Alaska Railroad locomotives 2501-2503 were the lines only true GP-35s and all arrived new in 1964, painted in the ARR freight scheme of black and gold. All served the railroad until retirement and sale in 2000.

EMD GP35 no. 2500 (builder no. 29595) arrived in December 1964.  A month later in January 1965 it was renumber to 2501.  It remained largely unchanged over its service life, other than the addition of the railroad built snow plow, beacons and antenna.   In November 2000 it was sold to the Paducah & Louisville Railway.

Photo courtesy of Jerry Carson

Athearn item 91761 Alaska Railroad GP35 2501 comes out of its blue box ready to run very close to the as delivered #2500. This is probably the closest off the shelf inexpensive model of an ARR prototype you can buy. Too bad they did not number it #2500. The model comes with a quick plug for DCC. You can just pop off the dynamic brake housing and use the 9 pin plug to add a simple decoder like the Digitraxx DH 121.

By the time it became #2501 a month after delivery she was equipped with the ARR home built snow plow, a rotating beacon, fire cracker antenna and the step wells had been painted yellow on both ends. These are all easy adaptations and with a few more detail parts listed below she is a respectable 1965 era stable mate in my collection of Alaska Railroad locomotives. With little change and some serious weathering she can fit into any consist of power right up to 2000, a respectable service life of 35 years.

Major job is building the snow plow and you can follow these modeling tips to expedite that project. This plow is more vertical than many built for later units and does not cut into the step wells. In the process you can make a new cut lever to follow the photo and mount it with two of the DA 2206 eye bolts.

The beacon and antenna are mounted on the roof center line. The stock 5 chime forward facing Leslie is appropriate. Add eye bolts for lift rings on the appropriate roof panels. Speed recorder goes on the left front axle. This would be a good time to add sander hoses made from .025 soft wire. You can add the air lines to the brake cylinders with .010 piano wire. The matching touch up paint is PolyS CNW Yellow and Steam Power Black. A dot of gloss red paint can go on each marker light. In later years the GP35 units had solid yellow side sills, as delivered 2500 had forward leaning barrier stripes in yellow and black.

Parts list for GP35 #2501
Details West
SR-184 Speed Recorder
RB-106 Stratolite strobe (mounted on a 4 legged plate stand about 10 inches high)
RA-157 Firecracker Antenna
SL-172 Step lights (mounted below the edge of frame just behind the jack stand under the cab end)
Detail Associates
DA-2206 Eye bolts (Use for lift rings on roof and to mount new cut lever over the plow)
Utah Pacific
WW 94 Windshield wipers
Kadee whisker couplers with long shank on plow end and standard shank on the rear

Here is the model: