Below you will find examples of ARR's passenger cars. Chugach Explorer For the 2009 season, the Alaska Railroad had Colorado Railcar Manufacturing construct a bi-level DMU for its Chugach whistle stop project. See also placard and photo from 2014 open house GoldStar Service For the 2005 season, the Alaska Railroad had Colorado Railcar Manufacturing construct two new double-deck luxury dome cars for its exclusive GoldStar Service. Also, check out Jody Moore's information on 651 and 652. And here is a photo of the delivery of numbers 655 and 656 on MRL north of Paradise, MT, 10/23/08. See also placard from 2014 open house The Grandview In 1999 the Alaska Railroad purchased former Florida Fun Train passenger cars
to create The Grandview.
Coaches: By far the most numerous, these are just what they sound like - a passenger car with lots of seats, just like coach class on an airplane. Coaches often saw many years of service and more than one rebuild during their lifetime. Coaches tend to have a fairly symmetrical row of windows running most of the length of the car on both sides, with smaller windows at the end where the restrooms were located. The ARR has coaches made by Pullman Standard and American Car an Foundry. Pullman Standard
Enprotech Corp Cars The ARR's newest coaches were purchased new from Enprotech Corporation.
These passenger coaches are standard size, single-level cars designed for
easy maintenance. They measure 85 feet long, 13 feet 10 inches high and
10 feet wide. Each weighs 126,000 lbs. They are numbered 205 through 210.
Thanks to the Alaska Railroad for providing information on the Enprotech Corp. cars. See also
High Level (Bi-Level): Bi-levels differ from dome sin that they are usually meant to be operated as a set, and they include coaches, lounges, sleepers, and diners. The first true high level cars were built for the Santa Fe El Capitan in the 1950's. The entire car was raised including the diaphragms and vestibules, with the doors being in the middle of the sides. Amtrak today operates a large number of Superliner high-levels built during the 1970's, as well as some of the original Santa Fe El Capitan cars. The ARR purchased six Southern Pacific bi-level commuters.
These cars have been used for many years, first for the Whittier cruise
trains and now for the Whittier shuttle. Only three remain and have
been repainted to the new passenger scheme. The rest of the cars
were sold and some were used to build the Princess
tour domes.
Thanks to Casey Durand for providing information on the Ex-Southern Pacific Cars.
Head End: These cars are so-called because they typically ran
at the front end of the train behind the locomotive. These cars include
baggage cars, express cars, railway post office cars (mail cars), and crew
or dormitory cars. These cars were mostly railroad-owned and often shop-built,
therefore there are very few truly "generic" head-end cars that would be
correct for more than one railroad. Spotting features: baggage cars generally
are 60' to 70' in length, and have one, two, or three large cargo doors
on each side. RPO cars look like baggage cars with a row of windows
usually offset toward one end. Express cars can be baggage cars, or express
reefers, which were roughly 50' in length for hauling perishables. Dormitory
cars were typically combined with a baggage compartment at one end.
There is also the combine coach, which had a baggage compartment in one
end and coach seats in the other end.
See also placard from 2014 open house
Diners:A typical diner contained a full kitchen and a dining area with tables and chairs. Diners tend to have large "picture windows" in the dining area, small windows in the kitchen area, and usually a side access door on the kitchen side for loading supplies. Diners are almost always asymmetrical and have windows in the passageway opposite the kitchen. Diners can also be spotted by their roof vents over the kitchen. Now that you are in the dining car section, are you getting hungry? If so, check out the 1950s era menu and then place your order. Or maybe you'll find what you're looking for on this menu.
See also placard from 2014 open house
Domes: These were typically coaches that had a raised "upstairs"
area with a glass-covered dome. The most common dome configuration has
coach seats at both ends, and a lowered lounge area in the middle, with
the dome section above it.
See also placard from 2014 open house Dome 521, 522, 523 styling elevation and details drawing Sleepers: For many years, the sleeper was the domain of the Pullman Company, and in fact the name "Pullman" became synonymous with "sleeper". Pullman operated a huge fleet of heavyweight cars in various configurations, sometimes sub-lettered for the railroads that they were assigned to. Pullman cars ran in regularly scheduled trains on every major railroad, but the Pullman porters were employees of the Pullman Co. Pullman continued to operate it's sleeper fleet into the lightweight era, but eventually became a separate entity from the car builder Pullman-Standard. As a result, there were sleepers built by both Budd and ACF that carried the Pullman name during the lightweight era. Pullman eventually sold off it's fleet of cars to the railroads who continued to operate many of them right up to the end. Since ARR's entire mainline can be transversed in one day, they do not own or have a need for sleepers.
To make for a more meaningful train excursion, the ARR implements a student tour guide program. The provides an incredible benefit for the train's passengers as well as the students.
Notes on Leased Equipment: In May 2005 the ARRC leased six passenger cars to bridge a shortage and provide some spare equipment. The cars were acquired from Montana Rockies Rail Tours (RQAX) and the interiors were typical of Amtrak service from the late 1980's and early 1990's. The roster list is as follows:
On June 6, 2005 one of the cars was found in service on the Glacier Discovery. You will also find initial delivery photos from Steve Noland and Mark Earnest in the archives. The railroad leased the cars for two seasons knowing they had two new cars on order and a Request For Proposal pending for two more new cars.
Final Note: The American Association
of Private Railroad Car Owners (AAPRCO) is a non-profit body of car
owners, potential owners, and persons and organizations interested in the operation
of private railroad passenger cars. Many AAPRCO members make their cars available
for charter to share the enjoyment of their use. These listings are those of
members who have indicated a willingness to entertain inquiries for the use
of their cars. And now for the lists:
Footnote: Most westerners do not recognize the difference between a lounge and a parlor. Most observations were lounges or 50% lounge (the rest most often being a sleeper - five or six bedrooms being the most common configuration). Parlor chairs were the Pullman Company's preferred accommodation for day travel. The passenger reserved one just like he would a roomette or any other accommodation, bought a first class ticket from the railroad and paid the Pullman Co. an accommodation charge. The chair was a fixed position swivel chair. (Lounge cars usually had movable chairs.) Many parlor cars also had "day drawing rooms" which normally accommodated up to five passengers in a private compartment (not a Compartment, which was a standard Pullman accommodation occupying the same amount of space as a pair of Sections) These cars were very common in the East. In the post WWII mid-West the IC and Wabash ran them between St. Louis and Carbondale (to connect with north-south trains) and Detroit respectively. The NYC (Michigan Central) , C&O (Pere Marquette), GM&O, Grand Trunk, CB&Q and C&NW used them out of Chicago. Thanks to Josh Coran, ARR's Chief Mechanical Engineer for supplying all information shown in red
Page created 5/31/99 and last updated 7/13/25 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
