The ALCOP train

Initially, Military staff hoped to obtain surplus cars from AMTRAK at a reasonable price. However, in early January 1982, Mr. Frank Jones, General Manager of the Alaska Railroad (ARR), offered to provide cars free of charge from surplus stocks. He also agreed to allow AAC free access to the Alaska Railroad's track system and provide, at cost, locomotive service to pull the cars. The Army took up Mr. Jones' offer.
By May 1982 four of the five cars needed were delivered from ARR to Elmendorf AFB, the fifth arriving later in the year. These included a heavyweight passenger and a heavyweight baggage car from the early 1950s. Teams from the 21 Civil Engineering Squadron and 1931 Communications Group (AFCC) together with maintenance personnel from ARR began converting the cars into the ALCOP immediately. Military personnel renovated the electrical, heating and ventilation systems; designed, built and installed the communications consoles and equipment. Alaska Railroad personnel rebuilt the undercarriages of the cars to bring them up to federal standards.
In early October 1982 the renovation teams had converted all five of the needed cars:

• The first of two 80-foot passenger cars was converted into a command and control center equipped with radio and telecommunications equipment, microcomputers, and stations for the battle commander, operations staff, and support personnel.
  Communications equipment for the train was obtained from existing commercial resources. The equipment consisted of HF radios that provided voice and secure teletype communications, multichannel UHF transceivers, 100 and 60 word per minute teletype transceivers, and seven push-button telephones. This system provided access to both commercial and AUTOVON subscribers. The ALCOP Commander and his staff had the capability to talk with the National Command Authority as well as other command and control facilities.
• The second passenger car was refurbished with 14 bunks for sleeping, a kitchen and dining area, bath facilities and a place for crew rest.
• Storage tanks for fresh and waste water were installed in an insulated box car.
• The utility car sent to the command housed electric generators and fuel for heating, lighting, and power production. It looked like a box car but the roof could be unbolted and removed to remove the two large generators.
• The last car was a tank car which carried fuel for long term deployments.

All the windows had welded on sheet metal covers. When the body work was done they were painted in Alaska Railroad colors and looked like passenger cars -- except there were no windows and about 50 antennas on the roof.

Because the train had to be ready for action on short notice, they wanted to have a dedicated locomotive. This is where 1718 from the ARR came in. Many hours were spent designing and installing the communications equipment. In the early 1980s the 1718 was painted sort of yellow (it was called the screaming yellow zonker by the railroad engine crews). In 1982 it was repainted to Alaska Railroad blue and yellow and got its ARR number 1718.

Unit 1718 in its new Alaska RR paintingscheme. Anchorage, june 16, 1982. Picture from the may 1984 issue of Extra 2200 South (issue 80). Photo by Curt Fortenberry, scan by Stefan Nicolaļ

The train went under several names, mostly it was the ALCOP [an accronym for ALternate COmmand Post]. Mostly it was just called "the train". It was deactivated about 1992, a victim of the fall of the USSR.

Some of the information concerning the ALCOP train was distilled from a document, named:

AN ACE IN THE HOLE

a study of Alaska's Railmobile Command Post

by TSgt William J. Allen
Historian

Eleventh Air Control Wing
Elmendorf Consolidated History Office
Elmendorf AFB
Alaska

(13 January 1993)