Marv Miller says of his photos, "These were taken at the station in Anchorage in 1948. I was a small child at the time. We lived in a little house on the hillside just above the station. I can remember watching all the railroad activity out my bedroom window."

ARR historian Pat Durand adds, "Marvelous photos! These are the first color photos I have seen of Loco 902 and the best poses for modeling purposes. My step dad, Bill Stewart made many trips on this locomotive. The photo looks like early spring and the trains is being readied for a special movement South. The engineer is posting white flags which means it is an EXTRA movement not on the timetable. The combine baggage car is one I have never seen before but the car on the rear is I believe the Observation Business Car the Seward. Notice that the tide is in high behind the locomotives. The tide flats of ship creek used to come right up to the depot platform. That area to the left of the locomotive is now the parking lot and the new railroad headquarters building"

Added by John Gray [2/25/16]: Pat notes the combination car behind 902 and lists it as “unknown”. In fact, this is number 86, an old friend of mine who was frequently operated on trains 23 and 24 during the 1960s when these trains ran as mixed between Anchorage and Whittier. I have attached a photo of 86 taken near the Anchorage yard office in 1967.

One of the nice things about the pictures of 902 is that they are sharp enough to “zoom” all the way up to 400% while retaining an acceptable amount of detail. When I did this, it became clear that the cars was 86. As you can see when comparing the car in the 902 photo and mine, they have the same body style, the same window shape, the same trucks (87, 88 and 89 had 3 axle trucks) and, most importantly, the same roof features. Note that there are five sets of vents with the same placement as in my photo of 86 (the 5th one is hard to see but is there on the 902 photo).

Number 86 at the Anchorage yard, 1967