As a ferroequinologist I seem to have a knack for smelling old cars, especially the old troop cars. I also have a knack to smell good coffee as most railroaders do. So, what do I do when I smell both? Well I'm at Alaska Artisan Coffee of course!

Alaska Artisan Coffee is a local coffee roastery on the Glenn Highway about a mile north of the Glenn/Parks Highway interchange and is next to Fox Run RV Park and is just around the corner from Matanuska Road. What makes this place unique is their roastery building is in a retired WWII Troop Kitchen car.

This car was last rostered as P18, one of the many old troop cars that were converted to power cars. These power cars were used on the early day TOFC trains where they would be placed throughout the consist and power the refrigerated trailers. I've been told a couple also had air compressors to do double duty as a Repeater Air Car. I don't know what year P18 was retired but the 1990s is a good guess. Kevin, one of the employees at Alaska Artisan Coffee says the car was bought super cheap and placed here to replace a trailer within the last 20 years.

P18 was one of the over 440 Pullman Standard Troop Kitchen cars built between 1943 and 1944 for the war effort. For the Troop Sleepers there were 2,400 built. These were essentially AAR 50 foot box cars built with windows and diaphragms and many were converted to box cars after they were surplused. It's been said ARR had the most Troop Sleepers and Kitchens out of all the railroads in the US.

The car itself looks to be in good shape. I didn't see any coach rot. The lettering and numbers were still legible. I gave the employees a short history on the type of car it was and what it was last used for. As there is little known on P18, I can't provide what it's original Army number was, or what it's life was prior to being a power car, though it could have been an outfit car sometime during it's life on the rails. So, if you want to get some good coffee and see a member of the Alaska Railroad Alumni, check out Alaska Artisan Coffee. Thanks to Kevin and Dawn for their hospitality and coffee.

The images show in detail what a freight P car looked like minus the trucks. The trucks most likely were 70 ton for those who model ARR. 03/26/2021