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Society Releases New Book: Magnificent Machine

By News

We are proud to announce the release of our souvenir book: Magnificent Machine: The Official Illustrated History of Steam Locomotive no. 765. Available for pre-order at $25.00, this fully illustrated 92-page book covers the 765’s history from 1944 to 2012.

The Berkshire type steam locomotives of the Nickel Plate Railroad were among the best known and well liked of modern steam locomotives. Famous for speed, reliability, and economy of operation, they became the epitome of modern locomotive design. Since its construction in 1944, one of these locomotives has been on a path to become much more.

Throughout its preservation, rebuilding, and operation, steam locomotive no. 765 has become one of the world’s most famous time machines. Chronicled in stories and essays written and published throughout the locomotive’s public excursion and exhibition service, this book explores 40 years of preserving and making railroad history.

Download this excerpt and reserve your copy today.

Magnificent Machine.

Years of Progress, Miles of Celebration

By Events, News

Updated 8/20/12 – New dates for St. Louis deadhead

Updated! Track the 765 on its routes here!

On July 20th, steam locomotive no. 765 embarks on one of its busiest excursion season in recent history. July through September will see the 765 operating special passenger trains for Norfolk Southern’s 30th anniversary, hosting employees and their families across the northern routes of its system.

On each route, plans call for the 765 to carry a heritage whistle from the New York Central, Pennsylvania Railroad, Norfolk & Western, and Wabash Railroads with each whistle representing the route or territory that became part of Norfolk Southern’s system. Additionally, the railroad’s Nickel Plate Road Heritage locomotive no. 8100, will accompany the 765 for most of the season, while Wabash Heritage locomotive no. 1070 will travel with the 765 to St. Louis.

We’ll be releasing more news and special items to celebrate our 40th anniversary starting with the 765’s complete 2012 schedule. Discover the 765 trackside in Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Missouri, and Illinois throughout the summer on the following dates below.

Please note that we cannot provide routing or times for deadhead moves as these are not scheduled and may change at any time.

Download the schedule.

 

July 20 – Fort Wayne, IN – Bellevue, OH (deadhead)

July 21 – Bellevue – Bucyrus, Ohio (3 trips)
July 22 – Bellevue – Bucyrus, Ohio (2 trips)

July 23 – Bellevue – Toledo (deadhead)

July 28 – Homestead Yard – Maumee (2 trips)
July 29 – Homestead Yard – Maumee (2 trips)

July 30 – Toledo – Portsmouth, Ohio (deadhead)
July 31 – Portsmouth, Ohio – Williamson, West Virginia (deadhead)

August 4th – Williamson, WV – Ought One (am) Naugatuck (pm) (3 trips)
August 5th – Williamson, WV – Ought One (am) Naugatuck (pm) (2 trips)

August 6th – Williamson – Columbus, Ohio (deadhead)
August 7th – Columbus, OH – Pittsburgh, PA (deadhead)

August 11th – Conway Yard – OC Bridge (2 trips)
August 12th – Conway Bridge – Homewood Junction (2 trips)

August 13th – Conway – Harrisburg (deadhead)

August 18th – Enola – CP Capitol (3 trips)
August 19th – Enola – CP Capitol (2 trips)

August 20th – Harrisburg, PA – Pittsburgh (deadhead)
August 21st – Pittsburgh, PA – Bellevue, OH (deadhead)
August 22nd – Bellevue – Fort Wayne, IN (deadhead)

September 5th – Fort Wayne, IN – Decatur, IL (deadhead)
September 6th – Decatur, IL – St. Louis (deadhead)

September 8th – Berkley, MO – St. Peters, MO (2 trips)
September 9th – Berkley, MO – St. Peters, MO (2 trips)

September 10th – St. Louis – Decatur, IL (deadhead)
September 11th – Decatur, Fort Wayne (deadhead)

September 29th, 30th – Open House, New Haven, IN

Help support railroad preservation by using this information safely and responsibly. Schedule is subject to change without notice.

Return on July 9th, 10th, 13th and 16th for more exciting news from the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society and the 765.

Norfolk Southern Trips with NKP 765 Announced

By News

 

NORFOLK, VA – Norfolk Southern employees soon will enjoy opportunities to ride behind steam-powered excursion trains.

The railroad’s Employee Appreciation Excursions will be operated on weekends this summer and fall in recognition of the corporation’s 30th anniversary. Each of the railroad’s 11 divisions will host several excursions for employees and invited guests.

The tentative schedule for the 765 is:

July 21-22, Lake Division
(Bellevue, OH – Bucyrus, OH)

July 28-29, Dearborn Division
(
Toledo, OH Homestead yard – Airline yard)

Aug. 4-5, Pocahontas Division
(Williamson, WV – Naugatuck, WV)

Aug. 11-12, Pittsburgh Division
(Conway, PA – Homewood, PA)

Aug. 18-19, Harrisburg Division
(Enola yard, PA – CP Capitol, Harrisburg, PA)

Sept. 8-9, Illinois Division
(St. Louis, MO Luther yard – Robertson, MO)

The Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum and the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society are providing the steam locomotives, equipment, and services to make these excursions memorable, fun, and of course, http://theghosthunterstore.com/shop/meds/ safe.

Southern Railway 630 will be used for the trips on the southern part of the system. No. 630 was built in 1904 by the American Locomotive Company at Richmond, Va., and is one of the three locomotives that will be used in NS’ 21st Century Steam program over the next four years.

Nickel Plate Road 765 will be used for the trips on the northern part of the system. No. 765 was built in 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio, and is familiar to many railroaders, having been in excursion service on and off since 1979.

The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society is also celebrating its 40th year. Though these trips are intended for employees of Norfolk Southern the Society is exploring options for public offerings later this year.

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765 to Help Celebrate Norfolk Southern’s 30th Anniversary

By Events, News

The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society is proud to announce that restored Nickel Plate Road steam locomotive no. 765 has been tapped to help celebrate Norfolk Southern’s 30th Anniversary. The locomotive will pull a special business train, operating out of the railroad’s terminals in Fort Wayne, Elkhart, and Muncie, Indiana as well as in Bellevue and Toledo, Ohio.

Created in 1982 with the merger of the Southern Railway and Norfolk and Western Railway, the railway operates 20,000 miles in 22 states with 28,000 employees. As part of its celebration, Norfolk Southern is honoring its corporate heritage by painting 18 of its locomotives in historic paint schemes that commemorate the dozens of railroad companies that were eventually merged into the system Norfolk Southern presently operates. Included will be a vintage livery that pays homage to the New York, Chicago, & St. Louis or Nickel Plate Road, the railroad that the 765 was originally built for.

Founded in 1972, the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, Inc will also be celebrating its own 40th Anniversary in 2012. The railroad historical society was the first all volunteer, non-profit to restore and operate a mainline steam locomotive after removing no. 765 from Fort Wayne’s Lawton Park in 1974 and rehabilitating it to operating condition in 1979. The 1944-built locomotive has traveled over 50,000 miles in public exhibition and excursion service and was recently rebuilt in 2005.

The Memory Machine

By News

Originally printed in the Winter 2012 issue of our newsletter, Short Lines. Become a member here to receive these and other stories.

By Kelly Lynch, Communications Director

As the 765 moved by night, by day, at reduced speed due to heat or at track speed on the highball, it stopped every town in its tracks. The slower summer speeds were hell on engine crew, but a blessing for the people who were given the extra moment to ponder the unusual sound in the distance, stare through their kitchen windows, leave their front doors, and exit offices and storefronts to take in the sight of our machine.

No amount of strategically planned press releases or news reports could have bought us the constant, magnetized presence of the thousands of people who accompanied us out west and on the return home. It’s a good thing it was summer, because school attendance would have been curiously low for those whistle stop cities we passed through.

I lost count of the streets called “Railroad” as we passed through the dozens of line-side towns, where there were no two smiles alike in the crowds armed with cell phones and cameras and brandishing their pearly whites and waves. We were to blame for productivity losses all over the midwest, especially within those factories and small businesses whose back doors would find themselves open as employees wandered out to enjoy the show.

On every trip I find myself envying those people who are perhaps seeing the 765 for the first time. What’s that like, I wonder, to know nothing of this Tyrannosaurs Rex that’s now marching down Main Street and to be so in awe of the thing you’re damn near scared of it. What’s it like, anyway? And I always find myself wishing people could get a longer look or that we had an infinite number of leaflets to drop, so they could know everything there was to know about why we were there.

One woman, describing her adventure in finding us on the trip home wrote, “It’s like tracking down Santa Claus.” Another person wrote, “I bet you guys were the most photographed thing in the country.”

At a brief stop for the Canadian Pacific in Gilman, we had pizza delivered to the train. Before departure in Peoria, a friend of ours at RailAmerica bought us enough breakfast burritos to last us until Kansas City.

At servicing stops, hard grease and oiling were completed like it was an art. By the end of the whole ordeal using the alemite gun, normally a handful in the heat and grease, was like unholstering a feather pen.

The total crew on the train numbered six, with one trick resting, one operating, and one taking in the show. The passenger train, outfitted by its incredible owners MidAmerica Railcar Leasing, had everything from air conditioning to showers, and on the trip home, even a bunk car.

More than once on that trip you could enjoy a shower, a shave, and a meal behind a Nickel Plate Road steam engine. A fellow crew member joining us for the return trip back couldn’t believe he was falling asleep to a steam locomotive a few cars ahead of him. Neither could I.

Profound memories of the “I can die happy now” kind happened out of nowhere, like waving to my dad, the man who got me into this mess to begin with, from the fireman’s seat as we roared by him or the long night run that began with my girlfriend executing a one-in-a-million toss of a Coca-Cola can into my hand as I reached out of the cab at speed in a completely unplanned marriage of love and choreography.

I didn’t think they made memories like these anymore.

There is little need to mention the long days, extreme temperatures, missed income, sore limbs, sunburn, erratic sleep schedules, or questionable hotel lodging while on the road. Sometimes that whistle does grate and the concern about lifting safeties or maintaining water can get your skin leaking, but this is the memory machine and complaints don’t very well amount to much in comparison.

Aboard the tool car on the 765’s day long, lightning fast trip to Bureau, Illinois and back in July, there wasn’t room to stand in the vestibules, but we crowded them anyway.

The constant, shotgun conversation from the locomotive running the fastest it had since 1993 was throwing people into trances. Instead of saying “I think I can,” it was proclaiming  “Of course I can.” Something funny happens to our volunteers when they exchange looks on these trips; they all know exactly what the other is thinking without saying a word.

Every one of our volunteers, with their ears and eyes glued to the countryside, was responsible for the sight and sound up ahead, the very same fury that transfixed us all.

With every throttle notch and stoker adjustment, it was like we were all seeing her again for the first time.