August 18, 2013 marks the first year anniversary of the 557 Mechanical Department volunteer crews working on restoration of 557. You can review the past 557 Progress Reports for a step by step tour of progress in the steps toward returning 557 to steam. On August 7th Engine 557 Restoration Company board of directors held the first Annual Meeting of the Board. As President of the board, I presented a written Annual Report (Word or PDF) which is offered here as a summary of the years activity.

After 11 months spent dismantling 557, we actually began reconditioning parts and creating sub assemblies. Thanks to Roteq Alaska for their in-kind contribution of sand blasting and priming the 557 cab, completed in their shop about a half mile from the 557 Engine House. The cab in primer is getting the final touch ups before paint. We hope to have some of the interior wood in place along with windows and lettering for the NRHS national convention tour here on September 22, 2013.

Remains of the fire pan are retained for templates. The end panels will be retained but the curved bottom and draft door will be fabricated to be installed in sections and bolted in place.

Many visitors are showing up and we stand down from major work to share the project with them and make requests for donations. Explaining numbers for visitors provides a scale for the enormity of the job and our approach to meeting the challenge.

I recently hosted a visit from three Federal Railway Administration inspectors who spent several hours on a non work day at the 557 engine house. Here are some of their comments:

"Patrick, I have to say I learned more in two hours about steam locomotives than my previous entire life. It was very informative and educational, I certainly have a much higher appreciation of the work that goes into the restoration process. I have several years left with the FRA, I hope that I can make it up there for a ride. Thanks again for the education."

"Thank you so much for your gracious hospitality, and for taking the time to give us a tour of your facilities and letting us view the 557 and the restoration process which I know is a labor of love, for all concerned.  I look forward to following your progress at alaskarails.org.  Best of luck to you and all of the volunteers as you work to complete this endeavor…”   

And finally from Michael Ramsey, FRA Passenger Rail Safety Specialist,
"Thank You Patrick for taking the time to give us a tour and explain the project.  It is appreciated!  The restoration of the locomotive appears to be well organized and with an abundance of local support. I hope to be back when it is operational.
 
One thing that I didn't do ( I spent too much time talking.) was take any photos of the locomotive, primarily the boiler.  Do you have any photos you could share of the boiler in general, the firebox area (inside and out) and the mud ring? I will be assisting with some training for FRA and you don’t find the boiler separated from the frame too often."

Needless to say Michael now has lots of 557 boiler pictures credited to Engine 557 Restoration Company. Since his visit, Jeff DeBroeck and Ron Dudley removed the last of the super heater flues that had been left in place to secure the position of the front and rear flue sheets. Jeff is shown cutting out the last super heater flue. Note the four tubes extending through the rear sheet at the corners. These will provide a template for positioning the new rear flue sheet when it is installed.

In the smoke box end the front flue sheet is empty but for the four template ends protruding on the front end. Jeff & Ron with the last three super heater flues moving from the smoke box to out door storage. Jeff cutting out the arch tubes which supported the firebrick arch when the loco was a coal burner. These will not be needed when 557 returns to service as an oil burner.

It will take much longer to rebuild 557, than to reduce her to component parts. Nearly every part you pick up shows the ravages of time and in some cases a total lack of lubrication. We realized that the front engine truck was out of tram and discovered that the drawbar has a sever bend on one side. In addition the engine truck equalizer bar, fulcrum and equalizer in front of the first driver were badly worn. Fortunately we have blue prints for these components and when we totaled the lost material in the wear points it was over five inches. So there was not much equalization taking place, resulting in more load on the first driving axle and an out of tram and lightly loaded front engine truck.

Charlie Lanning at Unique Machine is bushing and repairing the cast iron fulcrum casting. Larry Erickson is building up the equalizer bar replacing missing material to bring it back to the blue print spec.

Preparing the drivers for ultrasound and x ray inspection is a multi stage process. Ron applies bearing protectors made from strips of lumber core plywood cut by Corey Brause of Small is Beautiful. They are held in place by hose clamps and then wrapped first with blue painters tape and finally duct tape to keep out dirt and protect them from sand blasting.

Richard and Gail Clinch are shown here scraping the accumulated loose paint, dirt and grease from the drivers in preparation for sand blasting. This step reduces the amount of trash getting into the blast media extending its life and cutting down the amount of trash to dispose of. In the process we found this label stenciled on the inside of the counterweight on two of the driver sets. As best we could make out it says TRANSPORTATION USA CORP MARIETTA PA. .......

To keep the dirt from sand blasting outside the engine house, a six man crew assembled a Shelter Logic tent which measures 20'X13' with an 8 ft high door. Twenty minutes after it went up a motor home pulled up and the President of Shelter Locgic Corp., Robert Silinski introduced himself. He was in route from Talkeetna to Seward on an extended Alaskan fishing vacation with his distributor for Russia from Moscow. They noticed the black tent and pulled in to take some photos and then we showed them 557. We purchased the tent on our special deal from Alaska Industrial Hardware. Will this visit be worth a nice donation from Shelter Logic? I made the ask.

If you made a cash donation in the past year, please consider another at this time. To keep on schedule with our Rasmuson matching fund we need to raise $15,000 per month between now and July 2014.

The last glass of 557 Revival Ale has been poured and that event raised about $7,000 after expenses. Please thank Steven and June at Arkose with a visit to their tasting room when you travel to Palmer. They are only a few blocks from the Alaska State Fair Grounds down Inner Springer road.

Patrick Durand, President
Engine 557 Restoration Company

Please make your generous donation to be matched by the Rasmuson Foundation.

Your check for $25.00 or more should be sent to:

Alaska Community Foundation 557 Fund
3201 C. Street Suite 110
Anchorage, Alaska 99503