2011 Santa Train, December 3rd, 10th, 17th

30 October 2011 News

50 years ago, Santa Claus arrived in Fort Wayne by train for downtown Fort Wayne’s annual Christmas celebrations. In 2011, a holiday tradition returns again to Allen County aboard the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society’s Santa Train.

Families can climb aboard a vintage train and visit with Santa on a 20 minute ride during the day or reserve a special evening Santa Charter for up to 15 people for a 45 minute trip with refreshments, classic holiday music, and gift giving with Santa himself on December 3rd, 10th, and 17th. Trips depart the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society’s restoration facility at 15808 Edgerton Road.

Santa Trains

December 3rd, 10th, 17th,
10AM-4PM
$4 per person, first come, first serve basis with trips departing approximately every 30 minutes.

Santa Charters (reservations required)

December 3rd, 10th, 17th,
6PM, 7PM, 8PM
$200, includes light refreshments. Bring your entire family along and let Santa deliver your gifts.

For fast reservations, email contact@fwrhs.org with your preferred date, time, and number of people. You may also call 260-493-0765.

Once an event sponsored by Fort Wayne landmark store Wolf & Dessauer, these trips will give children the opportunity to take a trip back in time and visit with Santa Claus aboard a caboose and vintage diesel locomotive.

Families can pay homage to a great Fort Wayne tradition and create brand new ones while visiting the home of the largest operating steam locomotive in the midwest: Nickel Plate Road no. 765. Once on display in Lawton Park, the 1944-built 765 is a fast freight and passenger machine, completely restored into a living time machine that operates excursions throughout the country.

Check out coverage of last year’s Santa Trains by the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:

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Steam Driven Giant a Blast from the Past

26 October 2011 News, Press and Media

Weekend open house celebrates Engine No. 765 and Fort Wayne rail history
By Kevin Kilbane of The News-Sentinel

The thing is a beast.

Fifteen feet tall, more than 400 tons of steel, wheels nearly 6 feet in diameter, and belching smoke and hissing steam while capable of running more than 60 mph.

Nickel Plate Road steam locomotive Engine No. 765 is a monster, but one you can see up close during the Engine 765 Day Weekend Celebration open house 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Friday through Sunday at the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, 15808 Edgerton Road, east of New Haven.

“It’s just something out of a movie for a lot of people,” said Kelly Lynch, the rail society’s communications director.

Admission is free. Rides in a caboose pulled by a historic diesel locomotive are $4 per person.

A Rail Center

Engine No. 765 is an amazing connection to a rich era of Fort Wayne’s history, Lynch said.

“What this locomotive represents is what Fort Wayne did for over a century — we built locomotives, passenger cars and freight cars here,” Lynch said.
The rail society keeps it busy during the summer, again pulling excursion and sightseeing trips, he said.

On most of those trips, the engine hauls about 3,000 people a day, Lynch said. They carried a combined total of about 40,000 people during a several-day excursion outing this past July in Rock Island, Ill.

…

Hands-on Experience

At the Engine No. 765 Day Celebration, visitors will be able to climb up to see the cab where the engineeer and fireman sit to drive the engine, Lynch said. They also may get to blow the engine’s whistle and shovel coal.

“What we have is more of a restoration shop now than a museum,” Lynch said.

But they hope to increase opportunities for people to see and enjoy Engine No. 765 and the society’s other pieces of rail history.

“The key to making people care about this stuff is to operate it,” he said.

Read the entire article online here.

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Projects Underway

24 October 2011 Projects

Our progress on multiple restoration projects will be chronicled here.

At present, we are working on the restoration of:

- NKP 358, SD9m diesel locomotive

- Wabash caboose no. 2543

Our project managers will be posting updates on these efforts as time allows.

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Inside the Shop: May

16 October 2011 Videos

Various projects consume the weekend work sessions as the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society prepares Nickel Plate Road steam locomotive no. 765 for the excursion season.

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