I just want to know what thw name stands for and where it was located? Thanks rambo1…
Its real name, IIRC, was the New York, Chicago and St. Louis. How it came to be known as the Nicklel Plate is uncertain - but I’ve heard someone remarked that the way the project (building the railraoad) was being promoted “You’d think the whole thing was going to be nickel plated”.
It ran east from Chicago, Peoria and St. Louis to Buffalo. It served as a “bridge line” between western carriers such as the ATSF and eastern carriers such as the Lehigh Valley and the Lackawana. (Peoria served as a bypass for the congestion in Chicago and St. Louis.)
It was a pretty good money maker - it didn’t have the terminal expense of the bridge traffic, the originating and terminating carriers did. It also didn’t have much passenger service to pour money down the drain with. My 1956 Official Guide shows it with only six passenger trains a day. Two each way between Buffalo and Chicago and one overnight each way per day between Cleveland and St. Louis.
The NKP was known for:
- Fast, expidited freight service.
- Alco PA’s on its passenger trains.
- A fleet of modern fast freight 2-8-4 steam engines that lasted into the late 50’s.
I read that they tested some EMD F7’s and sent 'em back to GM. There was little or no difference between the operating costs of the 2-8-4 “Berkshires” and the F7’s. This was, IMHO, probably because of the way the railroad was operated as in “A long way to go and a short time to get there.” - The line to St. Louis was terrible, it was a former narrow guage and constructed very poorly. St. Louis wasn’t one of the NKP’s strong points.
It’s my favorite “fallen flag”. It, along with the Wabash, was merged into the N&W in 1964.
Hard to believe its been gone for 42 years.
Another version of the origin of the name says the initials NYC&StL roughly spell the word “Nickel”.
Yet another version has the Nickel Plate came from a newspaper commentary on the rails themselves.
Dale
One of MR’s contributors is building a new model railroad based on NKP. There has been a substantial amount of information about the road, as presented in his rationale for his model.
One thing he mentioned was that the Berks never went west beyond a certain point, due to bridges, among other things. I’m sure one of those other things was less than optimum curvature for the road’s trademark “High Speed Service.”
The Berks didn’t go east of Frankfort, IN, on the old Cloverleaf First and Second Subdivisions to Toledo because of curvature and bridge restrictions but they did go to Madison, IL However, I can’t speak for sure but I don’t think they went west of Frankfort to Peoria on the west end of the old LE&W.
Here in Valparaiso we have Nickel Plate Avenue which is a short 2 block road which parallels the NS line. I still refer to it as the Nickek Plate. Also there is a siding between Valparaiso and South Wanatah called Nickel.
ed
The story on the name that I heard was that at one time it was bought by the parallel NYC and whichever Vanderbilt was in charge at the time commented that “for what it cost it should have been nickle plated” When it regained its independence it adopted the name as a"nyah, nyah" exercise
The restrictions on the Berks for the Clover Leaf and LE&W lines sound plausible but the Buffalo-Chicago main had no such restrictions. As mentioned elsewhere, the NKP Berkshires were the only steam which I remember in actual everyday service (I was 5 years old at the time). If it wasn’t for the 1958 recession and 1959 steel strike, it is quite possible that the Berkshires would have kept running for two or three more years.
the nickel plate did have some branches from lima to muncie (now rj corman) and it did go from continental ohio and swing north to holgate malinta mclure grand rapids and waterville. the toledo lake erie and western have an excursion train called the bluebird on that line.
stay safe
Joe
That was a great rendition by Greyhounds.
I got to explore the Metcaff, Il to Madison section of the line just before they tore the vast majority of it out. For not having the possibility of catching a train (although, as it turns out, I did catch a CNW coal drag on the Nickle Plate ling just south of Coffeen), it was pretty interesting.
There were some spectacular bridges. And, if what someone said about Berks being able to go to Madison, I have to wonder how they got there. There are some curves on that line that my car would have trouble negotiating.
There is also a hill, in Illinois of all places just south of Coffeen, that seems to just drop straight down. That part is still in operation, although I have yet to catch an NS coal drag on it.
I always wondered how they had the high speed system for which they are renown on that line.
Gabe
As a kid we used to go to Mattoon to see my aunt. We would cross the NKP line between Neoga and Trilla. We would make the trip several times a year. My point is that I NEVER saw a train on that line (the St. Louis line).
Now it is a shortline (EIRC) according to the IDOT map. A few years ago I saw a train north of Charleston doing some switching. I believe it is mainly a grain gathering line for the ADM plant in Decatur, but could be wrong.
ed
The claims that the nickname originated from a news paper story commenting on the quality of construction of the road are the accurate story.
Which can be verified here http://www.nkphts.org/history.html along with a system route map, etc
Here is an interesting link where a guy has modeled in a train dispatcher similation the way the NS runs the east west main line today…offers a lot of good infoon sidings, etc. http://www.geocities.com/klsc85/ftwbel.html
I’m certain the Beks went to Madison via Frankfort, having come over from Lima. That wasn’t a branch west of Lima to Muncie, although it looks like it today, Joe, it was a main line, traffic control territory controlled from a dispatchers’ board in South Liima yard office and a 60 MPH railroad, to boot. Doesn’t look like it today, sad to say.
Berks east of Frankfort on the Cloverleaf would have never made it around the curve at Delphos, to say nothing of the bridge at Dupont, about two or three miles south of Continental.