Last week I had a whirlwind trip that took me to Seward on Monday, Fairbanks on Tuesday and back home on Wednesday.

Located near Minnie St. in Fairbanks next to a dilapidated structure are two old WWII troop conversions, numbered 1555E and 1556E. What's neat about these cars are that they still retain the old Maintenance of Way (MOW) numbering. Most if not all of today's MOW cars numbers start with 95xxx or 97xxx. Also the 1555E retains it's Allied Full Cushion trucks. Cars with these trucks were banned from interchange in the mid 1950s. Also, it looks like the roof walks were still in place.

Converted troop cars had various different truck types to allow for interchange mostly 70 solid bearing Bettendorf trucks. Today's converted troop cars that are left have 70 ton roller bearing trucks, though I have found one with 100 ton trucks, probably because they were available at the time.

These photos show in good detail what these cars looked like in MOW service. For those who model the ARR, the Walthers troop converted express cars are a great platform to build from. 04/20/2021 - Mike Gerenday

5/20/21 update: These cars are gone. They had to be moved to demo and rebuild the Chevron warehouse.