Carl W here with Corry RAILS.... for those who aren't familiar yet, We are up in Alaska preparing to pack up all of the parts of Keith Christenson's 34 year project of restoring the only complete Climax "A".... we arrived late Sunday and on Monday headed up to Palmer where we are headquartering... So the first day was meeting up with Erik, Keith's son to talk over all of the plans for the next few days and went looking for some equipment we will need... some of it being loaned by Pat Durand and the 557 Restoration Crew over in Wasilla.

Monday night our Videographer, and his lovely assistant Tonya, showed up from Corry, PA to begin filming for our future Documentary.

Tuesday Tom V and Donnie, our Video guy were off to shoots some "B" Roll and I was off with Erik to locate and retrieve some misc. parts south of Wasilla and hauled that to the storage containers.

This morning we begin rearranging some trailers on the worksite and accumulating some pallets and old packing crates to rebuild into whatever configuration we need. We had word this morning that our three other Rescue Team members all have their negative COVID tests in hand in order to get into Alaska without quarantine.... so... good to go and they will be arriving Thursday evening....

AND THEN... the proverbial..S--t hits the fan with four days of unpacking, Inventorying and repacking of the Intermodal..... Come Monday or Tuesday the Intermodal will be delivered to the docks for shipping.... We all fly back home on Tuesday night and wait for the Intermodal to arrive back home in Corry, where we are projecting a 2 1/2 to 3 year restoration and assembly process... Our Resto Shop is being prepped as we speak.

Check out our Facebook Page at "Corry RAILS" for daily blog updates and also our website at "corryrails.com".... make sure you "LIKE" our page so you get notified of updates as we post them... we will be doing some LIVE FEED over the next few days as well.

Keep up and Keep in touch...
Carl Wassink - Corry Rail And Industrial Legacy Society

By "restoration", are you referring to a cosmetic restoration or a fully operating restoration?

Either way, that is great! Talk about a one of a kind!

Congratulations to the Corry-Team.
Looking korward to see one of the last remaining Class-A Climax Locomotive
on display sometimes.

I expect your plan is to restore as much as possible iron/steel parts (boiler,
engine, gearing, piping...) and make the wood parts new?

Are you planning to display it together with SN 1681 in the Corry Museum?

Here I found a ~40 year old pic in my collection show the locomotive at
the Christensen estate before dismantling.

Hi Roger.... I had written back to you the other night but for some reason what I had written in response is no longer attached... not sure why... I can only assume that I did something wrong. Anyway, the restoration will be taking A-313 back to a fully functional steam locomotive and replacing parts that are necessary to be replaced.... After sitting exposed in the tundra for nearly 70 years most of the wood is in dire need of replacement.... the main frame was built of Southern Yellow Pine and the rest of the wood (the cab, floor, uprights, roof and roof bows) was White Oak. The best pieces will be used in the restoration and filling in with new... the remainder will be used for creating a static display and using replacement parts to fill in for the missing original pieces.

Keith spent quite a bit of effort restoring and preserving much of the original metal work, whether machined parts or castings... some of this needs revisited and touched up just from sitting for so long and having to be moved several times, which will cut way down on the amount of time to complete the project from what it would have been if Keith had not put forth the effort. At this point we can only estimate the time frame for the restoration project, but we are estimating that the process will take 2 1/2 to 3 years.... and a lot of help from friends, in the form of not only financial but in-kind donations and volunteer assistance also.

We have a building donated for our use but we will also need to maintain it and we will have utilities as well.

Being a 3ft narrow-gauge locomotive, we will be creating some panel tracks using 6x6 rails so that we can transport them to remote locations for demonstrations. Eventually we would like to be able to have a 3ft gauge loop on some wooded property with logging characteristics similar to where these Class "A" engines operated during the heyday of the Railroad Logging Industry.

Stay tuned for more updates and make sure you visit our Facebook Page and Website.

Carl Wassink - Corry RAILS

Hi Linkthebutler... response as follows

Congratulations to the Corry-Team. Thank you

Looking forward to see one of the last remaining Class-A Climax Locomotive
on display sometimes.

I expect your plan is to restore as much as possible iron/steel parts (boiler,
engine, gearing, piping...) and make the wood parts new? We will use some of the original wood and most of the metal parts, keeping in mind safety as a high priority, since our plan is to take it to full operational status

Are you planning to display it together with SN 1681 in the Corry Museum? At this time that would be nearly impossible, since the 1681 is landlocked in the museum building and the Historical Society has no interest of it ever being functional, let alone it ever coming out of the building. Corry RAILS will shortly be a stand-alone 501c3 non-profit, and although some members of our Board are members of the Historical Society, we as Corry RAILS are not associated with nor affiliated with the Museum and the Corry Historical Society.

Here I found a ~40 year old pic in my collection show the locomotive at
the Christensen estate before dismantling. This is a photo taken in the Spring of 1980, the engine arriving at Keith's in November of '79, by Stewart Sterling. Stewart at the time was a young 15 year old railroad enthusiast.... and a pretty darn good photographer... great clarity. Stewart was active in volunteering at the 557 Project with Pat Durand in Wasilla, AK right up until his unexpected death in Nov., 2019. He shot a roll of film on the A-313 that day... everyone of them just as clear. We were granted access to those photos from Sterling's wife Cathey. Thanks for your interest Link

It's good to be home.... but what an adventure we have had over the past eleven days... The Climax A-313 is now on the move heading home to Corry, PA where it will undergo restoration back to life over the next several years.

Two of us, Tom VanTassel and myself, Carl Wassink, of Corry RAILS, headed up to Anchorage, Alaska on Sunday, Aug. 23rd as an Advanced Party to get things ready... We were then joined by two Videography and Camera people, Donnie and Tonya Rosie.... and followed soon by the rest of our crew Grady Smith, Steve Niederriter and Norm Thomas. We were one man down from what we had been planning on but thank goodness that was quickly overcome by some thirteen people showing up on various days to lend a hand and help... some current and ex-Corryites (or from the Corry area) as well as several very knowledgeable Railroading and Rail Preservation people, along with some energetic young neophytes to the subject and process. All-in-all we had about 20 people helping in one capacity or another over the 10 days.

A lot was accomplished in those 10 days, but I wouldn't have wanted to try to do it in any less time than that. Some tasks took less time while others took much longer than projected, but the average brought us in on-time and on budget for Phase I with only a couple of hours to spare. I think back to the times when people asked me "...Do you really think it is going to take that long?" In truth I did... but in hindsight I wish I had added two more days as additional buffer... it would have made the gathering of parts easier and we may have found a couple of parts that Erik is still looking for... small parts but very important ones in the scheme of things. The good thing is that we know that they were there at one time and as meticulous as Keith was being we are betting that they are still there. The complexity was that we were assembling parts and pieces stored in 6 locations over a 70 mile range, and stored along with literally hundreds, if not thousands of other boxes and containers of "stuff"... some similar to some of our parts, mostly railroad related but with a mix of other items and memorabilia as well. Corry RAILS is not letting a few missing parts stop us at this point... there is a lot of work to be done before we need them, and now it helps that we and Erik all know exactly what we are looking for... a couple of hands full of parts, out of over 3000.

Over the ten days we managed to get some video footage of the transporting of the container, interviews with some of the key people and some shots of local scenery, have everyone enjoy a tour of the Alaska Railroad 557 Project shop, and take a tour of the Alaska Railroad maintenance shops in Anchorage. It was a wonderful trip, absolutely crammed with things to do nearly every minute of the day.

We are not sure exactly when the container will arrive home to Corry yet but it should happen before the end of October, at the latest... best guess... when we know for sure we will pass it along.

Because of the COVID situations with quarantines and testing for travel, we were force to abandon the three days we had planned for research in Fairbanks as well as the 10-14 days planned for Nome. The focus on that part of our research efforts is now postponed until at least June of 2021, providing all of the restrictions are lifted, allowing us access.

Make sure you go to our website at "corryrails.com", and our Facebook page at "Corry RAILS".

The last class A Climax Locomotive finally arrive at the birthplace in Corry, PA.
Now waiting for full restoration.

https://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2 ... birthplace

@Carl W
Why you use a truck to bring the container with the locomotive from Seattle, WA to Corry, PA?
Was this cheaper then rail transport?
I think BNSF or UP to Chicago, IL then NS or CSX to Erie, PA and the last mile via BPRR or WNYP?

Hi Linkthebutler, sorry I haven't posted an answer to your question sooner... I am not on here too often and haven't figured out if there is a way to be notified of a new posting or question/comment to one of my posts.... anyway, why we went truck vs rail on getting the Climax home? well, you do realize that this engine and ALL components are 100% apart and in pieces (maybe 95% as one truck is still mostly together.), and all of the parts are in a 40ft conex box... so it could easily go either way... in our case, we were able to work with a local trucking outfit, Barnhart Transportation out of North East, PA, and they donated roughly 75% of the cost of the delivery from Seattle to Corry, PA... we just needed to be patient and wait for them to have an empty backhaul scheduled... once on the road the container was in our area in 4 days. It then sat in the Trucker's yard for a few days while we coordinated between a local Crane company (ROG'S inc. out of Erie) who was donating the offloading and positioning of the container into our building, and the Trucker for a smooth unloading... once everyone was on site, everything was done in about 3 hours. We wholeheartedly wish to thank CEI-Anchorage, Lynden Transport, the Alaska Railroad, Alaska Marine Lines, Barnhart Transportation and ROG'S Crane Service for all of their transportation contributions and donations toward the successful Retrieval Mission of Climax A-313 for Corry RAILS... Thanks Guys!!!

Indeed. Good relationships with trucking companies and teamsters - plus a full understanding of “empty backhauls” can work wonders. Smart strategy.