Nostalgia & History > Alaska RR DMU #751 Pictures

Alaska RR #751 is a double-decked, self-propelled (two 600 hp engines), Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) built by the now defunct Colorado Railcar. She can go from 0 to 55 mph in 49 seconds with a top speed of 90 mph. As the pictures show, she can also operate as a cab car for a locomotive propelled train. ARR has just one, but planned for more. I rode and photographed Chugach Explorer (her name) during the summer of 2009.

I hope you enjoy the pictures,
Marty Bernard

1. Chugach Explorer at Whittier, AK.

2. Chugach Explorer compared in size to a big guy, me. I didn't ask that big mama for a dance.

3. And compared in size to a GP40-2. That's the Whittier unloading/loading tent next to it.

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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/14 19:48 by MartyBernard.

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4. Serving as the Glacier Discovery at Spencer, AK.

5. Leading the Glacier Discovery at Portage, AK.

6. Leading the Glacier Discovery west of Whittier, AK with the Princess Line's Diamond Princess to the left.


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Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/14 19:49 by MartyBernard.

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7. Leading the Glacier Discovery west of Whitter, AK with the Princess Line's Diamond Princess to the left.

8. There is only one rail/highway way in and out of Whittier, a single track tunnel under a mountain that was recently made into a single lane toll road with the single track in the middle of it. The highway traffic takes turns, i.e., eastbound for a half hour then westbound for a half hour. When a train comes, it is not delayed much. In this picture the southbound Glacier Discovery at a location called Bear Creek is waiting its turn to go east through the tunnel.

9. The northbound Glacier Discovery about to enter the tunnel to go west and back north to Anchorage.


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Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/14 19:50 by MartyBernard.

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Marty, thanks for sharing a great series. That sixth shot is IOTD material for sure!!

Kent in CArmel Valley

That would make a dandy PV

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

The concept all started with the Budd RDC cars. You just can't hide a good idea. This concept of self-propelled passenger cars is coming back not only in Alaska, but check out the Sprinter in California!

Great shot with the ship...

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

I would like to see how a double stack compares to the height of that monster.

Too bad it's such a POS. It's the most expensive cab car on the RR, because that's all we use it for now. It's just not reliable under its own power. Too many over-the-road failures.

As far as height, it is restricted to certain places. We had to redesign the fuel rack in Anchorage so the sanding tower cleared it. Some of the shop buildings were modified too. It's not permitted in all the shop tracks due to clearance issues. Pretty much a PITA.

john1082 Wrote:
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> That would make a dandy PV


I often thought. This would make a great Observation car for many of the Amtrak western long distance trains.

Jerry Martin
Los Angeles, CA
Central Coast Railroad Festival

I believe Miami Tri Rail has sidelined its DMU cars, making this the last of its kind in operation.

Seems to me that the only truly successful self-propelled cars ever built were the BUDD RDCs from the 50s and 60s. Why not just go back to a proven concept and clearly proven design that worked?

Marty Harrison
Knob Noster, MO

livesteamer Wrote:
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> Seems to me that the only truly successful
> self-propelled cars ever built were the BUDD RDCs
> from the 50s and 60s. Why not just go back to a
> proven concept and clearly proven design that
> worked?

In the US, that's correct. They've been used all over the EU for decades in large numbers.

Portland TriMet has the only operable CRC DMUs still in regular use. With that said, the most reliable equipment TriMet has for their WES service are the former ARR RDCs they purchased as stand by power when the DMUs are down, which is a lot!

Yeah, the #751 is truly the most POS expensive cab car on the planet. As trainjunkie mentioned no one was really thinking too far ahead about the support infrastructure for it and various shop mods at Anchorage had to be made.

The inside control circuitry looks like some kind of star wars display too and troubleshooting is a nightmare. The shop manual is basically a compendium of the component parts assembled in it to make it a DMU instead of ... I don't know what ... When I was at the shop and had to order some part or other the part manufacturer had superceded that part and changed it.... he did not want to sell it for the use that Colorado Rail Car had designed it for.

Also the Voith transmission parts and axles are not available as a unit but a special order from each manufactuere that needs assembly - and was abobut an 18 month lead time. Not sure if they ever bought the spares but that was an adventure to spec out from a purchasing standpoint and alot of money to have hanging around in stores until it was needed.

Lots of teething problems when it arrived. Apparently it has not gotten any better with time. Before it was completed I spoke with the guys at Miami and they were towing theirs with locos as they did not meet the acceleration demand for the schedules regardless of the PR. Lots of other problems too.

At the end the RDC's were not too good either. We used one on the Whittier train as a cab car and the other three generally rotated on the Hurricane Turn periodically coming into Anchorage for inspection and maintenance. Many, many mornings I got a "wake up call" about 3am - 4am that for one reason or another the set was not ready to head back north. Sometimes we made it work, sometimes it was tow them up with a much needed locomotive. It was getting real hard to keep one of the two running. Livingston Rebuild did the work years ago but the rebuilds were a partial Frankenstein rebuild. Each car was different and some of the odler electrical parts were about impossible to find. We had a "stash" parts bin upstairs in the shop that management was always trying to get us to dispose of as the parts were non-inventory. Rooting about up there saved the day more than once but we were not able to order replacements and there was never any time to try to re-engineer or upgrade anything. For a while two RDC's were tried in MofW work train service as caboose substitutes with limited success and heartburn. Eventually they went to asset disposal.

Thanks for the very interesting and detailed comment. Why am I not surprised?

Marty Bernard

Train1275, we still have one "Budd Can" (RDC), the 701. Until last year it was still being used as caboose for one of the work trains. Last year they used it as a coach to shuttle student brakemen from Anchorage to Birchwood yard for training (towed by a locomotive). This year it has just been sitting in Birchwood yard, where it remains today. Here it is in 2012 as the work train caboose at Hurricane. It is still remarkably complete.

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German Railways (DB) use DMUs extensively for service on local non-electrified lines. They're reliable (with maintenance done to German standards - not to 1950s EMD standards), comfortable, and accelerate like scared rabbits to 80mph+! They're also a lot lighter weight than American DMUs. Body styles keep the steps close to the ground, so passengers can get on and off quickly from rail-level platforms.

Examples include http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadler_GTW and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBAG_Class_648 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBAG_Class_650.

Built to EU European standards, they're not designed to be hauled in a 10,000-ton coal train. But they sure get the job done!

- Doug Debs

Nor are the European DMUs FRA crash compliant. Too bad, because they would sell like hot cakes here.

Stadler made the vehicles for the NJ River Line from Trenton - Cherry Hill - Camden. I realize that these run on their own ROW. Are they FRA crash compliant?