Roster information on the CR&NW is very hard to come by. Much of what I have on freight cars is thanks to Ron Simpson, who posted what he had for freight car information on trainsim.com back in 2006. I saved his notes, and have been working on augmenting them since. Locomotive data uses Howard Clifford’s “Alaska/Yukon Railroads: An Illustrated History” as a starting point.
Contributions Welcome! A little tidbit here and there may go a long way towards filling in the gaps in an all-time CRNW roster.
Locomotives
| Road # | Wheel Arr. | Builder / SN Build Date | Description & Notes |
| 1 | 0-4-0T | Dickson 41749 Jan 1907 | Delivered to Katalla To CRNW in Cordova 1908 To Aloha Lumber Co #1 |
| 2 | 0-4-0T | Dickson 41750 Jan 1907 | Delivered to Katalla To CRNW in Cordova 1908 To Willapa Harbor Lumber Mills #5 To Port of Grays Harbor #5 |
| 3 | 0-4-0T | Dickson 41751 Jan 1907 | Delivered to Katalla To CRNW in Cordova 1908 Sold to Alaska Anthracite RR #3 1916 and abandoned at Bering River. See Surviving Equipment |
| 4 | 0-4-0T | Dickson 41753 Jan1907 | Delivered to Katalla To CRNW in Cordova 1908 Used by the Army post-1942 until a boiler explosion |
| 5 | 0-4-0T | Dickson 42765 Apr 1907 | Delivered to Katalla To CRNW in Cordova 1908 |
| 6 | 0-4-0T | Dickson 42767 May 1907 | Delivered to Katalla To CRNW in Cordova 1908 |
| 20 | 2-8-0 | Alco Rhode Island 44597 Nov 1907 | Scrapped Cordova ~1947 |
| 21 | 2-8-0 | Alco Rhode Island 44598 Nov 1907 | Scrapped Cordova ~1947 |
| 22 | 2-8-0 | Alco Rhode Island 44599 Nov 1907 | Scrapped Cordova ~1947 |
| 23 | 2-8-0 | Alco Rhode Island 44600 Nov 1907 | To US Army #23 1941 Disputed disposition – possibly in the ARR lot in 1946 and scrapped at Cordova, or alternately shipped to Ft. Richardson. |
| 50 | 4-6-0 | Baldwin 11265 Oct 1890 | Built Port Townsend Southern #4 To Columbia & Puget Sound #4 in 1897 To Copper River Railway #50 1906 To CR&NW #50 1907 Presumed scrapped at Cordova <1942 |
| 51 | 4-6-0 | Existance uncertain To Alaska Central #3 To CRNW #51 in 1907 Presumed scrapped at Cordova <1942 | |
| 70 | 2-8-2 | Alco Brooks 55490 Nov 1915 | To Midland Terminal #62 1940 To Noroeste de México #200 Dec 1948 To Chihuahua al Pacifico #200 |
| 71 | 2-8-2 | Alco Brooks 55491 Nov 1915 | Retired 1936 after fatal boiler explosion near Miles Glacier Sold to Alaska RR in 1946 lot Presumed scrapped at Cordova ~1947 |
| 72 | 2-8-2 | Alco Brooks 55492 Nov 1915 | To McCloud River #26 1938 Tender to Shevlin Hixon May 1947 Scrapped Nov 1955 |
| 73 | 2-8-2 | Alco Brooks 57291 Apr 1917 | To McCloud River #27 1938 Tender to Shevlin Hixon May 1947 Tender survives at Moses Lake, WA |
| 74 | 2-8-2 | Alco Brooks 58164 Aug 1917 | To Midland Terminal #63 1940 To Noroeste de México #201 Dec 1948 To Chihuahua al Pacifico #201 |
| 100 | 2-6-0 | Baldwin 9030 Jan 1898 | Built as Buffalo Rochester & Pittsburg 82 To CRNW 100 To US Army 6990 at Fort Richardson Supposedly to Elmendorf AFB |
| 101 | 2-6-0 | Alco Brooks 46183 May 1909 | To US Army 102 Supposedly to Elmendorf AFB |
| 102 | 2-6-0 | Alco Brooks 46184 May 1909 | To US Army 102 Supposedly to Elmendorf AFB |
Notes:
- The existance of #51 is disputed. It shows up in Clifford’s roster, but little substantiating evidence exists. As far as I can tell, nobody has a picture of it.
- Simpon notes 101-102 were used in pusher service at McCarthy and Chitina later in the road’s existance.
Freight Cars
| Road # | Type | Description & Notes |
| 1-100 | Side Dump Gon | Western Air Dump cars, 12 cu yd, 20t capacity Used mainly for hauling gravel and rock for MoW use |
| 151-159 | Flat | 25t flat cars |
| 251-256 | Wood Boxcar | 25t capacity |
| 261-265 | Wood Boxcar | 30t capacity |
| 281-288 | Wood Boxcar | 40t capacity. 288 noted as being combination box and stock car |
| 381-389 | Convert. Gondola | Hart Convertible Gondolas 40t capacity, 8 truss rods, wooden deck Later renumbered 3810-3840 Possibly originally Copper River Railway |
| 4xx | Wood Boxcar | A photo of an outside wooden braced boxcar at Cordova docks shows a number of 483 |
| 1101-11107 | Steel flat car | 50t capacity, primarily used for hauling sacked copper ore There were 107 of these – exact numbering unclear but 1101-1103 are known to exist, as are 11039, 11057 |
| 210xx | Wood Boxcar | A photo of an outside-braced box at Kennecott shows a number of 21019 |
| GATX 5300-5307 | Tank Car | 10,000 gallon GATX tank cars used for hauling fuel oil to the Kennecott mill |
Freight car mysteries:
- What’s up with the outside braced wooden boxcars, both the wood-brace varieties in the 400 numbers and the steel outside braced in the 21000 series?
- How do the numbers for the 1101-11107 steel flat cars work?
- Simpson lists 31 wooden flags and 20 steel boxcars in his October 1996 article in Wrangell-St. Elias News. Numbers for these remain unknown.
Passenger Cars
| Road # | Type | Description & Notes |
| 50-52 | Combine | Coach and mail/baggage. Clerestory roof wood cars |
| 100 | Diner/Observation | Named Stephen Birch |
| 101-104 | Day coach | Clerestory roof wooden 70′ open end Pullman cars |
| Unknown | Caboose | Wooden cabooses of various designs Caboose 014 had a large freight door at one end |
Passenger car mysteries:
- The Cordova Daily Times reported on May 11, 1916, that a private car was being shipped north from Seattle later that month. The car was painted Copper River & Northwestern Railway and gold-lettered “Kennecott” as a name. The heavyweight business car that became CB&Q Aleutian was built in 1923. So this couldn’t have been it…
- Several photos in the later days of CRNW operation show a round roof passenger coach. 101-104 and 50-52 are believed to be clerestory roof cars. What is this round roof car?
- How many cabooses were there, what was the design of each, and what were their numbers?
Maintenance of Way and Other On-Track Equipment
| Road # | Type | Description & Notes |
| X-1 | Rotary Plow | Built Nov 1908 by Cooke, serial 43669 To US Army / ARR after abandonment Never left Cordova, scrapped late 1940s |
| X-2 | Rotary Plow | Built Apr 1909 by Cooke as Katalla Co #12, serial 45969 To CRNW X-2 Sold to Sundfelt Equipment Co, Seattle, WA To Northern Pacific #44 Oct 1941 To BN 1970 Scrapped by Paper-Calmenson Co. Aug 1974 |
| X-3 | Rotary Plow | Built Jan 1912 by Rogers, serial 50661 To Northern Pacific #55 1941 Retired May 10, 1955, scrapped |
| X-4 | Rotary Plow | Built Sep 1915 by Cooke, serial 54787 Arrived Cordova Nov 1, 1915 on freighter Cordova Sold to Sundfelt Equipment Co, Seattle, WA To Northern Pacific #46 in 1941 Converted to electric operations 1966 Renumbered Northern Pacific #47 Feb 1970 To BN #972559 in 1970, BNSF 972559 in 1996 Active on BNSF today – see Surviving Equipment |
| X-33 | Steam shovel | There were possibly up to 4 steam shovels on the CRNW X-33 is former Katalla Company, shipped over from Katalla Cordova Daily Times notes another arrived May 30, 1917 |
| Various | Ford Model T | The CR&NW had a large number of Ford Model Ts and As converted for on-rail use. See Ford Cars page. |
MoW Equipment Mysteries:
(oh, there are so many…)
- The road had cranes and pile drivers, but I haven’t found any pictures or information to reveal anything about them.
- How many Model Ts were there? The highest number I’ve seen on one is 26.
- Little/no information seems to exist on the work train, but photos show bunk cars, a diner, and others.
- A “winged plow” invented by Charles Dustin (a cousin to the Jordan spreader) was built in the CRNW Cordova shops and put into service with the rotaries in the winter of 1921-1922 per the Cordova Daily Times.
- Some sort of spreader – Jordan or otherwise – shows up on work trains and in WWII-era Cordova yard shots. Is this the “winged plow” from 1922, or another spreader?