Engine 557 Restoration Company
Progress Report June 2020

June 11th was a typical day for June at the 557 Engine House. The parking lot hosted 2 Harleys, a Vet and assorted volunteer rides. Nan Peters captured the 557 gang after lunch. Left to right, Tom Walker; Ron Dudley; Terry Douglas; Jerry Peters; Mike McKervey; Gene Augustine; Ken Elmore; Jerry Cunnington and Pat Durand.

The volunteers remain active and cautious during the COVID-19 precautions. As of today there have been 15 deaths among Alaskans attributed to the disease and three of those occurred out of state. With increased testing, over 700 cases have been reported, the majority recovered and there were only 18 hospitalizations as of June 30, 2020.

What may well be the last run of the Hurricane Turn passed the engine house on its way to Talkeetna on June 4th. Tucker Remely of The ARRC confirms: “That is indeed the last standalone Hurricane until next fall. The Denali Star will be doing both the standard stops as well as flag stops in between Talkeetna and Hurricane.

With dictated travel restrictions, four visiting conference groups from out of state have postponed their visits until 2021. This leaves a big hole in 557 fund raising plans this summer. Major foundations and funding groups are responding to humanitarian needs amid the world COVID-19 Pandemic. Engine 557 is a nice to do project but not a life or death call, except for us old timer volunteers who find it our only source of socialization during the shut downs.

HERE IS THE CALL TO ACTION. If you find yourself the recipient of a stimulus check consider sending some stimulus to Engine 557; several of the volunteers have already done so. We still have $10,236.42 in a matching challenge that will add a one dollar boost to each donation dollar received.

GE foundation matching check of $200.00 arrived June 6, 2020. Thanks again to retired General Electric employee, Lewis Hicks for his financial support which now totals $400.00 with the GE Match. The GE match of $200.00 is also being matched by Jim Jansen so Lewis’s original $200.00 has grown to $800 total. Lewis is active with the Kentucky Railroad Museum.

Alaska Airlines also matches employee contributions made to Engine 557. Pilot, Paul Z delivered $500.00 to 557 during a visit the end of April. We Just received notice that the corporate match of $500 is on the way. With our generous sponsor matching, Paul’s initial $500.00 will grow to $2,000. I know the Alaska Airlines logo is smiling on us now.

GE and Alaska Airlines are examples of many employers who have charitable foundations that encourage employee giving by matching self directed contributions. Is your employer one of them?

Douglas J. of Anchorage sent us another $100.00 check to be matched. Thanks for keeping the pump primed during these difficult times. James Keene of Palmer is a long time 557 volunteer and just provided a $500.00 donation to be matched. Thanks Jim.

Volunteer, Tom Walker of Eagle River, donated his entire $2,400.00 COVID-19 Stimulus Check to Engine 557 to be matched. All we can say is THANK YOU Tom for your continuing support.

Bob R. from Sacramento just sent us another $1,000.00 donation which will be matched by another $1,000.00 from the matching pledge account established by Jim and Vic Jansen.

Retired Alaska Railroad Engineer, Gary Lund delivered his donation during a visit at 557 on June 29, 2020.

Art Chase, long time volunteer with Porter #1 in Fairbanks as well as 557, came by the engine house June 10th to get dirty. By late afternoon the crew had thinned out, but he was still held up by three masked men. Art lives in North Pole, Alaska and travels extensively with his position at the FAA. His license plate tells it all.

What others say:

The spring 2020 issue of The Alaska Contractor featuring Restoration of Engine 557 is now available archived. The article by Rachael Kvapil starts on page 42. Take note of those members of Alaska General Contractors who are supporters of 557 restoration. Thank them and their employees at every opportunity. Also note the advertisement on page 44 for our friends at PDC engineers.

Larry Altoff of Littlestown, Pennsylvania donated a brass, five chime, Nathan whistle with a 2 inch valve to give voice to Engine 557. Larry commented, “I paid $450.00 for the whistle at a three day railroad show near Gaithersburg, PA in December of 1982. This should be just right for 557.” Larry only asked that we send him a recording of 557 making music. Thanks to Larry we now have a Brass whistle as an upgrade to the cast iron version on 557 while displayed in Moses Lake. The whistle needs a little clean up but is the perfect size when compared to the old cast iron whistle.

Eating an elephant may prepare a volunteer group that considers restoring a locomotive. Once you figure out where to take the first bite, you are committed to the rest of the meal. Some parts are never revealed until you crawl inside. There are lots of dirty jobs to be done and they can only be tackled one at a time. Fortunately we can take small pleasure in the proper preparation of each portion.

Lavern Buller, volunteer machinist, takes on the tough jobs. After searching for proper sized Alemite button grease fittings, Lavern just took a piece of 4140 and made three new fittings with parts that are interchangeable with the original at the right in the photo. He also made the button head grease gun adaptor to fit.

The Draft Box is dry fit into the bottom of the fire pan and connected to the draft door operating handle. Viewed from the fire box door, the layout of the fire pan with the draft box in place passes the final test fit. The entire fire pan has now been removed and all the various parts are being needle scaled, sand blasted and painted with high temp aluminum colored Thermolox. Ron Dudley became the go to welder on fabrication of the many parts that went into this assembly.

There are endless sections of pipe to be triaged; some replaced with new schedule 80; some to be needle scaled, then sand blasted and painted. Gene Augustine, Terry Douglas, Lynn Willis and Mike McKervey all helped in preparation of the sand blast tent. This system required constant maintenance of the compressors, positive air hood and tooling. After all the preparation the sand blast job is productive and very dirty.

A nest of snakes is just the required plumbing for the oil burner. From the top down: steam delivery line to the atomizer burner; to the right is the steam line to the heating coils in the bottom of the oil bunker; the left bend to the union is the steam heat line to the round cylinder which houses the pre heat for oil being delivered from the tender through the large brass fuel control valve.

Start up air charges the firing manifold through a Chicago air fitting to be installed in the bottom most pipe at the T. The T also provides either air or steam through the smaller valve and check valve back into the oil fuel delivery line from the tender, to clear any obstructions that may retard fuel delivery.

Jerry Peters made a new syphon tube for the pressure gauge. The final syphon tube installation will be over the outside of the lagging and jacket which cannot go on until after the hydro tests. Gene Augustine photographed the current state of the 557 cab and Pat Durand just happened to be in the way.

Roteq Alaska, has cut a new wheel contour on the engine truck wheel set. Final step will be installing and machining new two part hub faces. Then all the loose pieces can come together for the engine truck.

Jeff DeBroeck has lead the rehabilitation of the main and connecting rods. Jerry Cunnington, Dean Sawyer, Tom Walker and Terry Douglas have all worked in support of this effort. When the drivers were turned and the crank pins turned, dimensions changed and required new brass bearings. The largest are the crank pin bearings. The new connecting rod bearing is in place along with the old main rod full floating bearing to protect the pin surface. The new full floating bearings began taking shape on the lathe and final finish with all the lubrication holes was done on the milling machine using the large radial indexing table.

Mike McKervey and Dean Sawyer used a light touch with the 50 ton press to install the new brass bearings in the connecting rods.

The small end of the main rod at the crosshead received new bearings. Another to be finished is still in the lathe. These are being fitted for oil lubrication to match the original design drawings. Tom Walker test fit the crosshead pin which will connect the main rods at the crosshead guide.

Three Nathan Injectors have been cleaned and reconditioned by Terry Douglas. We are fortunate that they show very little wear, indicating that as the last steamer, 557 could enjoy her position as a “hanger queen” and collect the remaining spare appliances around the shops. They are finished in the traditional ARR Chinese red and Terry added a few white highlights before they went into dry storage.

With the driving boxes are nearing completion by Steam Services of America, the decision has been made to manufacture new shoes using castings prepared by Arctic Fire Bronze here in Palmer, Alaska. We provided the material and Pat Garley is doing the casting for us. Jerry Cunnington has already started machining these on the mill.

While at times it seams the treadmill is endless, all these sub assemblies are starting to come together and more and more they resemble an S-160. Gypsy Rose in the making. Just as a reminder of where 557 started this adventure, view Engine 557- Restoring Alaskan History.

Since inception 557 has raised over $50,000.00 through sales of unique merchandise. You can help us out now by purchasing some of these 557 item currently in stock.

ENGINE 557 RETURNING along Turnigain Arm in Alaska. $100.00 including postage. Limited edition of 557 numbered and signed prints. Engine 557 Returning by J. Craig Thorpe.

Original 557 flue section $40.00 including postage.

Black hat with 557 number board loco $20.00

557 Locomotive pin $5.00

557 Number board pin $5.00

557 metal magnet $7.00

Prices include postage.

Send your written order with check to: Engine 557 Restoration Company, PO Box 875360, Wasilla, Alaska 99687-5300

You can also send us an e-mail order to sewtrain557@gmail.com

Payment with your credit card can be made via PayPal.

Patrick Durand for the 557 gang.

 

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