Chugging along: New firebox is latest restoration to K4 train

Jul 31, 2023

Mirror photo by Patrick WaksmunskiRailroaders Memorial Museum volunteer Mike Reindl uses a magnetic drill press on a sheet of metal for the outer fire box of the K4.

Visitors will soon see signs of progress on the Altoona-built K4 1361 locomotive after the Railroaders Memorial Museum received a shipment of steel to fabricate a new firebox, a task that will cost about $450,000.

The money came from donors both large and small and included a $100,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical & Historical Society. In addition, funds were raised through benefit steam excursions by the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad in Cumberland, Md., and the local Everett Railroad.

The firebox is seen as a positive step forward in the effort to restore the K4, a project that has been ongoing for three decades, often in a start and stop process.

That intermittent work led the current museum administration to hire FMW Solutions of Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, to manage the restoration work in the hopes the steam engine can be brought back to life and thus bring new life to the region’s economy through visitor spending.

But getting to the firebox — just one of three major components that need to be restored — has been a long haul.

Mirror photo by Patrick WaksmunskiFMW Solutions general foreman Zach Hall looks over the installed side of the outer fire box of the K4 at the Railroaders Memorial Museum.

After FMW was hired in 2019, the firm had to research what had already been done, what remained to be done and what had to be redone due to changing standards.

‘Wrapped up in checkered past’

In most cases, when an organization embarks on such a restoration project, the task involves examining a locomotive that hasn’t been altered since retirement many decades ago, said Kelly Lynch, director of special projects for FMW.

It’s different for the Altoona museum, because the K4 has been subject to prior restoration efforts that went through “so many stages, fits and starts,” Lynch said.

“It’s so wrapped up in its checkered past,” museum Executive Director Joe DeFrancesco added.

FMW began with an audit to establish what sort of work had been done, who did it, what materials were used and where those materials came from, DeFrancesco said.

The audit found that the firebox was non-compliant with current Federal Railroad Administration standards, DeFrancesco said.

The firebox is the rear part of the boiler that uses heat energy to convert water into steam to power the cylinder-propelled driving wheels. It consists of a chamber for burning coal surrounded on both sides and top with a jacket of water enclosed by walls of steel held apart with staybolts.

There were a number of reasons the firebox was noncompliant, not the least of which was that prior restoration work resulted in different thicknesses of steel being used. In addition, the steel thickness rating wasn’t high enough and the staybolt spacing was an issue, both Lynch and DeFrancesco said.

The lower safety rating from a century ago was good enough for the PRR, which was turning out and repairing locomotives “left and right,” but it’s not good enough now, Lynch said.

The simplest and best solution was to replace the entire firebox, they said.

The Federal Railroad Administration approved the design for the new firebox and construction is now underway.

With the firebox funded, two other main components remain — the barrel portion of the boiler and the running gear and its accessories, DeFrancesco and Lynch said.

During the FMW audit, X-rays found the steam dome atop the barrel section of the boiler, where the pressure is greatest, had voids in its welds from the PRR days and from two prior restoration attempts.

Those have been excavated and filled, and the FRA has approved the work, according to DeFrancesco and Lynch.

The audit also found that perhaps 100 incompatible rivets are among the 1,000 or so that hold the barrel portion of the boiler together — in an area where pipes carry hot exhaust through a tank of water turning it to steam.

Those incompatible rivets installed in previous restoration efforts are actually too hard, as they would not expand and contract in unison with the softer metal of the boiler itself, DeFrancesco said, noting the museum already has the proper rivets in stock.

While the audit uncovered problems with some of the past restoration work, much of it was actually good — including work done during the locomotive’s sojourn at Steamtown National Historic Site under a contractor hired by the Altoona museum, DeFrancesco said.

That means after the firebox is done and the incorrect rivets are replaced, the rest of the work should be straightforward, in keeping with normal locomotive restoration standards.

But there’s still a lot of it to do.

Resources needed

Many components remain to be restored, including the boiler and steam piping; appliances; the tender; the tender trucks and wheels; the driving and running gear; the frame and accessories; the valve gear; the pistons and crossheads; the lead and trailing trucks; and the air brakes.

There’s also “fit and finish.”

All the items have been listed by FMW with specific associated costs, although those are subject to change, based on inflation, DeFrancesco said.

Still, “we’ve made a lot of headway,” he added.

The museum has about half dozen regular volunteers, led by railroader Mike Reindl, who work under the guidance of a “semi-local” FMW employee, he said.

The FMW employee is onsite about one day a week, he added, noting the volunteer effort is a source of significant potential savings.

“We have the people, the talent and the ability,” DeFrancesco said. “All we need are the resources.”

Call for help

In the old days in Altoona, a steam whistle at the shops would call the railroaders to work.

Recently, the museum employed the steam whistle from the K4 to call people to a different kind of work.

Mounted on a flatbed and powered by a stationary engine, the whistle from the K4 drew people from around the area — including a 10-year-old who recognized the K4’s signature sound, DeFrancesco said.

He is hoping the kind of enthusiasm the youngster displayed when he blew the whistle himself is widespread enough to fuel the museum’s campaign to raise the additional money needed to complete the decadeslong restoration project — a project that needs about $1.9 million more.

“It’s a big number,” DeFrancesco admitted, “but a lot of people need to know what the end result of this is.”

As an operating tourist train, the K4 should be able to draw 100,000 people a year to the area, helping propel the local economy, he said.

Visitors will stay at hotels, eat in local restaurants and socialize at coffee shops, buy gas, go to shows, ball games and amusement parks; and patronize other rail attractions, including the Everett and the East Broad Top railroads, DeFrancesco said.

If the museum had all $1.9 million now, it would take three years to finish the K4, but the project timetable depends on how the money comes in and how fast.

DeFrancesco’s fundraising strategy includes promotion of public awareness through traditional and social media; outreach through the board of directors, which is headed by retired Norfolk Southern CEO Wick Moorman; a push to foundations; cooperation with organizations like the Pennsylvania Railroad Technical and Historical Society and interactions with regular people, including one who deposits “pocket change” in the K4 kitty every week.

DeFrancesco is on a mission to tell the story of the K4 so that it becomes relevant to the younger generation — as exemplified by the 10-year-old railfan, whose eyes got “as big around as Frisbees” when he blew the old train’s whistle.

The museum will accept both private and public money, although the priority is on private money, DeFrancesco said.

“(Still), we’re not in a position to turn down (any) offer,” he said.

People can go to railroadcity.org to learn more about how to give.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.

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