Engine 557 Restoration Company
Progress Report June 2019

 

Evidence of life at the 557 Engine house, 8 volunteer cars and 2 motorcycles, confirms the continued dedication of our 557 volunteers on Thursday, June 13. They were here in full support of Mr. Bob Gold, of Steam Services of America during his second two week work window.

First came the hammering of the stay bolts in the throat sheet. Tom Walker and Terry Douglas were bucking flexi bolts with the bucking bar suspended on a trapeze between two small chain hoists.

Fitting the firebox corners is a multi stage process that truly is art. The first step compares a roughly formed corner to the open corner. Then repeated fittings and grinding the bevel for a full penetration weld. Tom Walker checked weld prep in the corners. When the plate makes a fitted corner it is then time to set up for the final adjustment.

After all that hammering and repeated heating the four corner pieces were delivered to ROTEQ Alaska where Mr. Jeremy Ring put them in their heat treat oven for stress relieving. Delivered on one morning, they were subjected to 1150 degrees for several hours and then left in the oven to cool overnight. ROTEQ is only a half mile from the 557 shop and Jeremy called the next morning for a pickup. Not only is this service top notch, ROTEQ made this an in-kind donation!

The finished corner weld is worth all the effort. The last step will be adding the last few staybolts and adding the hot rivets in the mud ring. So why leave the corners until last? The original firebox was all assembled outside of the locomotive, hoisted into place and then riveted in place. The corners in the original 3/8 inch fire box were cracked between the rivets. Leaving the corners out allows better cleaning of the mud ring after installation of all the staybolts. With the fitted corners there is less stress in the material when it is riveted in place.

Lynn, Mike and Gene inventoried and boxed all spare staybolts after giving them a good coat of preservative. They will be available if needed in the future.

At the invitation of the Palmer Chamber of Commerce, 557 put on a display at the Palmer Depot on June 8th. Joan Taylor, Ed Kovich and new volunteer, Paul Zargoza helped the set up under the eves of the Depot on a nice mild day. Paul is a retired flight engineer from the fleet of Lynden Air stretched C-130 freighters. Being right on the Colony Days Parade Route and just down the platform from the only public restrooms, assured regular visitors to our show and we put $380.00 in the 557 tank!

The saga of springs for suspension on Engine 557.

Baldwin provided two groups of 4 springs under the s-160 locomotive. The four on the front two axles conformed to Baldwin drawing #762 S 16840 and on inspection appeared nearly new.

The four springs on axles 3 and 4 were suspect from first glance. Only one spring set conformed to the Baldwin drawing 762 S 16850 . The other three were cobbled together from odd springs and there were broken or cracked springs in each set.

Working from recommendations of restoration groups we contacted six different firms in the U.S. but no one could obtain the 4.5” wide material in the 7/16” thickness required by the drawings. Everyone was willing to redesign the spring set with various materials but all required major revisions which we did not want to compromise on.

Peter Best was deep into the restoration of s-160 #2253 in England and all their spring sets were reconditioned and repaired by Owen Springs in Rotherham, South Yorkshire United Kingdom. 557 established e-mail contact with John Whittaker and worked out all the details related to the Baldwin drawing. By October 16, 2018 we had a quote in hand and we sent them a check and orders to proceed. The total cost for the four spring sets came to $8,250 U.S. FOB Rotherham. They estimated 10 to 12 weeks for completion and they were doing the Certification for Conformity on January 28, 2019. We gave them a lot of lead time.

Having major sponsors in the transportation business, I contacted Scott Hicks, 557 board member and President of Alaska Marine Trucking, Inc. a part of the “Lynden” family of Companies. “Hey Scott, I have 300 kilograms of springs on a pallet in Rotherham that need to move to Wasilla, Alaska. What can we do? The response was “Let me check on it.” He turned the task over to Keith Hall with Lynden International in Anchorage. I checked once with Keith and he indicated the shipment was on the water and expected about June 8th, 2019 in Anchorage.

Lynden Anchorage Terminal called for a pickup on June 4th and advised the charges would be $227.04. In disbelief I asked her to repeat that 4 times. When I got around to pick up on June 7th, I signed for the delivery and she was sending me to the warehouse when I asked about the bill. She said the balance was “0”.

In back checking The door to door cost would have been $1586.00, plus $291.51 in US Customs Duties and Taxes. This adds to the long list of in-kind contributions to 557 provided by our committed friends at Lynden.

Since the beginning of the 557 project, the Lynden family from JJ and Vic to Scott and Keith and all the dedicated people who work for them have been in total support. The 557 volunteers and I cannot say thank you in big enough letters!

You can visit Lynden Trucking on the go here.

Just reading the shipping label tells part of the story. leaving Rotherham, UK the pallet went to Hamburg Germany where it was loaded April 10 in a container destined to Seattle sailing on the QUEBEC EXPRESS April 20, 2019. No indication how it got across the continent but it eventually made it to Seattle and became Lynden Transport PRO 6786793-7 arriving in Anchorage on June 4, 2019.

The springs are here, they perfectly match the Baldwin drawing, they are fully documented. We could not ask for more.

You can see Owen Springs in action.

Owen Springs Ltd Aldwarke Terrace
Aldwarke Road, Parkgate Rotherham
South Yorkshire S62 6BX
Tel No: +44(0) 1709 710700 Fax No: +44(0) 1709 710666 Vat No: GB 153135438

The 2019 Fire and Ice Art show at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry on Saturday, June 22, featured the annual iron pour. Patrick Garley of Arctic Fires Bronze organized the event and adapted the old fire door air deflector to make a new pattern. Starting preheat about 10 am they were charging the furnace by 11a.m. and about an hour later they were pouring iron. Make no mistake, metal that glows orange in bright sunlight is HOT. About 45 minutes later broke out a new replacement for the LLW 109 component. All this work by volunteers as a public demonstration. Cost to 557, zip. Thanks to the entire crew!

557 came to the ARR as a coal burner and was not converted to oil until the mid-1950s, so this component of the oil burning system was not original to the locomotive. It (and the tender with an oil tank) probably came from the one of the Lima built ARR USATC 0-6-0 which was configured to burn oil. Possibly 312 or 313 which were retained in Whittier to switch the oil tank farms and docks.

LORAM is in Alaska with its DC-4 Ditching machine. LORAM, President and CEO Phil J. Homan and Brandon Riddering Director, Marketing, have provided technical information on the Ditcher which is much different than a ballast cleaner.
The Loram Ditcher is a high power, self-propelled  piece of equipment that only excavates material.  In fact, it is capable of moving as much as 800 tons of material per hour. The business end of the Ditcher is an articulating cutting wheel that can cut a swath that varies from 30-54” wide and at a depth as low as 6’ below the top of the rails.  It can cut a ditch as close as 6’ and to up to 22’ from the track center.   The results delivered are contoured ditches that maximize drainage capabilities for our customers.  The Loram Ditcher also utilizes a swing conveyor that can dump the wasted material up to 35 feet on either side of the track center or can be discharged into a material handling car. 

The DC-4 Train equipment is self contained and was parked next to the 557 Engine House on the spur for service when these photos were taken.

LORAM made a major contribution to the Engine 557 Restoration Company in August of 2017. Past President of the Alaska Railroad, Chris Aadnesen, our 557 champion, made the appeal and contributions made by GREX and LORAM at a joint board meeting held here in Alaska totaled $10,000. We premiered our in-house produced video Engine 557-Restoring Alaskan History at their banquet. The evening added to the total with private donations. GREX has since merged into LORAM.

Stan Cohen and Blain Cornelison dedicated pages 140 and141 of their new book WORLD WAR TWO IN ALASKA AND NORTHWEST CANADA, to the service of S-160 locomotives during WWII in Alaska. Engine 557 is prominently featured in this excellent addition to the Forgotten War Series. Autographed copies are available for $30.00 as a fund raiser for 557. Pick up here at the engine house or send your order with a check for $37.00 to cover the book and priority mail shipment.

557 Volunteer Jerry Peters, retired ARR Master Mechanic, was joined by other ARR retirees, Jimmy Sava, Bill McClellan and Gale Weatherell on June 19, when they dropped in for a tour of the project. These gentlemen all worked with 557 before her retirement.

What others say about 557:

- This showed up in a random thread on Raiway Preservation News, that had wandered off into complaints that an organization was not keeping people up to date -    
“Personally, I think a website without comments would be easier to manage (ARR 557 groups' page comes to mind as a good one.)”

- From Lewis Hicks, Kentucky Railroad Museum.
“I’m impressed!! You have the most detailed and complete Steam locomotive Progress report of any I have been associated with. My wife loved your photo of 557’s  original firebox! Thank you for promoting the Kentucky Railway museum as well.”

Gavin Marriott became engineer of the day when he visited with Mom, Sarah and Grand parents, Danny and Kim on June 29th. At the age of four, Gavin takes railroading seriously.

Engine 557 Progress Reports will never be mistaken for great literature and many of the photos are marginal. Our goal is to document the 557 restoration including mention of the endless house keeping and administrative challenges. Recognition of volunteers, in-kind donors and financial sponsors is part of the job to be done. Every day brings new challenges and opportunities. The report summarizes how we cope with some of them. If we waited for just the right word or the award winning photos, we would never be done with the monthly report or the restoration.

On June 26, 2019 another milestone was achieved. The 557 tender has been setting on shop trucks for the past few years while new axles, double wear wheels, and roller bearings were installed in the adapted original side frames. The trucks were swapped out by the tender crew: Paul Dalleska, Mike McKervey, Pat Durand, Tom Walker, Ron Dudley, Ken Elmore and Gene Augustine. The tender is now complete short of connecting the brake rigging, and testing.

On the last day of June, Jeff DeBroeck lead the crew of Tom Walker and Terry Douglas in the task of moving 557 into daylight for the first time in three years! Taking advantage of a dry, hot weather window the crews will be sand blasting the boiler exterior and applying Apexior 1 high temp paint.

Other steaming events in Alaska!

- Mark your calendar for Saturday July 20, 2019 and make it to Fairbanks for the 120th birthday of Porter #1792 in Steam as the Tanana Valley Railroad #1. There will be a formal reenactment of the Gold Spike ceremony from 114 years ago starting at 2:00 p.m. Judge Wickersham, Falcon Joslen and other dignitaries of the day will be there. All part of Fairbanks Pioneer Days at Pioneer Park (Alaska Land) on Airport way. Engine 557 has a half page ad in the program.

- Via the railroad telegraph: from Conductor, James Ogden WP&Y No. 73 was loaded on a barge Monday, 17 June bound for Skagway and shake down tests with the first scheduled run July 8th. Running gear was all rebuilt, new pistons, new smokebox, new valves, new tires. Rumored expense was over $3 million. Looks brand new. As of today there has been no formal announcement on the return of #73.

The U.S. Army builders plate on 557 reads “70480 Sept 44”. So we are planning a 75th Birthday Party for Engine 557. Sunday, September 8th is Grandparents Day and suitable for a Birthday Party! From 1 to 4 pm the Wasilla engine house will be open for tours and there will be cake and light refreshments. Hope to see you here at the Engine House.

Patrick J. Durand, President

 

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