Engine 557 Restoration Company
Progress Report September 2020

September came and went under the cloud of COVID-19. The Alaska State Fair was cancelled along with all the other social gatherings common to the harvest time here in Alaska. Alaska Railroad passenger service was further reduced with only one weekly train to Fairbanks North on Saturday and South on Sunday. One Hurricane turn on the first Thursday of each month. MOW crews get lots of track time between the freights and unit gravel trains. Lots of wind and rain here at the Engine House.

Alaska Railroad fan and employee, Mike Gerenday brought his family to the 557 Engine house for a brief visit. His son, Thomas got to ring our bells. Mike is totally immersed in the history and lore of the Alaska Railroad.

Projects big and small are ongoing. With the pilot braces in place the next job was bushing the hole in the pilot deck for the Bissell Post. Central Environmental Inc. loaned their portable boring bar and the crew built up the brackets to support it following instructions from Jeff DeBroeck. The upper bearing support was centered and plumb while, the bottom support was being secured. The boring bar was ready for work after hours of set up. The boring bar proceeds into the hole to bring the final bore plumb to accept the bushing. Tom Walker and Jerry Cunnington both took stints at the boring job but Dean Sawyer spent many hours tending the “boring” boring job. Getting close to the finished job you can see the step at the bottom of the bore where the bushing will rest after being pressed in the hole.

Jeff DeBroeck machined the OD of the bushing in the Lodge and Shipley lathe. Next step will be machining the ID to provide the 1/16” clearance on the Bissell post after assembly.

Work on Brake Beams and Brake Rods continues with painting and preparation of bushings. Lavern Buller came out to deliver new 4140 pins machined in his home shop.

David Lucas converted a surplus army typing desk into a heavy duty roll around table. It currently supports all the tooling for the Portable Boring Bar from CEI.

The weekday crews are fitting up all the plumbing and appliances to make sure we have all the bits and pieces. This is our opportunity to simplify some of the pipes that can fit under the jacket such as auxiliary back up steam for the power reverse, steam to the two steam turbine generators, heat to the lubricators, air for a bell ringer and sanders. Two gauge airlines go out to the air pump governor on front of the smoke box. All of these can be kept warm against the boiler under the jacket.

To avoid conflict with larger pipe runs, we are dry fitting as many of these as we can. Jerry Peters, Gene Augustine and Mike McKervey set the main reservoir tank in place and placed the brackets for the second tank. Notice the bracket contact points are cushioned by two layers of woven load strap material. By end of day Ron Dudley joined them for a formal photo of the “plumbers”.

Some new plumbing brackets required some dies to form fit them to .75, 1 and 1.25 inch pipe. The 50 ton DAKE press makes short work with these dies bending 3/8” flat bar.

What others say:
Joshua Coran, Mechanical Engineer who worked for Jerry Peters many years ago in the ARR Anchorage Shop has been following 557 progress. He just sent a note, “Keep up the Good Work!” punctuated with a nice $200.00 donation. “Please pass on my good wishes to your crew along with my thanks for the great (and amazing) work they are doing.  Long may it continue and stay safe”.

Thomas Moseley of Willow, Alaska came by and observed, “You guys have made amazing progress since I was last here. Thank all the volunteers for their efforts in preserving this mechanical treasure”.

Palmer Moose Lodge 793 thought highly enough about our progress that they requested a donation of $250.00 through Moose Legion 51. Thank the Moose.

On September 17, 2020 Ben Westein hand delivered a $500.00 check from the Gaming account of AMVETS POST 49 Inc. in Anchorage. Both the post and associated SONS of AMVETS have contributed in the past. Ben was most complimentary of the work being done and extended a big thank you to all the 557 volunteers.

Ted Spencer, long time 557 booster sent us a donation from the Whittier Museum Association. Ted is the creator and curator of the Prince William Sound Museum in Whittier where Alaska’s early transportation history is the main feature. Visit in person when you get to Whittier. Get a preview here.

Did you know that you can make regular monthly contributions to Engine 557 Restoration Company using PayPal? The first image that comes up when you go to our 557 donation page, select an amount and “donate with pay pal” you will have an option to “make a monthly donation”. You also have the option of paying by credit card, and making a monthly donation. Easy peasy.

Eight years ago I posted a survey to discover how many HO scale modelers might be interested in a Ready To Run HO model of the famous US Army Transportation Corps S-160 steam locomotives. Responses came from all over the world by email. 

It took some time but ROCO picked up the project and has carried it to production.   In December 2016 they began making deliveries on the USATC Army version as delivered around the world. I purchased several to eventually modify to 557 specs.

Two of these models have been donated to Engine 557 Restoration Company for fund raising. These HO scale models of No.2265 are new in the 72151 stock packaging from ROCO. These are excellent runners with full DCC and accurate sound functions. They are available first come first served for $430.00 ea. We will pay the postage.
Send check or money order with your order to:
Engine 557 Restoration Company
4923 N. Kipling Dr.
Wasilla, Alaska 99654

While in the fund raising mode, consider purchase of “Engine 557 Returning” as a numbered signed print. J. Craig Thorpe completed this rendering of 557 returning along Turnagain Arm from Whittier or Seward circa 1948. It is available for prepaid shipment. You pay in advance and we prepay the air priority postage.
Engine 557 Returning
Print on heavy paper stock Numbered and Signed $100.00
Giclee on canvas $175.00

Volunteer Laverne Buller, added No. 557 to sections of old Super Heater flues to create, pencil holder, paper weight, door stop, etc as pictured. For an official piece of 557, order the commemorative 557 flue section for $45.00 with our special prepaid postage deal.

For the kids, we have the third printing of Ol’e 556 by Shannon Cartwright featuring four additional pages on the restoration of Engine 557. We will send it prepaid priority mail for a total of $15.00. We will include a second copy for another $12.00. Christmas is coming so stock up now!

Patrick J. Durand
President 557

 

Back