Engine 557 Restoration Company
Progress Report August 2020

Gene Augustine took advantage of reduced fares for a round trip ride from Anchorage to Fairbanks on the Alaska Railroad Denali Star. Approaching the 557 Engine House he had the vantage point of the open platform atop the observation deck. As usual the 557 crew was on hand to greet the North bound train.

From Fred Meyer/Kroger stores, in the most recent quarter ending in June, reported with 26 families participating and total donation was $93.63. This could be real money if we had 260 families participating. It really is painless if you shop at any of the Fred Meyer/Kroger locations, check this out and sign up. If not for 557 then support your favorite non-profit organization. Please go to: https://www.fredmeyer.com/i/community/community-rewards and select “Engine 557 Restoration Company” at “Reenroll or link your Rewards Card now.”

Mr. Doug Johnson of Anchorage sent us another $100.00 donation to charge against the matching fund!

Great news from Benevity is that Alaska Airlines has sent us the $500.00 match for the generous donation made by Paul Z, a few months ago. Paul is an Alaska Airlines Pilot and his original $500.00 donation was also matched by our year end fund. Total accrued for 557 by Paul was $1500.00.

The Kahiltna Charitable Trust at the behest of Mr. Paul Bates delivered an unrestricted $10,000 check to Engine 557 Restoration Company on August 11, 2020. This will close out the remaining matching funds from our year end 2019 fund raiser. This is the second grant of $10,000 received from the Trust this year. Mr. Paul Bates is also leading our group in preparing a long range business plan for Engine 557 Restoration Company.

Tom Simson and his son Ronan stopped in with a donation of two sets of Lisle stones and wipers for our honing tool. Tom is the local Snap-on Tool representative and has followed the 557 project from the beginning. Thanks guys for being 557 in-kind Champions.

Long time steamer friend Jerry Ware came in to donate a very nice little tallow pot that still had journal oil in it.

A care package of 300 pound steam valves arrived from a live steam friend in Yakima, Washington.

While Jerry Peters was cleaning one of the large angle valves on the auxiliary steam turret, he discovered a crack in the seat of the union tail piece. Inspection revealed the crack ran the full length of the casting. Rather than replacing an entire angle valve ($400-$600) the 75 year old valve was salvaged when volunteer machinist Laverne Buller machined a replacement tail piece from 922 brass.

The final step in restoring the tender was completing the connection of the brake cylinder equalizer bar to the 5/16” chain for the hand brake. A long abandoned Pullman troop sleeper/box car conversion provided the needed brake chain clevis. Arctic Wire Rope and Supply provided the 5/16” G10 Alloy Connecting Link. Over the years of use the tender had acquired one brake rod that was about 6 inches two long. We found the right one under a tender at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry and made the swap.

Terry Douglas, Jerry Cunnington, Dean Sawyer, Mike McKervey and Jeff DeBroeck all ganged up on the job of setting up the brake rigging for minimum travel with all the new components in place while leaving the maximum amount of adjustment available for future wear. Now 60 pounds of air provides a full brake application with about 2.5” of brake cylinder piston travel.

Snakes on a Train? As 557 was taken apart, a hurry up job of labeling all the pipe sections was underway. All the bits and pieces were hung inside a 52 foot container until needed. With time available and good weather the pieces are taken out of storage and triaged. All steam pipes were checked for abrasion and pitting and determination was made regarding the suitable gauge of the pipe. i.e. single strength (schedule 40) or double strength (schedule 80). All steam pipes must meet our minimum standard of schedule 80 in service. Some pieces were saved as patterns to be replaced at assembly.

Serviceable sections were either sand blasted or wire wheeled. Steam pipes to be lagged were painted with Thermoline high temp paint. Pipes for water or fuel are primed with two part Clovaprime gray. Label info is now written on each pipe with permanent Milwaukee markers. Then back in storage until needed.

What others say:

Brandon King, Railroad Safety Inspector, Federal Railroad Administration Region 8, following an inspection of Engine 557 shops on August 17, 2020. His Inspection Report is now filed as part of our Form 4 documentation.

“Wow, congratulations to all! This is huge - to have our type of workmanship officially noted on record.” Tim Coahran, AKRR engineer and 557 volunteer from Fairbanks, Alaska.

Our August 21, 2020 annual board meeting was held via Zoom. Draft Minutes of the meeting were presented by Dick Morris. Paul Bates was elected to the Engine 557 Restoration Company Board of Directors. He was also selected as the first Chief Operating Officer (COO) responsible for the preparation of all strategic, operations and business plans of the Corporation. This is the first major step in preparing for the future transition from restoration to operations.

Sean Mesloh, Chief Mechanical Officer for Alaska Railroad was also elected as the 2nd Alaska Railroad representative on the Board. He has already undertaken the challenge of a cost estimate of all the associated components for PTC and an upgrade to 26NL brake in the cab of 557.

Burnishing a side rod knuckle pin was one of the last tasks in reconditioning the drive rods. All new bearing brasses have been installed and Dean Sawyer and Jeff DeBroeck test fit the rods on the driver crank pins.

Cradles were built for all the rod sections to protect them in storage and make transporting them in the shop safer. Ron, and Lynn Willis were loading a cradle before the rods got a good coat of LPS3 and were nested under the counter in storage.

David Lucas makes custom tools and storage pieces for 557 in his home shop where the jobs range from locomotive seat boxes to custom coffins.

There are no drawings of the locomotive brake system as it was a sub to Westinghouse. Laying it all out for inspection was a puzzle until we found the Rosetta stone. At deconstruction we had taken some photos and did some rudimentary labeling. By examining the wear patterns and the available markings brake rigging finally came together. All these components will receive our primer and top coat black paint after the egg shaped holes get new bushings of 1045 and new pins of 4140 made to three standard sizes. Laverne Buller has taken that job into his own machine shop.

On August 24, some narrow minded railroaders showed up at the 557 shop. Carl Wassink and Tom VanTassel are the organizers and the advance men for a crew flying in from Corry, Pennsylvania. The task at hand was collecting all the pieces of CLIMAX Class A # 313 and repacking them in a 40 foot trailer for a trip home. After 118 years in Alaska, 3 foot gauge Climax A-313 is going home to her birthplace in Corry.

The locomotive has been stored in a Conex at the CEI yard in Palmer for several years. Tom VanTassel was leading the crew unloading the container to inventory all the parts and reduce the weight so they could transfer the Conex to a street legal trailer. Tom Wassink posed with the T boiler when it saw light for the first time in many years. Both Erik and brother Kevin Christenson were on hand to help the load out. Erik has been handling the sale of the Climax from his father’s estate. All who knew Keith Christenson will remember him as “The man who saved the Climax A.” For trivia lovers, 313 is the only surviving Class A Climax of hundreds built.

The 557 crew was in full support, loaning tools, materials and moral encouragement for this recovery effort. There were many people involved from local companies including Airport Rentals, Central Environmental Inc and Lynden Transport. The Corry gang and some of their helpers posed during a break. Left to right: Gene Augustine (557), Gordy Smith, Norm Thomas, Steve Niederriter, Tom VanTassel, Chris and Tara Lyons (visiting in Palmer), Top row: Rusty Pochatko (ARR Manager Motive Power & Equipment), Donny Rossey, (Corry Videographer) and Carl Wassink. The 313 recovery story is best told at https://corryrails.com/.

Patrick J. Durand
President 557

 

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