Caribou Creek at the Anchorage Yard
Photo courtesy of Don Marenzi Collection

On 12/2/12/ Don Marenzi added, "The 'Caribou Creek' car was converted from U.S. Bureau of Mines mine safety/instruction car # 1 which was transferred from the USBofM to the ARR on 2/12/1945. It was rebuilt to the business car in 1947 by International Ry. Car & Equipment Co. It was placed in service on the ARR on 10/16/1947.

"The US Bureau of Mines purchased a number of secondhand passenger cars to convert to safety/instruction cars (like #5 at MATI). Some were purchased from Pullman, some from other RR's. I don't have anything definitive on this cars pre BofM history. Probably either a sleeping car or possibly an ex Pennsylvania RR car. The late John Henderson and I had some correspondence about the Caribou Creek's heritage in the 1980's. I'll try to find my notes about that. I think I recall that there were AC&F parts on the car.

"At the same time the business car was placed in service, there were four ARR coach/chair cars # 25, 26, 27, 28 placed in service. These four cars were also ex-USBofM cars that IRC&E converted for the ARR. The ARR itself 'streamlined' a few cars that it already had been using, in the Anchorage shops (If I recall it was one coach and a few baggage cars). And that was also when the ARR was receiving all the rebuilt ex-USA Hospital Cars as passenger cars.

"The 'Kenai' was a different car with a steel frame, wood body; an ex-Great Northern car. Sister to the "Denali" in Fairbanks. Converted to a work car in 1945, lasted until the mid 1950's and it was also dumped into a riverbank as rip-rap, similar fate as the 'Yukon' (Yukon was an ex-NP Dining Car). I'm not sure exactly of Kenai's dumping location, I might have that somewhere..."