Good view of the original ARR Fairbanks depot showing how much closer it was to the river and how far the tracks used to go. 

- Casey Durand

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That's actually the second depot!  The original TMR/TVRR/ ARR depot was moved across the road to become a bunkhouse for train crews/etc.  It's in the picture, to the right of the large locomotive, behind the "block of buildings that begin with Samson's Hardware 

Garden Island used to actually be an island.  Noyes Slough and the Chena River made it an island.  In the old days the slough was much bigger!

The pioneers had large gardens there, which is where the name Garden came from.  I confirmed this info with one of my Pioneer friends.

The railroad spur to the Coal Bunker, in the background, was still in use, as the loading track, (dark line in the background) which steam locomotives backed up hoppers into the bunker, is in the picture.  Very few people remember how long it actually was, as it was changed into a bucket line in later years, and trucks discharged their loads of coal into a bin, where the buckets loaded up and carried the coal up into the bunkers.  I'm not sure of the dates when that occurred.

The old bridge was dismantled and moved to the Solomon River, outside of Nome!  Some old photos show it reassembled, still with the name Chena River on it!

That's a nice image.  I can see TVRR #1, and I wonder if the large locomotive might be #557?  I tried to enlarge the image but it becomes too pixilated to read any numbers. 

Based on the vehicles in the picture, I'm guessing the picture was taken in the late 40's.

- Dan Gullickson