Engine 557 Restoration Company
Progress Report February 2020

Unless you live in the high latitudes you probably don’t notice the restorative aspects of sunlight. On February 8, 2020 I took this photo of the North bound Anchorage/Fairbanks passenger train at 9:45 a.m. as it passed the 557 Engine house. Compare it to this view taken at the same hour on January 4, 2020 at 14° below. By April 15th we will have 12 hours of daylight so we are currently adding better than 6 minutes per day. Leaving the winter doldrums we are waking up to spring with the Anchorage Fur Rendezvous winter carnival, dog races, and the Great Alaskan Train Show. Engine 557 joins with the Military Society of Model Engineers with a nine day exhibit of trains in the Historic Anchorage Depot. The 557 Exhibit will be manned to meet the crowds to come.

What others say about 557:

Andy Wartman, "Great report, great progress, great transparency."

From long time supporter, Don Marenzi, of Newark, California came a brief yellow sticky pad note, "Hi, Make her run!!! High Green!!" accompanied by a $1,000 donation check. My immediate response was, “WOW!  Above and beyond, we have your generous donation in the bank.” What’s more it was matched with another $1,000 from matching pledges.

Don came back with, “ I really wanna see her run! The common name our group goes by, is the Railroad Museum at Ardenwood. The longer formal name; "Society for the Preservation of Carter Railroad Resources" (SPCRR) was too cumbersome; and our collection evolved past just the Carter built cars.“ “Also, if any of 557's crew or supporters are headed down this way have them get in touch with me.  We'll give them the "grand" tour.  Also can advise them about other rail and non rail stuff to do if they wish.” DonMarenzi@aol.com

The value of compounding contributions is demonstrated by generous donations from Lewis Hicks a retired GE employee. Lewis donated $100 last summer, the GE foundation matched that with another $100 received in February 2020. With matching pledges we were able to double the February portion with another $100 so the total was $300.00. Lewis sent another $200 in February 2020 and that will be matched by GE as well bringing it to $400 which will in turn be matched again by $400 from the 557 matching pledges. So by coincidence of timing the $300.00 commitment by Lewis Hicks will turn into $1100.00 with all the match in place. THANKS! to Lewis Hicks, who is also an active volunteer with the Kentucky Railroad Museum in New Haven, Kentucky.

Improvements to our work environment come in small increments:

David Lucas just added more shelving and storage boxes for safety gear. Hard hats, Face Shields, Eye and Ear protection now have dedicated storage boxes that will keep them organized and protected from the “DIRT” environment of the Engine House.

Our old Atlas 3991 lathe was showing its age and past years of abuse when a gear failed. Jerry Peters took on the task of doing a total overhaul of the machine, replacing some gears and bearings purchased from Clausing (info@clausingsc.com). Along the way he polished and lubricated many components that had been overlooked while in use by previous owners. The machine was one of the first donations to our machine shop, a hand me up from Dick Morris.

Progress is not always measured in major milestones but rather in fits and starts. In the past month many of those commonly overlooked tasks got completed and documented.

Ken Elmore has been working on dressing up the fuel bunker in the tender. The bunker lid, when open, rests on a rubber bumper to keep it clear of the bunker air vent and cap. There is a stainless steel screen filter with 1/8” perforations fixed in the bunker opening (to catch your glasses and cell phone). There is also a rubber sealing gasket around the lid now.

With the tank sealed up, a dedicated AIR VENT is a must or the fuel would not flow by gravity and the tank could collapse under vacuum. The vent is painted gray and serves also as a T handle for removing the two inch vented plug. With the gray vent assembly removed, our fuel dip stick can measure the depth of fuel in the tank on a graduated scale calibrated to the slope of the tank. When not in use, the dip stick rides in a 2” ABS tube mounted at an angle down the left side of the bunker opening. This will keep the stick clean and collect oil from the dip stick in the bottom of the tube, subject to occasional draining.

Fire pan bracket connections are progressing as fast as Jerry Cunnington produces the taper fitted bolts to go through the holes in the bracket, waste sheet and mud ring. This is a gang effort, as the volunteers work under direction of Paul Dalleska.

Ron Dudley salvaged the old fire pan damper door, welded up some ancient goober welds and cleaned it up for future use when the new belly is built in sections for the fire pan.

Angle iron 2”X2” is mounted on stand offs 2 5/8” from the back head forming the foundation support for insulation and sheet metal lagging. Brackets under the fire door support two pieces of the air duct and damper, controlling combustion air coming from below the cab into the firebox door opening.

Another addition to the firing deck, are the new hinges for the firing deck apron. The originals were barn door hinges with 1/4” pins. The new socket end of the hinge is welded to a mounting plate secured by two 5/8 bolts. The male end of the hinge sports a 1/2 inch pin welded directly to the apron. To assemble the apron on the firing deck we only need remove 2 bolts on one of the socket ends, slide the male pins into place and replace the two bolts. There are convenient zerk grease fittings on the socket ends. When the weather warms up the apron will get appropriate protective coatings and a non skid surface.

Volunteer Mike Mckervey, cleaned and assembled the parts of an Ashcroft dead weight tester, to complete an inventory. Tom Bauer of the Bucksgahuda and Western Railroad in St Marys, Pennsylvania, arranged the sale of this much needed service item for testing gauges in our 557 Engine House. In follow up we got this message from Tom; “Glad the tester arrived and was put together and looks like all is well. The check came yesterday so it could not have worked out any better. If we get up that way we will stop; all here love trains. And the same goes here, when you are in PA look us up.”

Driver set # 4 was moved from storage in the ARR section gang warehouse, into the 557 Engine House. It was positioned for show and tell for visitors and to verify measurements for new bronze crank pin bushings for the side rods. During storage the thrust plate and bearing surfaces were all covered in grease and wrapped in lumber core plywood strips and duct tape. The four 57 inch driver sets were remachined under direction of Robert Franzen, Steam Services of America at the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum back in 2015. Hopefully they will be back under 557 this summer.

The connecting rods are being matched with new 937 grade bronze bushings being machined by Jeff DeBroeck. Some of these bushings are restrained by Bolt Retainers inserted from the bottom of the rod. These bolts are in turn secured with a formed nut keeper of 12 gauge plate bent over the edge of the rod and up alongside the bolt head after the bolt is secured. James Keene and Ken Elmore made up an inventory of these new keepers. They are a one use safety device like cotter pins.

While not milestones, installation of the locomotive brake bell cranks and air brake cylinders was a big deal for the volunteers who completed the job. Both of these components were overhauled many months ago and have been waiting their turn in the assembly time line. Ron Dudley commented “It sure feels great to install parts that do not have to come off again!”

The two brake rigging bell cranks are fitted on a new trunnion of 4140 steel along with spacers and mounting brackets and then lowered between the frames. There are seven taper fitted bolts securing each side of the support brackets. The brackets are aligned and supported on pipe sections extended through mounting holes while the bolts are fitted. There were smiles all around (Paul Dalleska, Ron Dudley, Mike McKervey and Gene Augustine) when the tapered bolts were torqued up and secured. The bell crank arms will actually ride below the front axle when completed.

The 14” X 10” air brake cylinders were lifted into place with a stinger on our small fork lift, one at a time. Paul started the nuts on studs to secure the first cylinder. The second brake cylinder is then inserted from the end of the stinger. With both brake cylinders in place on the support, they now await tourquing to 320 pounds and addition of lock nuts.

Of all the heart warming and uplifting promises of the coming spring, I would be remiss if we failed to mention a major contribution from The Kahiltna Charitable Fund for $10,000.00. For the fifth time Engine 557 Restoration Company has been blessed with such a gift from the fund. This year it is being matched with another $10,000 from the generous pledges of Jim and Vic Jansen, Dick Morris and Dennis & Diane.

You can help us capture the remaining $20,300.00 in pledged match, by sending your contribution today. Keep the sun shinning on 557 as we enter the final assembly stages of restoration.

Patrick J. Durand, President

 

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