will always find other roadnames on the ARR. Here are two gondolas, an ATSF and a BN. They were delivered with steel and pipe and will return to the lower 48 carrying scrap metal. 3/99 |
© 1998-2001 John Combs unless otherwise noted