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From TRAINS Newsletter 3/28/17:
Vandal hits Alaska steam locomotive, citizen steps up
By Steve Glischinski | March 28, 2017
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – In a story that illustrates the best and worst of human nature, a vandal extensively tagged Alaska Railroad 2-8-0 No. 556 with graffiti in an Anchorage park last week, only to have the graffiti removed by a concerned citizen.
No. 556 has been on display in Anchorage’s Delaney Park Strip since the late 1950s. It was constructed by Baldwin for the U.S. Army in 1943, and transferred to the Alaska Railroad in 1945. For years, children visiting the park were able to climb on the locomotive, and many residents have fond memories of the engine. Weather took its toll on the locomotive, and in 2013 a $250,000 restoration began. The area around No. 556 was fenced and landscaped, and park bench made from railroad wheels were installed, and signs showing the history of steam and No. 556 were erected.
When the vandal struck, there was an immediate outcry on social media. Many people called the Anchorage Parks and Recreation Department wanting to help out, department contract manager Vikram Patel tells the Alaska Dispatch News.
Mike Andersen, president of DAMA Industrial LLC, volunteered up to $10,000 of crew labor to remove the graffiti and repaint the locomotive, Patel tells the News. The Anchorage Sherwin-Williams paint store agreed to donate supplies to cover the graffiti, he said. Police estimated the cost of removing the graffiti was between $7,000 and $15,000.
Then along came concerned citizen Frank Perez, who used to play on the locomotive as a child. He was driving by No. 556, saw the graffiti, and decided to act. “When I see stuff like that, it really peeves me,” Perez tells KTUU-TV.
Perez does graffiti removal for his employer, so he had the material to remove the offending lettering. On March 22 he brought his two daughters, ages 15 and eight, to remove the graffiti.
