GP38-2 number 2003 under a stormy Fairbanks sky. 7/30/02
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Photo courtesy of John Combs

ARR 2003 was spotted at the BN's Stacy Street yard, in Seattle, Washington late on a summer afternoon in August 1986. The paint was very fresh.
ARR 3017 was also spotted that evening in the UP yard (Argo) in Seattle. I may have already sent this photo to you.

Photographs courtesy of Jonathan Fischer

This comment came through on Trainorders about the 2003:

Wow, 2003 looks great! By the time I got to the Alaska Railroad, she was still a good runner, although in pretty bad cosmetic shape, but still wearing that same paint job. Here she is with freshly painted 3012 on the south end of the Anchorage diesel shop in August 2014.

Interesting bit of 2003 trivia. It is the only locomotive in the entire ARR fleet that has a electric (push button) hand brake (obviously added later). It's also the only one I know of that rolled out of the south end of the yard unmanned one morning (in 2016 IIRC), down to the Port of Anchorage, and smashed into a car mover at the ABI cement plant in the port. Someone forgot to push the button. Anchorage Yard is on a 1% grade so proper securement is everything there.

I was on-duty that morning on the 7AM yard job preparing to yard the inbound Fairbanks freight and we heard the call over the radio about a loose engine sailing south through the yard. So me and my engineer, Will, flagged down our driver, piled into the Suburban, and gave chase.

We almost caught up to it at the "wye within a wye" at the south end of the yard but got held up by traffic. Then we got stopped at the security gate at the port and as we fumbled for our TWIC IDs trying to get the guard to let us go, we helplessly watched as 2003 rocked violently while sailing down the rickety port lead parallel to the road we were on at a high rate of speed (they estimated 35 MPH) and headed down the ABI spur colliding with the parked and, fortunately, unmanned car mover in a giant cloud of cement dust. We were the first ones there and after determining nobody was on board and nobody hurt, we secured it against any further movement. It was clearly badly wounded and leaking fluids all over the place.

The collision destroyed the car mover which the ARR had to replace. 2003 had some damage, including some sheared off bolts holding the alternator and compressor to the chassis, plus some bent water pipes and radiator damage. But they put her back together and she is still running today.