Engine 557 Restoration Company
Progress Report January 2020

After an unseasonably warm fall season, It suddenly became serious winter. The northbound passenger train passing the engine house at 9:45 a.m. on January 4th in minus -14° F weather set the tone for the month. It never got above freezing the entire month of January 2020. After several years of mild winters this was a wake up call and that is why it is called “climate change”; that is what it does. The volunteers continued showing up with no weather days off.

Maintaining our fleet of support equipment under these conditions can be challenging. Ron Dudley and Gene Augustine got the chore of installing a new engine tank heater on our Case 721 loader out side at 10 below. Then they were able to get it started and brought it inside for servicing. In winter it is used for occasional snow removal and we loan it to the Alaska Railroad Section Crew for loading their sanding truck.

Our fleet of Cat fork lifts makes up for the lack of an overhead crane. The 4 ton V-80 Cat came to us through Alaska Railroad Surplus and the smaller 2 ton Cat lift has been on indefinite loan from our sponsor Independent Truck Lift of Alaska since the start of the project.

Thanks to the response to our December fund raising request we have been able to commit to getting the driving boxes assembled with Babbited brasses and machined to fit the reconditioned axle driver sets. After crating in three boxes, 4800 pounds was delivered January 16 to Lynden Transport for delivery in Fife, Washington. UPS Trucking then made the interlined delivery to the shop in Indiana on January 30th.

Our wall of IN-KIND-CHAMPIONS continues to grow. We are ever thankful for their support that allows the volunteer crew to stretch every dollar contributed toward the restoration of Engine 557.

Confirmation of dimensions of the shoes and wedges and tramming information must be provided. Tom Walker took on the job of charting measurements for the record. Relative location of shoes and wedges is the reference written in the web side of each piece.

Tom Walker and Jerry Cunnington continued collecting relevant measurements such as Shoe to Wedge spacing at top, mid point and bottom. Then the face to face measurements across the frame to the outside face of the shoes and wedges was made with straight edges clamped across the assembly.

While reconditioning sight glass components, Jerry Peters took the initiative to number all the components that make up each of the valve assemblies. The assembly number will help keep all of these fitted parts together during inspections. Jerry has populated the Turret manifold with many of the original overhauled angle valves. Some replacements will be required.

Old soft copper tube is used to make rough templates before new heavy wall copper is annealed and formed with tube benders for the final installation as the syphon tube going to the pressure gauge. Bread boarding trials take time but eventually result in clean installations.

Jerry Cunnington is making up 12 new taper fitted bolts to be used where the new Firepan support brackets will be bolted up to the rear waste sheets and the mud ring casting. These are being made from 12L14 steel hex stock machined with a 1/16” taper per foot. The reworked forward end of the fire pan will then mount across the top of these brackets. After the tubes are installed and hydro completed the three sections forming the bottom of the fire pan will be fabricated. It is our intention to make final assembly with bolts around the fire pan end section, so the bottom sections can be removed over the top of the drivers when required for access in the future.

Jerry Cunnington, Tom Walker and Jeff DeBroeck verifying the “as is” condition of a connecting rod with drawings prior to machining a new bearing brass. The crew then mounted the main connecting rod set up on the milling machine.

Jeff DeBroeck then proceeded to clean up the main connecting rod end to accept a new bearing brass bushing.

We appreciate the constructive comments and take active note of what other say about the 557 project:

Sean Davidson, Senior Sales Executive for Airwork North American visited the 557 in December and followed up with this comment to Dick Morris our Sec/treas.
“I truly applaud you and Pat for all the work you have done thus far and plan to continue to do for Engine 557.  Since my visit, I must have shown a dozen people the videos I took while onsite.  It is a fascinating story and people enjoy hearing about great people doing amazing things!”

Visitors, Jim and Jane Iskiyan from Tucson, Arizona visit family here in Wasilla each year. They came by with twelve 557 hats as a donation from their embroidery business, J&J Monograms in Tucson. “We love following the progress reports between our visits to 557.

Dear Engine 557 Restoration Company (FM166), The Kroger Co. Family of Stores is committed to bringing hope and help to the local neighborhoods we call home. Our stores are on a mission to not just part of, but to help create a stronger community. We recognize that every community has unique causes that need support. Thank you for being such an important organization in our community. We encourage you to ask your supporters to link their rewards card to your organization. Community Rewards is easy to use, The more your supporters shop with us, the more money your organization will earn! We are committed to carefully protecting our customer's personal information. In order to meet their expectation of privacy, we have adopted a simple policy to never share a customer's personal information. Our privacy policy applies to Community Rewards participation as well. Thank you for being such an important organization in our community, Community Rewards Staff

01-Oct-2019 to 31-Dec-2019   26 Households   $ 96.53 Total Donations

Please consider adding your household to the Fred Meyer/Kroger Community Rewards Program.

For those who love a challenge, there is still about $32,000 in the matching pledge hopper. Your contributions will be matched dollar for dollar!

Patrick J. Durand, President

 

Back