The Alaskan cars: Two groups of cars were leased to the Alaska Railroad, apparently
by Denver Railway Car. One was a group of four ex-D&RGW cars, the other were
three ex-CB&Q cars. Of these three, Curt Fortenberry writes: "Amtrak
domes 9450, 9451, and 9456 were leased to the Alaska Railroad in 1984. I don't
believe they were ever used. My shots of them are in Amtrak paint, I'm real confident
in saying they were never painted ARR, until someone shows me a shot, that's my
story. They just sat around the Anchorage shops till probably around 86, when
the ARR, under state control, purged the steam heated fleet. Although they had
an ARR number assigned, I'm going to say they never actually wore them. From a
distance they looked ok, but the dome glass was crap. Which was true for all the
domes at that time. It wasn't till later that they began to go back to FRA glass.
None of these show up on the active rosters of 83 through 86. When they were obtained,
ARR was federal and I think was maintaining a strong passenger business. Under
state ownership, it seemed like ARR wanted out of it."