Alaska Railroad, Daytons Bluff, Illinous, 9/16/76, photographer unknown, my collection. - James Luc

That is a GP7L, originally built for the US Army in 1951. The Alaska Railroad purchased this and several others around 1960. In the mid 1960s they had their noses chopped down and the original Blunt trucks were replaced with Type B trucks from retired ALCO units. The L denotes "Lightweight", 900 gallon fuel tank, Blunt trucks, etc. In the mid 1970s the 182x series like this one were rebuilt in the Paducah shops and came back brand new GP7U models. I've seen photos of Alaska Railroad locomotives passing through Minnesota around this time frame. - Mike Gerenday