Engine 557 Restoration Company
Progress Report February 2025

Looks like a midsummer day in the Engine 557 parking lot. NOT! This is the end of February, a snowless month here in Wasilla. No snow not even in the snow dumps. Above freezing several nights, so we are having the Winter that WAS NOT here in the valley. Fortunately we seem to have good snow pack in the surrounding mountains.

Dick Morris, 557 Secretary, hosts our 557 Facebook Page and reported, “I wanted to share this remark with you in that is associated with a $100 contribution we received today. Ross Roland is well known in the rail heritage community and was the mover and shaker behind the American Freedom train in 1976 as well as many subsequent rail ventures. Hi Dick, My pleasure and my sincere admiration to you and your crew with sticking with it through all these years. Your dedication will soon be rewarded. All the best, Ross Rowland." Thank you Ross for that nice boost for the 557 volunteers.  

February 15 saw a visit by Don Zoerb, his 3 year old grand son, Ronan and his dad, Patrick White. Being all kids at heart, another copy of O’l 556 by Shannon Cartwright went home to become dog eared. After all else, Ronan rang our bells!

Tim Coahran is a long time volunteer for 557, but holding down an engineer job in Fairbanks with the Alaska Railroad keeps him occupied. He had a few weeks off mid winter, from his yard jobs, and the Healy coal trains, so he came down from Fairbanks to help out in the shop. Janet Kincaid at the Valley Hotel provided Tim a room at the Colony Inn where he felt just like he was visiting grandma's house. Built as a dormitory for teachers and nurses for the colony project in 1935, Janet has kept the charm during restoration, including a 1939 set of the Book of Knowledge encyclopedia in the library.

Jeff Loffert loves the challenge of a tricky setup in the Lodge and Shipley lathe. The bell yoke is going to get a new taper cut in the center hole, if all goes well.

John Combs, 557 Board Member and Webmaster at alaskarails.org, recently had a birthday. PayPal deposited to 557 the contributions given by friends as a birthday present that John requested in his FaceBook page. THANK YOU, JOHN! I just generously added $1.41 to make it an even $557.

PayPal Giving Fund has sent you $555.59 USD.

Volunteer, Gene Augustine made a presentation to the Alaska Prospectors Society on February 18th bringing them news on 557. They made some generous donations and Program Chair, Rosie Stauffer, followed up with a nice card recognizing all the volunteers tending to 557.

The last few days of January we began installing the superheater elements. Here are the elements in order of assembly on the shop floor. Jeff DeBroeck and Jeff Loffert loaded the first element and by days end February 1st great progress had been made. Both Jeff Loffert and CMO Jeff DeBroeck deserved a break after that effort.

Mid week Jeff Loffert and Terry Douglas picked up the install job with help from the daily volunteers. How much torque do you apply, when all the threads, seats and mounts have received liberal applications of Loctite LB 8023 Marine Grade anti-seize? About that much, according to Terry Douglas as he was stretched out between the wrench handle and the smoke box hand grab. By weeks end that job was done. The outline on the kneeling mat was for one of the elves that came in after hours to do the hard work. Nothing more serious than a hang nail.

Ken Morton is installing the gap filling hardware between the Branch pipe and its passage through the side of the smoke box. The white gasket he is holding is good for 1800 degrees which it should never see in the smoke box at this location. The branch pipe can easily see 600 degrees and above as it directs super heated steam down to the cylinders. It is also exposed to the direct blast of hot exhaust gas. The bolts are stainless and engage tapped holes in the smoke box shell. The exposed fiberglass seal around the Branch pipe will receive a coat of furnace cement.

Tom Walker has been helping out on this project and inspected it from the outside. Covers on the outside above the running board are yet to be secured. This portion of the branch pipe will be insulated and wrapped in sheet metal from the running board down to the cylinder wrapper.

Lots of get-er-done jobs. Need to hook up the water delivery hoses. Hooking up the emergency fuel shut-off cable controls. Connecting the air compressor to the first radiator coils. Connecting the wet tank to the radiator coils.

Terry Douglas and Paul Dalleska lead the crew of Al Steinbech, Gene Augustine, Jerry Christiansen and Jim Keene this last week, as several of the regulars are holding down our display at the Anchorage Fur Rondy in the ARR Historic Depot in Anchorage.

The blower ring currently provides a halo until its final position and mounting are engineered. The old coal burning master mechanics front end hardware has been discarded. With oil burning we are looking at some adjustments.

Our headlights require 250 watt 32 volt incandescent bulbs to work properly with the parabolic mirrors in the lamp cases. Proper bulbs were no longer being stocked in the United States and Canada and existing stocks were being consumed. A few calls revealed a pent up demand, so I contracted to have 5,000 appropriate bulbs produced and imported. In just over a month, prepaid orders for 5,240 bulbs came in so an addition of 1,500 bulbs was ordered. Long discounts are available for those who meet the next deadline of March 15, 2025 on available remaining stock. The manufacturing order is already in place and underway. Read all about the offer here. Fill out your order form here. 557 PYLE Enterprise is a sole proprietorship of Patrick Durand.

Thank you to the 29 organizations who made this special bulb order a success, ensuring that our HERITAGE headlights will continue to light the way.

Patrick Durand
President Engine 557 Restoration Company

 

Back