ARR-1000

Two s-160 locomotives double heading.  Both have just received heaping loads of coal in the tender bunkers.   559 is leading the way and from the shadows and the sun angle, I suggest this is midmorning North bound freight out of Seward.   Seward had coaling facilities with a clamshell crane bucket, the vegetation in the background with the mountains is proper.  Another photo shows 560 setting in front of the Seward engine house.   The tank car is Standard Oil which had facilities in Seward.  In Whittier, Union Oil and the Army USATC had tank farms. 

Notice that 560 has the white extra flags displayed.  It is likely that 559 is just a helper to get the train up the 2.2% grade to Divide at MP12 or possibly at Grandview.  The 559 could then cut off at the passing siding and 560 could make the run on North to Anchorage.

Also notice that the 560 tender is outfitted for rotary snow plow service with extended coal bunker sides and elephant ear doors to close over the coal load to keep the snow out.   Too bad we cannot read the Mile Post marker and settle the question of location.   Time is between 1944 and 1954 when these locomotives were retired.   Both were sold in 1958 and shipped out of Whittier on the Bell Betty to Spain.

 

Commentary by Pat Durand
 
 

ARR-1000

I came across this photo on John’s page that I don’t remember seeing before (see top photo).
 
Some observations -
 
559 doesn’t have an S-160 tender. Attached is a photo of 559’s tender on January 1, 1951 from the same wreck that found 556 on her side. Note the significant crease.
 
The tender in the photo looks like it may have come from 801, which was wrecked in the summer of 1951. The outline and trucks appear to be the same and the tender lettering is the same place as shown in a late 801 photo (in which 801 has acquired Harriman number boards). The numbering is also an amateurish looking job.
 
In John’s photo both locomotives were fitted with Harriman number boards which should put it after about 1949.
 
I’m going to suggest that the photo was taken no earlier than late 1951. I only found one other photo on John’s page of 559. It was pre-Harriman number boards and had an S-160 tender.
 
559 has the bell mounted on the front deck, tucked under the smoke box and doesn’t have the same BLW power reverse that most or all of the other 550 class locomotives had. It was one of the locomotives that were originally built to export specs and apparently modified in the ARR shops.

Commentary by Dick Morris