I have three questions related to the Nickle Platte Road:
(1) Does anyone know if, when, and where NP 765 will be out this summer? I would sure like to see her. Is there a website related to this?
(2) I am familiar with Nickle Plate colors for passenger service after diesle–basically blue. But, did the Nickle Plate have the same colors for steam passenger service? Does anyone have a good picture of a crack Nickle Plate passenger train under steam power? How long did Nickle Plate steam passenger service last? Did this service go to St. Louis?
(3) I am told the NP’s Berks could not go east of a certain destination because of a sharp curve. This surprises me because if anyone is familiar with the west side of Nickle Plate from the Indiana border to St. Louis, one wonders how some diesles get around some of the curves they are so tight. The line (the old clover leaf) was a short line, and it had short line radia. Did the Berks go to St. Louis? I just can’t see them negotiating some of the curves.
Berks ran west of Frankfort on the St. Louis Division (Third and Fourth Subdivisions of the Cloverleaf) and east between Frankfort to Buffalo, as well as west to Chicago. I’m not entirely sure they even ran them on the Peoria Divison from Frankfort to Peoria.
The curve at Delphos, OH, is very tight and the bridge at Dupont, OH, was always an operating headache and the demise of the First Subdivision in about 1969 started with this bridge when (I think) some auto frames didn’t quite make it through.
NKP pass cars werre painted Pullman green with gold lettering prior
to the diesels and the postwar cars.
NKP 765 mostly ran west of Bellevue in the late 1950s