Patrick J. Durand
During the 1948 Fur Rendezvous the Anchorage Kiwanis Club and the Alaska Railroad laid temporary track down the middle of 5th Avenue in Anchorage from C street down to the bluff at L street. Some riding cars were pulled behind Alaska Railroad Steam Dinky # 1. All 2000 school age kids in Anchorage got free rides. Regular fare was 10 cents. As a 4 year old that was my first memory of trains in Alaska.
My Mother, Betty, would take all us kids to Grandma Moffitt's house in Palmer. This entailed a ride on the Motorailer #213 or one of its sisters. Loaded 40 car coal trains came South from Sutton and Jonesville, through Palmer, Matanuska and Eklutna, enroute to the power plants in Anchorage, Elmendorf and Fort Richardson. We got to see all this action along the way.
1952 saw the arrival of an American Flyer S scale 4-4-2 and freight train under the Christmas tree at Grandpa Carl's house. My younger brothers, Mike and Bob joined me in trying to wear it out. Next year it was followed by a Lionel F3 AA train set in Lightning Stripe NYC gray paint with a Pennsy round window caboose, the operating milk car and diffco dump car. Grandpa even built a bunk house and train room on to the end of the garage at 1557 H Street so we could set up all the trains.
In 1956 our family of 7 moved into a 28 ft trailer and lean-to in Whittier. Our nearest neighbors were the Devian family living on the top floor of the ARR Depot. Mrs. Devian was Post Mistress, her husband was the Depot Agent and daughter Jean was the first real distraction from trains.
Every train passed within 75 feet of our front door. Most nights the old ALCO RS1 locomotives in blue and yellow would idle away as a sort of lullaby. The unforgettable governor controlled "Journal-Journal- Journal------journal ---------journal----------journal-------JOURNAL --JOURnal ---JOUrnal - Journal."
Kids would play engineer on a string of 14 steam locomotives stored near the Colombia Lumber Company track, at the yard throat in Whittier. These were long out of service and represented most every class of steam operated during WW II on the ARR. Roundtrip Anchorage/Whittier was $5.50. Portage/Whittier RT $1.10 or one-way was .55 cents.
Mr. Lee Nelson had an HO scale model railroad in the attic of his little railroad cottage on 2nd Avenue. He introduced me to John Haas and the other members of an informal group that became the Northern Lights Model Railroad Club with layout space in three different locations in the Alaska Railroad Diesel Shop. At age 14, I was in HO scale and enjoyed the club operations for years when I visited in Anchorage.
Back in Whittier, my railroad was confined to a 15"X40" module of single track and one switch on top of an Army issue four drawer dresser. In 1958 my scenery included a narrow highway and railroad grade merging to share space across a single lane bridge and into a tunnel protected by a little guard shack. The State built it after 40 years. My power supply was a 6 volt lantern battery. That Revel F-7 wore out a lot of rubber bands.
At that time, the family lived in the 14 story Hodge building (later Begich towers). A few floors down lived Commander Broland, USN Retired, with one bedroom full of HO scale where we built a logging empire, with Shay geared locomotives and a saw mill. The Whittier Railroad Club!
In 1960, I moved to Anchorage to finish high school and became a member of the Alaska Yukon Chapter of the National Railroad Historical Society, organized by Bill Thommason. We were active in preserving Locomotive #1000 and other rail artifacts that eventually found their way into the Transportation Museum Wasilla.
The US Army sent me an invitation to serve, and for the next three years I haunted rail roads from Baltimore RR Museum to Travel Town in LA. My first day pass from basic training at Fort Ord California, took me to Monterey and after a quick phone call I was on John Allen's door step. The next 8 hours was information overload as I absorbed as much as I could of the Gorre and Dephetid Railroad, which was legendary even in 1964. I road the rails cross country from Monterey to Baltimore, laying over at each stop for a day, it only took 12 days.
I ended my military career in Natrang Vietnam, where there was a major railroad terminal and train station all converted to housing for refugees. I took lots of slides there and talked to Vietnamese railroaders. ( A rail fan can stand along a railroad track anywhere in the world, another rail fan will come along and even if speaking different languages, a conversation about Big Boys and Crocodiles will ensue.
My 24 year employment as Sales Manager at Pictures Inc. in Anchorage, provided travel opportunities visiting Museums and Tourist Railroads around the country. This stoked my interest in furthering local preservation of Alaskan artifacts. Serving on the Board of the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry became a substitute for my modeling efforts. I encourage every model railroader to be a supporting member of their local railroad museum. If not us, who will see the job done?
1.5 inch scale is only slightly less demanding, but I am a member of Alaska Live Steamers Inc. and four other large scale live steam groups around the country. ALS is now located next door to the Transportation Museum in Wasilla. Projects completed, include a Southern Pacific P4 Pacific, Alaska Railroad F7 #1500 and four riding cars.
As an outreach for the Northern Lights MRR Club, several members built Slim Rail Modules to the Colorado Springs standards in HOn3. For years these have been displayed at shows around Anchorage. Members asked that I paint the backdrops and I have developed a technique of suggestive painting with very little detail that sets a scene and place for the railroad to reside.
One goal I set years ago was to build one of each class of Alaska Railroad Locomotives in each of the paint schemes the line used. The HO diesels are well underway and I am also producing plastic detail parts for 1.5 scale locomotives.
This model railroading is a great hobby! I don't see my wife often enough for her to get tired of me and we have raised two great sons who have followed the hobby with me over the years. See you along the tracks. Pat Durand
