Museum Donates Tender to Alaska Railroad

Monday, December 12, 2011

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.

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.

 

These views were taken by Pat Durand on June 11, 2011

Tender

Tender

 

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