Engine 557 Restoration Company
Progress Report November 2021

Engine 557's annual fund raising drive has commenced! We are pleased to announce its kick-off with a $50,000 challenge being made by four of 557's most committed supporters. They will match each contributed dollar one-for-one.

Your contributions can be made by credit card, or check as described here: https://www.alaskarails.org/pix/former-loco/557/support/donate.html

Again, thank you to everyone who made an extra contribution during the fall special fund raiser. It helped to give the project an extra boost and gave us confidence in planning what we could spend through the end of the year.

This annual fund raiser is the primary source of individual contributions needed to continue the overhaul during the following year. This year there is an especially big need. The last major part of the boiler overhaul is the installation of the tubes and flues, which will be overseen and a substantial part of the work done by contractors from the Lower 48. It will be followed by additional visits by a Lower 48 consultant to do the hydrostatic testing of the boiler and steam tests. Please consider a generous contribution!

The first hard snow to stay on the ground arrived on November 11th. Commuters were encouraged to enjoy the holiday but we still had four volunteers show up at the Engine House. While the Pacific Northwest was receiving massive rain and wind events, that same storm left a low pressure trough which sucked sub-zero cold from the North down over South Central Alaska. Temperatures settled at 0 to -15 around Wasilla for Thanksgiving week resulting in cobalt blue skies. Cold weather persisted through November with minus 20 at the engine house. We are in the darkest part of winter with only 5 hours and 27 minutes of daylight on December 21, 2021. The good news is most Alaskans take the optimistic view that as the days start getting longer, spring is just around the corner!

We welcome Inlet Energy as our latest Engine 557 in-kind sponsor. Mr. Joel Lawerence, President of the company, offered special pricing on purchase of the AAR specified Journal Oil #963 needed for locomotive journal boxes. The builder prints indicate 35 gallons will fill the journals and lube system on 557.

Final preparation for installing the driving boxes and axles under 557 are underway. Several upgrades are being incorporated including the new ARMSTRONG Oilers for the journal boxes. These came to us from the UK and it is recommended they be pre soaked for two weeks before installation in the Cellars.

Ken Elmore installed the delivery valve and breather on the new 55 gallon drum of #963 Journal lube and proceeded to charge the collection of tallow pots and oil cans for 557. The Armstrong pads are in the soak.

Two new Heart Link lower pins were machined by Jerry Cunnington to ensure proper fit along their tapered surface. They just came back from heat treating at MED-TEK in Minneapolis. Jerry hand fit each pin to ensure the proper torque is achieved when the pin is fully engaged in the taper hole. The total rebuild of the engine truck is nearing completion with installation of a new 15 point lubrication system.

Volunteers installed new 1/2” by 4” cotter pins to retain the top pins in the heart link assembly. Ken Morton installed some of the new brass barb fittings and hoses that connect each lube point to the manifold bulkheads on the front of the truck frame. Each of these hoses will then be connected to gravity feed lubricator reservoirs mounted above the firing deck. Originally there was just a dimpled hole at each of these lubrication locations that got an occasional squirt of oil along with dirt and junk.

Yes, I mentioned “15 point lubrication system” and there are only 12 fittings on the bulkhead. There will be three additional lube points, the Bissel Post, the Radius Bar Pivot and the Front Equalizer Pivot Pin. These just received passive lubrication in the past, and they suffered as a result.

Terry Douglas took on the task of fitting the re-Babbited brasses to the Engine truck axle. First he had to design the fixture and tool holder to do the job on our Birmingham mill. The tool holder worked well in supporting the cutter in the soft Babbitt.

The engine truck axle assembly received prussian blue to test fit the Babbited bearing brass. A good fit was confirmed and then back to the mill to finish milling oil slots in the Babbitt to intersect the slots in the brass. The finished brass with Babbitt ready to install.

Work is ongoing in the smoke box honing the flue sheet holes for the new super heater flues to make sure they are round and clean for installation of the new flues.

All this is going on while other tasks are also moving forward. The four sander air lines will be under the jacket in the cab. We made the decision to upgrade all plumbing to schedule 80 a long time ago, to provide heavy wall thickness for abrasion ware resistance. These are just air lines and some folks may consider this over kill. If however they had been around to see some of the deterioration found in the original plumbing they would have a change of heart. The 1/4” line in the bottom right is air for the cylinder cocks. This is being done by Paul Dalleska and the volunteers. Someone mentioned this sounded like the name of a band. Polka did come to mind.

 

Patrick J. Durand
President Engine 557 Restoration Company

 

Back