Steam & Diesel on the Nickel Plate Road Volumes 1,2 & 3 preview. Great steam railroad action from from Herron Rail Video. Available at www.herronrail.com .
I grew up in Hammond,IN on the NKP main line. I was 8 or 9 and I could hear the berks blow for Van Loon, In and I would run to the crossing on Parrish avenue. I have many memories of the NKP Berks etched into my mind. When the expressway was being built thru my area, the concrete plant was in Hammond,IN (Hessville). The 0-8-0 switcher crew even gave me a cab ride while switching the cement hoppers! Great time to be a train watching boy. I am 68 now and I still love trains!
I grew up in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, OH and like you, I used to see the Berkshires in action on the mainline near Mentor, OH. There was also a four track main of the NYC and I watched the last of the J3a Hudsons roll past too. One of them was the last steam train in revenue service I ever saw, around 1957 or 1958, heading west after leaving the yards. I still remember the engineer's face smiling at me. We lived about 5 or 6 miles inland from the lakeshore, and on summer nights when the windows were open I could hear the steam whistles as the fast freights rolled in toward the Collingswood yards in East Cleveland. One of the saddest sights I ever saw was in 1962. While taking the CTS rapid transit into downtown Cleveland, we went past a spot where there were three Berkshires sitting on a sing awaiting the scapper's torch. The were rusty and looked forlorn, and I will never forget that sight. Right now I have a nicely detailed O scale model of NKP 765 sitting on my mantle.
I don't know about you but watching this gives me goosebumps. Seeing these Berks among other old Nickel Plate equipment running by the US&S signals back then when they were commonplace to just there being 4 signals left in service in 2020. Absolutely stunning.
WOW, this is great stuff. And most of it in color too! Thanks for the post. Notice how friendly most of the NKP crewmen were to the railfan photographer. You sure don't see much of that trackside these days.
Awesome to see how the territory I run over looked back in the day. Especially that 765, got to pilot it from Bellevue to Cleveland a few years back, many dreams fulfilled that day to say the least.
Steam_Dev not true the 767 crashed when it was pulling a passenger train it had bad damage to left and front so it was scrapped NYC&STL decided to take 765 and re number it to 767
I had an uncle who was an engineer on the New York Central. He was running an Alco for unit fa locomotive set with what seemed every car in the yard. On the parallel Nickel Plate track to Berkshire passed him going like a bat out of hell and gave out a whistle that spoke volumes.
Out of all the steam locomotives in existence, I think the S-2 NKP Berkshires are my absolute favorites. I'm finding myself slowly obsessing over this engine. Now I want to ride on 765 if I ever get the chance. One of the most beautiful steam engines ever built in my humble opinion. And one of the strongest in its class. Those freight trains that thing is pulling are long! They've got to be mega heavy!
It is very enjoyable to see footage of Nickel Plate Road steam power in operation back during the steam era, it's nice to know that there are 6 NKP Berkshire type locomotives that have been preserved and still exist as these were the Nickel Plate's most famous example of steam power.
In E. Cleveland, OH, as a youngster, I lived near the juncture of the NKP and the NYC, heading into Downtown Cleveland. I loved trains and my dad would take me to the station to watch the trains from the platform. My favorite engine was the Berkshire and I used to draw pictures of it. One afternoon, at the station, I saw a headlight, in the distance and, as it drew nearer, I realized that it was a Berk and I was elated. When it reached the station, highballing at full throttle, the platform was vibrating, the engine's roar was deafening, and I retreated, terrified, back into the stairwell enclosure, much to my chagrin and my dad's amusement. I never stopped loving trains, or the Berks, but I never, again, had the opportunity to stand next to a moving steam locomotive. I did, however, have the good fortune, to experience two cab rides, by virtue of having an uncle who was an engineer on the NYC. One of those was in the yard, the other was in the cab of a diesel passenger assignment on an inbound block to Cleveland.
I'm just going to throw out a little bit of railroad trivia here, but NKP #759, the locomotive that this video said was brought back to life 11 years after steam's end, was most definitely fired up again in 1969. It was one of two engines which pulled the Golden Spike Centennial Express; the other one was "Living Legend" Union Pacific #844.
Steam engines are very labor intensive. Steam engines spent a lot of their time in the shops being repaired compared to diesel locomotives. Steam is dirty, very hot in the summer (if it is 95 outside, it can be 140+ in the cab), cold in the winter (the cab does not keep heat in, in winter it can be as low as 20 in the cab) and requires a large work force.
@kevingthompson13 equipment and maintenance is actualy down compared to when steam was in service. Steam was maintenance hungry, while diesels require as little as window wipping before its next run.
ah the type of locos that the Nickle plate Road was most famous for, and doing what they were made to do, haul fast freight at speed. even the first gen diesels were something more distinct then the locos we have today, but I like steam though minus all the pollution and filthy work, I have helped a few times with the fort wayne railroad historical, wanted to help out a little more, but there is not much work right now its summer and all buttoned up to run, next winter though will be a chore her work will be heavy as her 15 year needs done, that is why we did half the work this year till late spring, so the down time is less, though how long she will be out of the mix I am not sure, maybe this weekend I will go out after work, if I can.
That rare piece of video of 765 in revenue service would become the Hoosier Keystone of the late 20th and all of the 21st century, Long live the Nickel Plate
I remember reading and a trained magazine ahead of the Nickel Plate railroad said the difference between running modern Steam and diesels was a sin as a piece of paper yet for some reason they scrapped all of their modern brand new steam locomotives just like everybody else did. It took a real man to run Steam and it took years for you to learn. Steam would kill you if you were careless or stupid. You had to be a real engine man to run Steam. They used to call diesel locomotive operators motorman as their consummate insult. When steam was scrapped many engineers wrote goodbye notes on the side of their tenders. I remember one that said goodbye you rough riding bastard. It may have been a rough riding bastard but he cared enough to say goodbye to it that's something you don't have with a diesel locomotive. Steam used to last for generations of railroaders people would retire three times before that engine was permanently retired and if you rebuilt them they lasted forever. It is such a shame this country wasted all of that capital in the form of scheme as well as the companies that serve them and the various things you needed an equipment Etc. Steam was a part of the prosperous America that isn't here anymore. One engineer controlling three or four locomotives can haul 10 trains worth of freight that's all made in China. One engineer doing the work of three Train Cruise that's the new America.
Yeah the scene where 765 whistles after passing the old Runnion Ave train order office in Ft.Wayne Ind it sounds way different. But apparently, the audio was recorded w/the video.
@@b3j8I find it hard to believe it came with the video, the chugging sound is only synced to one cylinder, it's supposed to be chugging everytime a quarter turns on the drivers, and looks like the whistle was blown differently than it sounds
All the recordings used in the NKP videos are authentic NKP sounds. However, not all scenes had actual recordings so we placed the best available sounds to each scene. It took several months to create the sounds for each video. All of the film was silent 16mm. It was impossible to create exact sound for some scenes due to the speed of the locomotive vs available tape recordings. If you don't like the sound, turn off the sound and watch it silently. Also, locomotives do not always "chug". It depends on what they are doing in any particular scene. -JH
They are treated like a nussince today, and chased off due to most of the crossings being on privete property or close to it and you are chased off or given a ticket, though most of the guys of the 765 today with the exception of a few are more then open about the ins and outs of running the steam locomotive, its one of only five that can do mainline service excursions and takes about 8000 dollers just to get going for an excursion when the do a run at the open house last weekend october 2011
Such a sin that all of those locomotives for scrap with Decades of service life ahead of them. Every time Steve got serviced the advances that steam locomotives got were put on to older locomotives that made them more efficient so they burned less coal and used less water while making more power. Big steam locomotives required heavy track due to the axel loadings. The tracks built to accommodate steam locomotives also could accommodate larger and larger Freight cars where railroads with lighter trackage for lighter cars that bought diesel locomotives found in later years their whole railroad would need to be upgraded in order to handle larger and larger Freight cars. Faced with the expense of renovating hundreds of miles of track the railroads instead shrank.
@kevingthompson13 That and all these dumb rule that get in the way. All because the FRA does seem to understand that railroading is and always will be dangerous.
In the old days cameras and film was expensive and you had to pick and choose what you filmed because of the expense. Now you can film all you want for free but there's nothing to film.
Not so. Carbon emissions from steam locomotives, whether coal or oil-burning, are hundreds of times greater than from a well-tuned Diesel engine. Steam locomotives also use a lot of different oils and greases as lubrication. They are wonderful to watch and I have loved them all my life since I was a babe in arms, but steam locomotives are a dinosaur. Let's enjoy them while we can because no machine lasts forever.
