Re: Narrow Gauge Class-A Climax in AK

I saw what was left of that locomotive in late February or early March 1992. It belonged to Keith Christenson in Eagle River, Alaska. He was a very gracious host, and showed me his collections of books, photos (including some from the Colorado & Northwestern), ephemera, builder's plates, and other hardware. The boiler and frame for the Climax were outside, elevated off the ground:


The engine was also outside, but under tarps, and while he peeled the tarps away a bit so I could see it, I didn't get any photos. One truck was also covered outside, but the other was in his shop where he had made a lot of progress restoring it. There wasn't much room to get photos, but here's a bit of the gearing (I don't have my B&W negatives all scanned, so this was just a digital photo taken of the whole roll of negatives on a light table - I'll try for a better scan next time I get the negative scanner going):


He also had a great old 4-wheel boxcar, and this little saddle-tank Porter:


He was doing most of the work himself, with limited resources and too many other interests. I did some research a few years ago to try to find out whether he was still alive and what happened to all his stuff, and had read that he died quite a while ago, and a relative (brother?) had been entertaining offers on the collection, but don't know what happened to any of it. I think this information came from some sort of newsletter, which was already fairly old when I found it. As far as I know he didn't make much more progress on the Climax. It's good to see interest in the Climax, and hopefully it can get a decent restoration.