Western Railroad Discussion > Alaska RR DMU 751 Released

The new Alaska double level DMU, ARR 751, named Chugach Explorer, was sitting outside Colorado Railcar awaiting pick-up by the Union Pacific in Fort Lupton, CO. Sadly this will be the last DMU/project for Colorado Railcar since their demise that has been covered pretty well on Trainorders lately.

Interestingly it has a US Forrest Service logo on the side next to the ARR logo. Is this a joint project between the two?

HB

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Dang that's tall:

I wonder if it will fit some of the tunnels on the UP to where it's going :-)
Sure would suck if half the roof was torn off somewhere before it arrived Alaska.

Thanks for sharing the picture. How many of these did Alaska order?

TopCat

Order is for one DMU only, and I can assure you that it was carefully designed to be sure that it would fit through the minimum clearances on the line. And it took some work...

Expect this unit to stay in Colorado for a while. I can't disclose where, because I don't know except through hearsay (which as we all know is worthless...) but I understand it's not complete yet, and will be completed by contractors.

Alaska RR has retired all of its RDCs, and these DMUs are the future for the low-volume passenger routes on the railroad. Expect to see more in the future when the ashes of CRM re-emerge as another (and hopefully better funded) entity.

Jody

Here is a view of the front of the DMU.

HB

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HistoryBuff Wrote:
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> Here is a view of the front of the DMU.
>
> HB

The car appears to be fully bi-directional, so how are front and rear defined?

Thanks,
Mike

mstokinger Wrote:
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> HistoryBuff Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Here is a view of the front of the DMU.
> >
> > HB
>
> The car appears to be fully bi-directional, so how
> are front and rear defined?
>
> Thanks,
> Mike

With that Yellow "F" on the side.....

That little "F" below the enginer's window dictates what end is the front on all locomotives.
JC

Thats a nice looking piece of equipment.Can someone explain all the plumbing on the roof.Heating /air con ???
Regards Daryl Kay

HistoryBuff Wrote:
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> Interestingly it has a US Forrest Service logo on
> the side next to the ARR logo. Is this a joint
> project between the two?

Yes, this is a joint project between the US Forest Service and the Alaska Railroad. From my understanding, the car was paid for by the Forest Service, but what money contribution the ARR provided is unknown.

Isn't it missing snow plows?

Where is the snow plow?

It has enough power to push Alaska's lone rotary.

Those trucks look almost like standard passenger trucks. Are they actually similar to RDC trucks? It seems that with the extra weight of engines, transmissions, and fuel, that this unit would be too heavy for the trucks that are under it!

BNSF6400 Wrote:
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> Yes, this is a joint project between the US Forest
> Service and the Alaska Railroad. From my
> understanding, the car was paid for by the Forest
> Service, but what money contribution the ARR
> provided is unknown.

http://www.akrr.com/pdf/2008%20Chugach%20Whistle%20Stop%20Service.pdf

The DMU cost $4.7M, paid for by the Forest Service. Total project cost is $14M, with $1.6M an earmark granted to the Chugach National Forest. Remainder of funds from U.S. Forest Service, Federal Highway Administration (!), Alaska Railroad and "other partners".

Will look like a lone car that is running loose along the right of way...

Lynn,

Columbus Castings designed a variant of their standard passenger car trucks for Colorado Railcar about 12-14 years ago. So though they look like the same trucks that are under an RDC or other passenger cars, they're far from it. And the two trucks have a combined capacity of well over 200,000 lbs.

Jody

I'm no expert, but I have to ask if this car travelling by itself might be top heavy? Would it need to be speed restricted around curves and such? I could see a train of these being pulled by a locomotive, but one alone looks scary.

We might get a glimps of it when it arrives at the Alaska Marine Lines ferry dock on Harbor Island in Seattle. keep us posted when it's on it's way west.

Olive,

The roof-top appliances are radiators and an HVAC air handler. But it still has two 600hp engines, two big transmissions, a generator, 500 gallons of diesel fuel, potable water, etc. etc. underneath the floor. Even with the stuff on top, the vertical center of gravity is still only something like 6 inches above the floor line of the lower level. They ride pretty nicely.

Jody

I'd love to get one of these out on straight and level tangent and skin her back, skating down the main at 80 MPH. That said, what's the top speed on this thing?