Number 600

Subject: ARR stuff
Date: Friday, August 29, 2008 4:01 AM
From: Stewart Sterling
To: "john@alaskarails.org"

John
Here is some info for you.

There are at least 4 of the blue double door box cars at Alaska Metal Recyclers on King Street in Anchorage right now. They might possibly be trying to sell them for storage units as they have been there for almost a week now and have not been ripped apart. There was also a group of old troop cars that were light gray or silver that were there several days ago but are now gone and I presume scraped.

Also I took these photos from the Coast Guard Auxiliary patrol boat on August 16 & 17. This is the place on Lowell Point that is being transformed into a tourist destination featuring the SEWARD railcar and now the 600 from Al's Alaskan Inn fame. The 600 was blocked on wood and looks like it just arrived. I did not know that it was sold and taken down off its pedestal on Old Seward Highway, they must have lost the legal battle to keep it in Anchorage, It has a better view and is a better sight where it is now in Seward.

Historic Alaska railcar makes tracks to Lowell Point Road

CINTHIA RITCHIE

The Seward Pheonix LOG

July 03, 2008 at 2:01PM AKST

Out on Lowell Point Road, in a freshly bulldozed area affording prime views of the bay, rests the Alaska railcar that sat on the corner of Third Avenue and Jefferson Street for more than 40 years.

Anchorage businessmen Jack and Mark Powers purchased the car last fall after the Chamber of Commerce put it up for sale.

Powers, 66, and his son Mark, 38, recently opened the Silver Derby Campground and RV Park on a 20-acre plot of land two miles up Lowell Point Road.

They plan on converting the railcar into a diner.

"The Silver Derby Diner," Powers said with enthusiasm.

The diner will seat 45, and a kitchen a storage area will soon be built on to the back. The car already includes a single bathroom, still intact.

"It's ready to be plumbered up," Powers said.

If all goes well, the father-and-son team hopes to open the family-oriented diner by June 2009. They'll serve standard breakfasts and lunches; they are still undecided as to what they'll do about dinner.

"It isn't going to be upper class," Mark Powers said. "It's going to be comparable to the Village Inn."

Powers agreed.

"I see a place for locals," he said. "I see people coming in before fishing and eating a nice breakfast."

Historic beginnings

The railcar, appropriately named The Seward, was built in 1916 and placed in service with Northern Pacific Railroad in 1936. It was used by the Alaska Railroad until 1954, when it was then donated to the city.

The car was moved to the lot on Third Avenue and Jefferson Street in March 1964, right before the earthquake. According to historic documents relayed through Laura Cloward, executive director of the Seward Chamber of Commerce, the railcar was the only piece of railroad equipment that wasn't damaged in the 1964 earthquake.

The chamber opened it as an information center on July 4, 1965. It was initially run by volunteers, and in the mid-1990s, downtown merchants got together and refurbished the car; the chamber had been unable to afford the maintenance and repairs.

"It was unrealistic to think that every five to 10 years, we could do a fundraiser," Cloward said. "It became more of a drain on our resources."

The information center was shut down about 10 years ago and was reopened every Fourth of July, to commemorate the original concept.

Last fall, the chamber decided to sell the land and apply the proceeds to pay off the mortgage at the new derby headquarters down at the Small Boat Harbor.

"By moving the revenue to that property sale to the derby, we're releasing the property back into the Seward hold," Cloward said. "It's more productive for someone else to open up a business instead of having a business or area we can't maintain."

The chamber opened up the car for sealed bids last fall. They received a half a dozen offers.

Powers put in a winning bid of $4,000. He wasn't sure if the amount was too conservative.

"I thought I might get it, but then again I thought I might not," he said.

Neon lights and salmon surprise

The Powers plan to remodel the car in its original format and are presently surfing the Internet for information and ideas. They're unsure at this point how much this will cost.

"We plan on keeping it as much as possible as it is," he said. "It won't change. It will just look nicer."

According to Cloward, the train is a nostalgic piece of the city.

"There's mixed messages on how it feels now (that it's gone)," she said. "I know that for members of the community who live nearby, they definitely feel that void. When something's been there so long, it becomes apparent when it's gone."

The Powers felt it was important to keep the railcar in the community.

"It's been here since before the earthquake," Mark Powers said. "It's part of what Seward is."

There are also rumors affiliated with the car that spice things up. As Mark Powers told it, supposedly President Harding ate in the dining car when he came up to Alaska in 1923.

"There's even a rumor that he ate tainted salmon on this dining car, got back to Washington and died," he said.

If that turns out to be true, the Powers plan on naming a meal after him.

"Salmon surprise or something like that," Mark Powers said.

Powers plans on outlining the diner in neon lights so that the people in Seward will see it and think, "There's the Silver Derby Dining."

But his dreams don't stop there.

"Within four to five years the Food Network is going to be calling and asking if they can do a cooking demonstration on Resurrection Bay," he said.

"And I'll say, 'Sure, come on up."

Cinthia Ritchie can be reached at (907) 342-2428 or toll free at (800) 770-9830, ext. 428.