To the regular followers of 557 progress reports you probably have been wondering what happened to the reporter as it has been nearly 90 days since the last one. We have been busy and time does fly while we are having fun getting dirty. Thanks to our Volunteer 557 Mechanical Department crew a great deal has been accomplished as you will see.

First take note of the unsung volunteers who rarely visit the engine house. Dick Morris our Secretary / Treasurer provided the very first elevation drawings made from pieced together sheets, back when we were told there were no s-160 drawings. His persistence over the past 20 months has resulted in a near complete set of drawings, most now in a cataloged digital form.

Dick also leads the effort to get our 501 (c) 3 designation established with the pro-bona help of Davis, Wright, Tremain. He has taken on the burden of completing our tax returns and developing a budget that meets the requirements or our funding agencies in cooperation with the Alaska Community Foundation and the Rasmuson Foundation. He would much prefer to be working with the machine tools at the engine house.

Maria Keefer, volunteers as our chief grant writer and has worked with Dick to prepare a $10,000 exceptional merit grant request to the National Railway Historical Society. She is a very organized lady and with Dick's knowledge of our funding situation they make a great team. Wish us luck and if you are an NRHS member please take a few moments to send a letter of support for the Engine 557 Restoration request to the Director of Grants at the NRHS.

Maria, and Dick also cooperated in putting together our display at the Anchorage Depot during Anchorage Fur Rendezvous February 22 to March 2, 2014. Ron Dudley, Ken Elmore, James Keene and Lynn Willis, shown here, staffed the Rondy exhibit.

The Kuznicki family came by and donated this photo of taken by their dad, Ed back in 1959. Yes that is 557 on the Anchorage platform with 8 passenger cars in tow.

Retired, locomotive engineer Herb Worthley, was at the depot and offered these observations. "557 was retired due to the fire box wear and one safety valve was set considerably below the boiler design pressure." He said his recollection was that the steam locomotives operated in the 180s and he didn't think they operated in the 225 range. All the steam records were lost in a round house fire but Herb's recollections are confirmed by the conditions revealed when the interior firebox sheets were ultra sounded and eventually removed. Also found that the unmuffled safety valve was set at 190 psi not the 225 of the original boiler design.

Here is the rear flue sheet prior to removal. In addition to cracks between the tube holes there was considerable erosion on the water side of the sheet. Here is the rear tube sheet out of the boiler. Steam Services of America will use this and the rear door sheets as templates to fabricate new sheets.

Jeff DeBroeck, CMO and Robert Franzen of Steam Services of America are here examining erosion of the crown sheet which started out as 3/8 plate. The plan is to have the crown sheet and both side sheets replaced with 7/16 plate.

Here is the "brain trust" Patrick Durand, President, Robert Franzen P.E., Dick Morris, Secretary Treasurer and Jeff DeBroeck CMO, consulting on Coles safety valves. Decisions, decisions need to be made as in, do we spend several hundred dollars to have custom springs made and machine new buttons, or wait and see what turns up. As an alternative replacement Consolidated valves would cost about $3,800. ea. After a weekend working with our Professional Engineer, Robert Franzen, our focus is getting the interior rear door sheet removed so it can be sent south along with the rear tube sheet as templates for manufacturing the replacements.

Jerry Cunnington is leading the way on removing rivets from the mud ring,  here assisted by James Farnham a member of the #1 steam group from Fairbanks who came down to help us out for the week. George Fellers and Lynn Willis have been concentrating on grinding the exterior and interior heads off the old stay-bolts to facilitate their removal. Art Chase "The boiler rat" has recently made two extended visits from Fairbanks to help us out. Here he is grinding some of those pesky stay-bolt heads from the interior door sheet.

Thanks to volunteers Larry Erickson,  James Farnum and CMO, Jeff DeBroeck the fabrication and welding on the new set of forks for the Case 721 loader was accomplished.  Also thank the crew from Greatland Welding and Machine.  Gary Feaster, not only supplied the steel for the fork lift upgrade, but Dan Lucus fabricated and machined the components ready for assembly.

With a serviceable set of forks the fuel bunker was then removed from the tender to reveal that both the bunker and the tank below it are in excellent condition after 60 years.  Needle scaling, light sand blasting and paint will do the exterior. Even the wood sleepers in the bottom of the fuel bunker space were still intact and doing their job.

With good weather and all the snow gone in Wasilla we used the loader to clean up and relocate our storage items in the parking lot. Here is the fuel bunker stored outside.

George Fellers and Lynn Willis have been concentrating on grinding the exterior and interior heads off the old stay-bolts to facilitate their removal. This is slow work as we must avoid any damage to the exterior sheets.

Doug Vanwingerden has committed to work in our machine shop on Thursdays. He has already installed an X axis drive on the milling machine and given it a thorough clean up. The Lodge & Shipley 12 " lathe is now ready to perform some work. We are still looking for retired machinist who can give us some time making new bushings and pins for brake rigging and some appliances.

In addition to those folks mentioned above, in recent weeks we have had as many as 9 volunteers in the crew in one day. Our regulars are still with us. Ron Dudley, Stewart Sterling, Dean Sawyer, Jerry Christensen, Ken Elmore, Nathan Elmore, David Lucus, Brad Porter, Randy Thompson and Kirk Waldhaus.

There have been two spells of nice weather so far where the snow has been gone. This morning we have 4 inches on the deck, but with more than 12 hours of sun, now it won't last long.

Over the past 20 months I have made several appeals here for cash donations. in addition we have sold "557 Revival Ale". The day trip on the Denali Business car and other prizes from the Alaska Railroad and Chena Hot Springs resort made our Denali Raffle a success. Now we are in the fine art business selling 557 numbered prints of "Extra 557 Returning" by noted artist J. Craig Thorpe.

On May 2, 2014, at 5:57 p.m. The original of "Extra 557 Returning" will be revealed at a public presentation in the Historic Anchorage Depot. J. Craig Thorpe will have a presentation on the relevance of railroad art and special presentations to major donors will be made at that time. You are invited to attend.

Here is the order form for "Extra 557 Returning". If you have all the railroad art you need then send us a nice cash donation to:

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

The crew looks forward to greeting you at the engine house in Wasilla.

Patrick Durand, President