Things kinda change after 60 years haha

We have lots of good news to report in our April, 2024 status report. Here is the direct link: https://alaskarails.org/pix/former-loco ... index.html

In addition to news, the report includes a virtual tour of the 557 Engine House, including a view of the palatial Engine 557 Restoration Company international administrative offices.

Do you heat the shop all year long to keep it above freezing? If so, how much roughly does it cost to heat it in, say, January?

Sorry, I just saw this.

Except for a while during the first winter before the heater was installed, the 557 Engine House has been heated. Use of the Engine House (an Alaska Railroad property that had previously been leased for many years to a former lumber yard as a millwork shop/warehouse) is an in-kind contribution from the Alaska Railroad Corporation. I don't have any idea of the cost for utilities, they are included in our "lease." Heat is from a single large ceiling hung natural gas unit heater. Several ceiling fans keep the hot ceiling air mixed with the colder air at the floor.

The boiler work on ARR #557 that started in the fall of 2012 reached a major milestone yesterday. An inspector from the FRA, Robert Franzen and Bob Gold from Steam Services of America, and the volunteers from the Engine 557 restoration crew conducted the formal hydro test of 557's boiler. Work on the boiler has included installation of a new fire box, installation of new stays (including upgrading about 25% of the rigid stays to flexible), and new tubes and flues.

The image below is from the official report. It doesn't get any better than this!

Congratulations!

This week, as the Engine 557 volunteers worked feverishly inside of the Engine House to ready the locomotive for its first steaming later this year, a crew from the Alaska Railroad was on site to upgrade the Wasilla section house spur with a second switch and track panels to tie the isolated stub where 557 sits onto the spur and ARR main. Several feet of fill is being added to raise a low section between the Engine House and main. The dream gets more real every day.

YEA BUDDY !!!!!!!!

May's monthly status report has been posted at https://www.alaskarails.org/pix/former- ... index.html

By the time we are done, most, if not all of the piping will have been replaced. Here, Paul Dalleska bends a replacement for one of the injector starter valve delivery pipes.