Update on Climax Rescue 3-1-3
We’re HOOooooome!!!!
A few days of rest and I am finally beginning to get back on a normal sleep cycle. For a couple of days I was waking up at 6:00am…. only problem was that it was Anchorage time…. half the day gone!!!! seesh!!
What a trip, and what a great bunch of guys and gals we were working with. After spending the first few days finding equipment and tools, buying supplies, spending some time searching for parts in storage units and then getting everyone collected from the Ted Stevens Airport, it was time to get the real work underway. The 5 days of repacking the container was a series of dance steps that we couldn’t rehearse, and the choreography kept changing depending upon what equipment was available at any given moment and what operators were onsite. The following photos give you a brief overview of how those days went.
The first objective was to get the 3 or 4 large and heavy items out of the back of the Container, on the ground and out of the way so that we could access everything else. Here the Water Tank and4 heavy boxes of parts are lifted out.
… followed by the boiler
Me (Carl) and the Boiler next to the storage trailer
Our configuration for removing all of the smaller parts; Motorhome for breaks, our Container, the Curtain Van Work deck, and the Storage trailer… with one of our Extendalifts (donated by Airport Equipment Rentals, Anchorage) and a set of 4 ft wide stairs to get up on the deck.
As parts came out we inventoried and grouped them in 8 parts groups in the storage trailer.
Once the majority of the weight was out of the container, we needed to transfer the Container onto a road-worthy trailer for delivering it to the Port… that took a considerable amount of time.
While this was going on Donnie was interviewing several of the volunteers… here he is with Kevin Christenson, one of Keith Christenson’s sons… (Keith passed away in 2014).
Once the Container was on the good trailer, it was time to reload the trucks and then the Boiler.
Followed by four 8 ft axle crates, donated by the Alaska Railroad, Packed with old wooden cross-members and misc. parts, and then the water tank was stacked on top of the crates.
At this point we repositioned the trailer to our working deck so that we could begin loading all of the smaller parts.
The configuration shown from the working deck behind our container and showing the storage trailer beyond the Extendalift.
Showing the inside of the Container with the walkway down the left side which we are now going to fill with more parts.
Some of our Sister Restoration Crew in Wasilla, the 557 Project greeting and waving at a passing Alaska Railroad passenger car.
A pause near the end for the crew to take a group picture. Left to Right: Gene Augustine, Anchorage & ex-Pittsburgh, PA area; Grady Smith, Marietta, Ohio; Norm Thomas, Corry, PA; Steve Niederriter, Morgantown, WV; Tom VanTassel, Corry, PA; Chris and Tara Lyons, Columbus, PA; (above) Rusty Potchatko, Palmer, AK ex-Corry, PA; Donnie Rosie, Spring Creek, PA; Carl Wassink, Corry, PA.
The following morning the crew was back at it tying down the load with ratchet straps and blocking after which the Container was delivered to Lynden Transport & Alaska Marine Lines facility in Anchorage for a train ride to the docks in Whittier. This is a photo of Lynden’s barge “Whittier Provider” which our container shipped out on Saturday morning and will be delivered to the docks in Seattle this coming weekend and ready for the next part of its journey home to Corry, PA.
And that is how our days went during the trip.