ARR Locomotive #557 - Museum Donates Tender to Alaska Railroad

The Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry, Inc. in Wasilla, Alaska has by unanimous vote of the Board, made a major equipment donation to the Alaska Railroad Corporation.

An original US Army Transportation Corp tender will join up with Locomotive 557 in a restoration plan that will eventually return the
locomotive to excursion service. The Alaska Railroad Corporation will reveal the long term plan of action when 557 returns to Alaskan rails.

Tender 0039M condition status as of December 4, 2011. Examination at the Museum was conducted by MATI Volunteers, Pat Durand and Jeff DeBroeck.

Frame serial number 52598-1 10-43-C is in raised letters on right side of cast steel frame in front of coupler draft gear.
Draft gear shows no appreciable wear.
Visual inspection of wheels show only axle set 2 being thinner than desired at the tire.
Friction bearings on axles appear clean and still wet with oil.
These journal boxes can be adapted to hide a new set of roller bearings.
Fuel tank had been cleaned prior to storage, there is no sludge evident.
Water hatches and tool box covers are welded shut so they could not be inspected.
Hand brake hardware is mounted in the way of the firing deck. It can be relocated to the original location on the inside face of the right side water leg of the tender.
The draw bar pin and buffer receiver are both in place.
Capacity is 1700 gallons Oil and 6000 gallons water.

The tender was in service behind Industrial Brownhoist Crane LC 56 originally built for the USA Corp of Engineers. In this service the
tender saw very little road time and it is in decent mechanical shape. The normal locomotive tender buffer and drawbar were replaced
with a fixed coupler without draft gear as seen here.

The tender was last serviced in 1974. It has been moved from Anchorage to Palmer and Palmer to Wasilla over the years and each time the air brakes and friction bearing journals were checked and serviced.