Nostalgia & History > ARR P-7, at Anchorage, Alaska; June, 1984

ARR P-7 rests on a summer evening at the engine terminal in Anchorage in June of 1984

Please post a comment of you know the history of this unit

Thanks!

Jonathan Fischer
West Seattle, WA

---

---

Luckiest e b-unit I know of, glad to watch it!


ex-970B was sold to Amtrak 468 in September 1972; Retired August 4 1974
Rebuilt by ICG-Paducah to unpowered steam generator car 1919 in late 1975 and renumbered 669 mid-1977

it was sold to Alaska Railroad as their P7
in January 1982

Sold to Feather River Railroad Society,
Portola, CA In 1989

Donated to UP in December 1990 and rebuilt by VMV with a single 16 cylinder, 2000 horsepower EMD 645 engine in April 1993;
renumbered to 963B in April 1993; in service as UP 963B, as part of the heritage fleet
-------from a roster// http://www.hebners.net/Amtrak/amtE9B.html

EMD/VMV E9BM -- 1 unit
2000 horsepower; A1A-A1A trucks; 231,600 pounds weight on drivers; 344,200 pounds operating weight
Road

UP 963B UP 970B Amtrak 468 Amtrak 1919 Amtrak 669 ARR P-7 Oct 1955 20510
General Notes:
a. UP 963B was built as UP 970B; originally retired in June 1972, and leased to Amtrak as 468; sold to Amtrak in November 1973; rebuilt to Amtrak steam generator car 1919, renumbered later to Amtrak 669; sold to Alaska Railroad; sold to Feather River Rail Society, Portola, California; donated back to UP; arrived at Cheyenne in December 1990.
b. UP 963B (as temporarily numbered UP 970B) was sent to VMV Enterprises, Paducah, Kentucky, in June 1992 to be completely remanufactured; the remanufacture effort included a new 16 cylinder 2000-horsepower EMD 645 engine (replacing the original twin 12-cylinder 1200-horsepower 567 engines, removed when it was rebuilt as an unpowered steam generator car for Amtrak in 1975), with an AR10 alternator and a GP38-2 design electrical system; completed in late April 1993.
c. UP 963B was renumbered from UP 970B on 20 April 1993 while being repainted at VMV upon completion of remanufacture; although the unit is the former UP 970B, the frame number was misread by a railfan (frame number 2070-B4 vs. 2072-B4) and the unit was widely reported as being originally UP 963B. The frame number was later verified as being 2072-B4, making the unit UP 970B. Without any conflicting numbers on UP at the time, the new number was retained to both simplfy records, and to avoid additional costs of unnecessary changing of company records.
d. Fully repainted by Mid America Car in Kansas City in July 2005.
-----from Utah Rail's website



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/17 14:46 by dan.

---

---

---

couple threads with 2 clips


https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?4,2885026,2885026#2885026

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3255691,3255691#3255691


really smokey leaving Cheyenne as the rear 2 units had been idleing since omaha



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/17 14:53 by dan.

---

---

---

One of the few cases I know where a museum donated a locomotive to the railroad!

Z

I understand the unit was "Rebuilt by ICG-Paducah to unpowered steam generator car 1919 in late 1975 and renumbered 669 mid-1977". Who used it as a steam generator? Was this done for the original auto-train Corp? Was it sold in the AT auction in 1981? Or was it always Amtrak? Did it get leased to auto-train or used by auto-train?

just amtrak it looks like