Corry Rail & Industrial Legacy Society & Museum
As we continue to work toward restoration of our Climax A Locomotive, we have decided that it is time to clear out some of our RAILS Gear. Prices have been drastically lowered on our clothing and hats. If you are interested, please send an email with your request of sizes and colors so that we can check on availability. We will send back an email to let. you know what we have and a link to order and pay online. Thanks for checking out the store.
https://www.eriegives.org/organizations/corry-rail-and-industrial-legacy-society
Corry Rail and Industrial Legacy Society will participate in Erie Gives on August 13th. Your support in any amount will be appreciated as we continue to raise funds
to continue the restoration of a piece of Corry and Spartansburg history.
The Climax locomotive has its roots with Charles Darwin Scott, the patent holder,
and was produced in Corry 1888-1928.
Corry RAILS has purchased and is restoring an early model A Climax Locomotive made in 1902 for use in the Alaskan gold mines.
Your donation to RAILS will help us to reach another milestone by sending
the original boiler to Maine for authentic reproduction.
You can learn more about RAILS and our mission at our website: http://corryrails.com
Corry RAILS & Museum is happy to announce the availability of authentic replica builder plates. These brass plates were cast from the original plate that was placed on the Climax A-313 locomotive when it left the shop on Main Street in Corry in 1902 and headed to work in the gold fields of Alaska.
Corry Rail and Industrial Legacy Society and Museum is in the process of restoring the locomotive at their shop just a few hundred feet behind its birthplace.
The builder plates cast in brass. Authentication information and number of production is engraved on the back. A certificate of authenticity will also be included.
We invite you to become a participant in this important restoration of a significant element of Corry and Spartansburg’s industrial past.
The plates are being offered for purchase at this time, with plates numbered 1-5 available. The cost is $1000, including shipping. Since the plates are currently available, we request the full payment at the time of ordering.
Order here: https://square.link/u/v5aSUEzv
More information about the A-313, it’s life, and the Corry RAILS & Museum group can be found on this website. Please feel free to contact us with questions or to become more involved with our quest to restore this piece of history.
We are working to gather funding for the next major step toward restoration of the A313…the boiler… We have found a shop that can handle recreating the boiler to our specifications in Maine. We need to raise $150,000.00 for that work and transportation. So, your contributions through Erie Gives and other fund-raising events will help us reach this next milestone.
Carl sent out this update on the first work session for 2023, held on April 22/23:
WORK SESSION NUMBER 1 FOR 2023 is in the bag!!!
Our first Work Session of 2023 got us off to a good start with eight volunteers showing up… because it has been a few months since the weather took a turn for the worse, last Fall, and because we had some new volunteers, we took a bit of time bringing people up to speed with where we are in the project and what the order of activity will be for the next year. Welcome back to Erik Johnson, returning for his second session, after a long cold winter …. and Scott Green joined us for the first time… Scott brings a wide variety of talents including as an electrician… giving us two with deep electrical talents to help bring our infrastructure up to speed and help get our small machine shop area up and running. Some of our regulars showed up as well, included Ken McCauley from Lock Haven, Bill Simonton from Vienna, VA as well as our local crew, Norm Thomas, Ron and Connie Sitterley. and myself, Carl W.
Work continued on the engine bay mock-up which, when completed, will give us a huge lesson on how exactly we will need to go about assembling the “real” frame, gears and engines. Since we didn’t disassemble the locomotive or any of the components, we haven’t a clue what the gear clearances were originally… and unlike modern assemblies, where you would be mounting everything steel to steel and with the ability to shim to get the proper clearances, the early Climax “A”s have a wooden frame in between the steel and cast-iron components… and the wood shrinks and moves. So each step of the way we are learning valuable lessons and insights for when we begin to assemble the complete frame.
One additional thought is that when the engine is bolted on it will give the viewer a real perspective of just how high the engine sits and where the floor of the cab is in relation to the tracks…. it will be a little higher in the mock-up, but not a whole lot.
The frame under the engine bay is for structural and moving purposes only and has nothing to do with the frame assembly…. the pieces on top of the engine cradle are the same cross-sectional dimension as the actual frame. All of this was also necessary for creating and testing a jig for drilling the compound angle for the engine bay truss-rods also.
Confirmation of all of the frame dimensions is getting closer to being complete. Soon frame pieces will begin to be cut, followed by test assembly.
Some progress was made in preparing our sandblast cabinet for use… adding adequate lighting, changing the electrical switch so that the vacuum will come on with the light, and preparing the installation of a casting on the bottom of the collector to separate some of the sand or glass beads from the material being removed. Here shortly we will have the cabinet in working order and we will be ready to begin primering some of the metal parts in preparation for final paint.
Our next work session will be in a couple of weeks… May 13-14th… mark your calendars and drop a note to us if you are planning to attend. Join us in the restoration of one of the rarest and hardest working locomotive Classes ever built. Donations and contributions are needed and always appreciated. Donations and Gear can be found here.
Here is a list of tentative Work Sessions for the rest of the year…. things change as time goes by, so always keep checking for date changes as you are keeping up to date on our progress. Send any questions to corryrails@gmail.com
CORRY RAILS TENTATIVE WORK SESSION CALENDAR ~ 2023
(Watch for updates on our Corry RAILS Facebook Page, our website and in Emails)
Session No. Date:
1 April 22-23
2 May 13-14
3 May 27-28 Memorial Day celebrated on Mon. 29th
4 June 10-11 Projects and clean-up and set-up for Open House
4a June 17 CR Open House with displays. all welcome to participate.
5 June 24-25
6 July 8-9
7 July 22-23 come early, either Friday or real early Saturday and go to the Pioneer Steam and Swap in Saegertown. We will work late Saturday and have a Bar-B-Q afterwards at the shop.
8 Aug. 5-6
9 Aug. 26-27
10 Sept. 2-3
11 Sept. 16-17
12 Oct. 14-15
13 Oct. 28-29
14 Nov. 11-12
Sessions usually start at 8:30 Saturday till 5:00 or 5:30… and Sunday morning 8:30 to noon. Lunch provided. Some volunteers manage to come in early on Friday and spend some time in the shop then, as well
Corry RAILS Restoration shop located at 132 Mead Ave., Corry, PA 16407
See photos on our Facebook page – Corry RAILS
Corry RAILS & Museum has an online store for those who would like to show their support for the restoration of the A-313 Climax Locomotive. You will find t-shirts, polos, sweatshirts and hoodies, as well as hats and other items.
Slate engraved coasters made by Board member, Kevin Amy are a recent addition.
Please check out our store here, and donations are always welcome.
Thanks for your support!
On Saturday the 9th of July we had a group of 13 Volunteers show up for the work session on Saturday as well as 4 visitors… then 7 of us came in on Sunday morning for a few hours. Our timbers did not arrive on time to work on the Engine frame Mock-up, but more planning for it did occur.
Several BIG NEWS items did happen in the last few weeks… Bill Liebman, from down in Cass, WV donated and brought us up a dozen 4-drawer file cabinets for Small Parts Storage… These are greatly appreciated, and sorting and filling them will start shortly. Secondly, more great news was that on their way to Corry, Steve, Grady and Rob stopped off at Richard Bosch’s place in Slippery Rock, Pa. and picked up a few VERY nice items that Richard has donated and brought them to the Shop… We received a great old and well-seasoned Southbend Lathe which will do just fine for some basic machining in the future; a nice small floor mount drill Press and a beautiful large Baldor Grinder and Floor stand… THANK YOU RICH!!!!
Additionally, and I will write more later on this, we have received one of the 21 National Heritage Annual Grants from NRHS (National Railway Historical Society) and also a wonderful donation from the Mountain State Railroad & Logging Historical Association (MSR&LHA), which is the volunteer group at Cass Scenic Railroad State Park in West (by Gawd) Virginia, which was responsible for the first 14 years of restoration of the Moore & Keppel #6 (now #9) Class “C” Climax… many of our volunteers on the A-313 were heavily involved in that great effort… #1551 literally rising from the ashes!!! Thanks to both of these great organizations in helping us continue with the Class “A” 313 restoration Project.
Back to the shop… more cleaning, welding and grinding on arch-bars took place… we are about half way done on these.
A concentrated effort over both days took place in cleaning out one corner of the shop and beginning to run electrical conduit for our future small machine shop area. This extension, materials and labor, completed our earlier Grant from the Corry Community Foundation for our first electrical expansion project… THANKS C.C.F….. We will keep pushing it forward.
Some much needed longer sawhorses were built by Ron and crew.
Bill Ritts came in for a short time to check out the Climax engines following our running of them at our Open-House for short spurts… We fired them up… and the report is…. “They look great and are running fine!”
More time was put in sorting out the Cab uprights, inspecting them, putting together the back wall supports, doing some reverse engineering and trying to understand just what the thought process was in assembling the skeleton framework, roof bows and side fascia… slowly we’re getting a grasp on it… it looks simple… but that is about where that thought ends!
Thanks to Sandy, Connie and Sue for putting together another great “Lunch Box.”
Next Work Session 7/23/2022… See you then.
Corry RAILS 2022 Open House Review:
On Saturday, June 11th, we welcomed several hundred visitors to our Shop on Mead Avenue to check out what we are up to. Along with our own displays and the inaugural presentation of the operating Climax “A” Vertical twin engines we were joined by a dozen or more vendors and displayers. It was a beautiful day and we had folks come from as far away as a 6 hour drive to celebrate the 120th Birthday of Climax A-313 with us. Here is a short video that Donnie Rosie and his assistant Kerrie Hunt of Rosie Productions put together for us of some of the highlights of the day… Thanks guys! (‘n girls). In the Video, that’s Steve Niederriter, a member of our Alaska Rescue and Restoration Team operating the engines. We hope you will come out next year when we have our Open House again… or watch for dates for our Work Sessions and come by then. Thanks to all attendees and our wonderful vendors and displayers for helping us celebrate another year.
Stay posted, in the future there will be some new exciting “Finds”, Projects and Events to announce, but we are a ways out on making them public right now… but, believe me, They Are Pretty Neat!!! New History to be reborn!!!
Stop past the open house today! This is the beautifully restored AJAX engine which for years worked at the Corry, PA Waterworks supplying water to the the city’s reservoir… it could be heard all over town when things were quiet in the middle of the night. One of our Corry RAILS’ volunteers, Norm Thomas, is the current owner and the restorer of this historic piece, built by Ajax Iron Works here in Corry. Thanks for bringing her Norm… people always enjoy seeing it operate.
https://www.facebook.com/100057360823646/videos/1419386501834710
She is alive!… at 120 years old!!! Check out this demonstration of the engine from Corry RAILS Open House Day June 11, 2022. Happy Birthday, 313!
Report on last weekend’s Work Session #2: 5/7/2022
More progress was made on the Trucks with Steve and Grady adding some material to areas of the Arch-Bars via weld build-up and then grinding, replacing some of the metal which has eroded over the years.
Connie and Ron, along with Chelsea Oliver were hard at work most of the day building more saw-horses… we now have more than half of what we will be needing as we get into the woodworking phases… great progress.
Rob brought a small drafting table to donate which will come in handy… and then turned his attention to restoring an old Canedy-Otto Drill Press from the early 1900’s… It Started out life as a Drill Press in the Corry High School Shops… at the old Hatch Building on Wright St…. I remember seeing the equipment there in use when I was in 1st or 2nd Grade in the elementary school next door…. when the HS itself was on the other side of town, near the Corry Journal offices on W. South St. When the new High School opened in the early 50’s the drill press was donated to the Mead Park Association for their Hobby Shop where woodwork for the future Corry Museum was being created. The press is single phase 220. It was last used most likely in the mid 60’s or 70’s… and in cleaning things out of the Hobby Shop/Maintenance Building at Mead Park a couple of years ago, it was donated to Corry RAILS. Rob got it wired into the main panel, got it running and spent some time cleaning and oiling it good… a temporary new flat-belt broke when he tried it on a different pulley… it needs some cup oilers, a new belt and a little TLC …but it is really looking good… fine for doing small drilling projects… At close to 100 years old, it is getting a third life. Thanks Rob.
Pat Gorman, a volunteer from over in Bradford came to town and jumped in and helped Alex with scraper and wire-brush work on the Trucks… man-oh-man, that’s a lot of work!…. and WOW do they look better! Pat has helped us out before with model train shows and last year’s Open House.
Bob Spaeth, from Robert’s Machine Company in Emporium, PA stopped by for a couple of hours to visit and to check out the Climax A-313 project on his way to another project… It was good seeing him after chatting with him online over the last few months…. Bobbie will be back, I’m sure.
The Two cylinder Climax engine is home following rebuild and assembly by our extraordinary machinist Bill Ritts, with new Niagara Piston Rings and some new jewelry, in the form of new Oiler Caps to replace some missing ones.
The caps were produced by another of our fabulous machinists over the Winter months from a nice chunk of brass donated by yet another Friend of A-313. ….
and then we began putting together the shifter mechanism for the two-speed. We will be posting some video soon of it running on air as Bill and Norm tested it out. In the near future it will be mounted on a mock-up Engine Cradle with the driveline gears, or counter-gears, mounted along with the shifter and reverser levers so that you can see how it all functions. We will then be able to demo it on air for short spurts.
The Next Work Session is THIS COMING WEEKEND… the 14th-15th…. ALSO >>>> mark your calendar for June 11th for the Open House here at Corry RAILS… ads coming soon…
For the Summer and early Fall, here is a Tentative list of Work Session Weekends…
5/14, 6/4, 6/25, 7/9, 7/23, 8/13, 8/27, 9/17, 10/1, 10/22. Watch for updates and Double-Check dates before just showing up… these are TENTATIVE.
Toot-toot!!…. backing out of the Station for now.
