Nickel Plate Road and Pere Marquette Railway

Classic Trains General Discussion
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These are my two favorite railroad names. I’m not talking so much about the two railroads as such but, rather, the names. Unlike so many classic railroads that were named for cities, states, etc., these two railroad names just sound cool. They have a certain ring about them.

The Nickel Plate Road was constructed in 1881 along the South Shore of the Great Lakes to connect Buffalo and Chicago, in competition with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. There is a long and storied history behind the Nickel Plate Road, too long and complicated to be discussed here.

Nickel Plate Road (reporting mark NKP) is an interesting name for a railroad line. As the story goes, the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad earned the nickname because when it was being planned, there were four lines surveyed for the position. The competition was fierce for not only the line but also the money that would be earned by having the railroad in the respective towns and cities. The editor of the Norwalk Ohio Chronicle referred to the New York, Chicago and St. Louis RR route as “Nickel Plated” due to the money that would be earned. The nickname stuck.

The Pere Marquette Railway (reporting mark PM) was a railroad that operated in the Great Lakes region of the United States and southern parts of Ontario in Canada. It had trackage in the states of Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and the Canadian province of Ontario. Its primary connections included Buffalo; Toledo; and Chicago. The company was named after Jacques Marquette, a French Jesuit missionary who founded Michigan’s first European settlement, Sault Ste Marie. “Pere” in “Pere Marquette” means “Father” in French; it is the French word for father, so “Pere Marquette” translates to “Father Marquette”.

The company was reincorporated on March 12, 1917, as the Pere Marquette Railway. In the 1920s the Pere Marquette came under the control of Cleveland financiers Oris and Mantis Van Sweringen. These brothers also controlled the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad (Nickel Plate), the Erie Railroad and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, and planned to merge the four companies. However, the ICC did not approve the merger and the Van Sweringens eventually sold their interest in the Pere Marquette to the C&O in 1929. The company continued to operate separately as the Pere Marquette Railway until being fully merged into the C&O on June 6, 1947.

Anyone share my feelings for these two railroad names? Feel free to digress.

Rich

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As someone from Michigan I can say the Pere Marquette is a railroad that is fondly remembered in the state. Of course we have the 1225 which keeps the railroads legacy alive but much of the former ROW has been turned into rail trails and several depots have preserved throughout the state as well.

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That is a real shame, and the same thing has happened here in the Chicago area with several former railroad ROWs being turned into walking trails. Progess?

Rich

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I’d say 40-50% of former PM lines are still in use, the CSX line between Detroit and Porter Junction via Lansing and Grand Rapids being the main one along with other sections being owned by shortlines. I view rail trails as a positive thing since it keeps the memory of the line alive as opposed to letting it get lost to history. For example the whole former PM line from Baldwin to Midland MI is a trail now. An example of a preserved depot is the one in Traverse CIty, seen here

DSC_0054
DSC_00541920×1282 257 KB

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Yeah, you’re right, and I feel the same way. Just a bit sad to realize that those railroads are gone.

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Same. Thankfully we have the 1225 and the 765 around to keep the nostalgia going

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Yep, that is very cool. Thank goodness for preservationists.

Rich

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Love that depot. Been to Traverse City many times. My original retirement plan was to winter in Scottsdale AZ and summer in Traverse City MI. Wound up retiring and doing neither.

Spent many days in Midland including Friday nights and Saturdays doing planning planning for executives at Dow Chemical. Found out the hard way that they roll up the sidewalks at 8 PM on weekdays. LOL.

Rich

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Being a native Clevelander where I grew up less than a mile from the Nickel Plate main line I’ve always had an interest in the railroad. Early fan trips on the Nickel Plate also helped.
Here’s the 759 just before its shakedown run from Conneaut (Ohio) to Buffalo back in 1968. I was 12.

NKP 759 Conneaut by Edmund, on Flickr

Later, of course, the 759 was tapped for the Golden Spike Limited. Quite a spectacular show! I sure wish a manufacturer would make a good-quality Nickel Plate Hudson. This was taken right by the house I grew up in:

Nickel Plate Hudson 175 by Edmund, on Flickr

Of course the Chesapeake and Ohio had their headquarters in Cleveland for a while and the ERIE was also a part of the Van’s railroad empire. One of their great, unsung accomplishments was the Advisory Mechanical Committee of which the Berkshire design was developed through along with Lima Locomotive Works.

I enjoy modeling the Erie and Nickel Plate on my layout and, yes, I even have some Pere Marquette and C&O passenger cars, too. Was it Robert R. Young that went on the buying spree that brought all the stillborn Chessie passenger cars about? I have a model of the Chessie Club on the layout.

Pere_Marquette_101 by Edmund, on Flickr

Lots of fun, and lost history!

Cheers, Ed

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Now that’s interesting. Thanks, Ed.

Rich

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This book has been around for a while. I can’t explain why Trains just recently wrote a review of it. Well worth reading even if you aren’t from the Cleveland area.

The Van Sweringens also developed one of the first suburban communities, Shaker Heights, and the rapid transit system to serve that community.

PCC_Shaker by Edmund, on Flickr

Shaker_12 Westbound by Edmund, on Flickr

Shaker_56_1966 by Edmund, on Flickr

Of course what the Vans did was all a house of cards. They leveraged purchases with the assets of the properties bought and during the Great Depression all the value vaporized leaving the brothers nearly broke.

Fascinating history.

Regards, Ed

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Thanks for that post, Ed. I am always looking for a good book to read, but I am hard to please. The review certainly makes the book sound interesting. I think that I will give it a whirl.

Rich

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The ‘Nickel Plate’ monicker for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis railroad came, as I recall, from one of the Vanderbilts who wanted to acquire it, iirc in the early 1880s. When he heard the proposed price and terms he said something like “Why, your road must be nickel-plated to be worth that!”

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From Steam Locomotive.com:

The New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad was dubbed the “Nickel Plate Road” in a newspaper article in 1882. It seemed to the writer that everything on this railroad, from the tracks to the fittings in the passenger cars, was bright, polished and perfect, as if nickel-plated. The name stuck and the railroad used the name until it merged with the Norfolk & Western and the Wabash in 1964.

There is an alternate story of how the Nickel Plate Road got that name. When William Vanderbilt sought to purchase the NYC&StL, to remove it as a competitor with his New York Central, the price, which he was quoted was, in his view, so exorbitant that he exclaimed, “My God! Your railroad must be nickel-plated!”

Cheers, Ed

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LOL

Well, now we have three sources for that legendary nickname. Which is it?

Rich

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As far as I was able to figure out, the ‘newspaper’ stories all go back to Lynne White’s address to the old American Newcomen Society in 1954. One has to wonder about the objectivity of a Norwalk, Ohio local paper describing the prospects for the “great New York and St Louis double-track, nickel-plated railway”. This in response to a group of engineers doing a survey for an as-yet-unbuilt part…

This same newspaper then used 'nickel-plated again, which the reference apparently characterized as :“a term regarded as indicative of the project;s glittering prospects and substantial financial backing”.

Considering just how far the Nickel Plate actually got to New York, and how quickly the financial prospects went in the pot after 1882, the whole idea of nickel-plated anything verges on laughable – the Chicago-New York Air Line had better prospects.

Now, a possible resolution is this: supposedly in 1882 the railroad management recognized the owner/editor of the Norwalk newspaper as the person who came up with the term, and issued him the first free pass. This leads me to wonder whether the emphasis in Vanderbilt’s exclamation was just a little different: “Why, your road would HAVE to be nickel-plated to be worth that!”

Pity our printed language, unlike those in China, doesn’t capture emphasis and tone…

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Well, then, there you have it.

Rich

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I often look for used (preread?) books and usually find copies at less than half retail that are still in good shape. I start with Amazon (see: Other buying options) then look at other booksellers.

There’s a bit of a preview here:

Good Luck, Ed

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Thanks, Ed.

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Ed, I love the photos and the history. As someone still new to the world of trains, this thread was very enjoyable.

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