MRS-1 #1601
Photo courtesy of J. Caflin
Anchorage, July 4, 1976

ARR #1601 is an Alco MRS-1 (verses the EMD MRS-1 like ARR #1718). It was built for the Army (#B2049) in 1953 was purchased by the ARR in November 1974 and retired/sold/scrapped in 1983. Originally designed to be used in Europe and the mid-east. They have variable gauge trucks and low clearance cab/hood to operate on foreign gauge rails and through the small European tunnels. ARR wound up with a batch of these and they were used in road freight and yard service.

In total 13 Alco units were transfered to the Alaska RR. Six units were aquired by the ARR in november 1974 (units B2049, B2050, B2053, B2054, B2055 and B2059) renumbered to 1601 - 1606. In April 1975, a second delivery was done of 7 units (B2056, B2061, B2067, B2073, B2075, B2077 and B2100). The first 6 were renumbered to 1607 - 1612, while unit #2100 (ex US Navy 65-00586) only served for spare parts.

US No.  ARR No. Aquire  Retired notes
                 date    date
B2049   1601    11/74   11/83
B2050   1602    11/74   11/83
B2053   1603    11/74   1984
B2054   1604    11/74   1984
B2055   1605    11/74   1984
B2059   1606    11/74   1984

B2056   (1607)  04/75   06/76   retired before renumbering to ARR number
B2061   1608    04/75   11/83
B2067   1609    04/75   11/83
B2073   1610    04/75   1984
B2075   1611    04/75   11/83
B2077   1612    04/75   11/83
2100    parts   04/75   -----   cannibalized for parts for other Alco's
Special thanks to Jeff Childs, Randy Thompson and Stefan Nicolaï for the above information!