Full Program - Nickel Plate Road 765, Riding The New River Train

This program is available on DVD at www.DivergingClearProductions.com
This was our second title in the Heritage Series, released in 2011.
Climb aboard for a ride between Huntington and Hinton, West Virginia, on the New River Train in 1985. This was the first season Nickel Plate Road #765 handled these excursions, and would return almost every year through 1993.
The majority of this program was filmed aboard the train, and is edited for the sound of the locomotive handling a heavy train on the mainline.
All aboard!
Also, be sure to look for titles by Diverging Clear Productions online at Railfan Depot and Train Video Depot!

[@RailJoyProductions]

This is how the NRT SHOULD be! NKP 765 was the perfect fit for this assignment... Boy do us railfans miss the good ol' days of the 80s. This is a well put together DVD. I have had my copy for about three years now. Never imagined it would be uploaded to KZbin, though.

[@dwkcamman611]

Excellent video coverage!!

[@T-rick]

Incredible video. Thanks for sharing. As a roadmaster myself, that T&S work done on the adjacent track looks awesome. Their ballast regulator operator can really dress the finished product

[@leslie0965]

I road some of these trips 1988 1990 1991 and 1993 great video thanks for posting steam is king

[@jackp9122]

Leslie Cantor I rode the New River trip in, I guess, 1988.

[@collinblack8474]

Loved this footage. Brilliantly filmed. Talking when needed.👍👍👍🇦🇺

[@leslie0965]

one of the best trips for stack talk

[@justahillbilly7777]

Agreed.

[@mattdotsonrailfanproductio266]

1:03:27 nice whistle

[@rgsnidow1]

This one was 92 because I was on this one and 93 but this was the year that 765 had a problem on valve timing and you can tell the off rythym sound it made and you could tell in the little extra jerk on each stroke..it didn't do that in 93.

[@DivergingClear]

j snidow Sorry to say, but you're in the wrong decade. This was filmed during 765's first time on these train in 1985. This was filmed by George using rented video gear, as he didn't purchase his first camera until the next year. He was also VERY meticulous about documenting the dates on all his work over the years.

[@wurlitzer1538]

Another giveaway is the headlight on the engine. 765 had a twin sealed beam headlight in 1992. Back in 1985 the engine still had a single beam, and I believe it was changed in 1987.

[@justahillbilly7777]

@@wurlitzer1538 You believe correctly. The dual beam was indeed re-installed in 1987, alongside the oscillating headlight. Come 1988, it was just the dual beam going at it alone.

[@robkrasinski6217]

Does CSX still hate steam or could that change in the future? Maybe the 2716 in Kentucky could run on CSX. 765 is actually from an NS predecessor, Nickel Plate Road which merged with N&W then in 1982 N&W and Southern merged to form Norfolk Southern. 765 pulled some NS 21st century steam excursions several years ago.

[@DivergingClear]

Hate? No. CSX is on the PSR bandwagon, which just adds to the railroad's view that steam is a headache that adds nothing to the bottom line and exposes the railroad to liability by bringing people trackside.

[@robkrasinski6217]

@@DivergingClear Yes. CSX around 1995 started having this viewpoint that steam was a liability and their legal department probably discouraged them from having steam on their tracks. Same thing with NS who had just ended their first steam program Dec 1994. They had a slew of excursions with mostly 611 in 1994 then it was over. The recent steam excursions ended as well because NS probably no longer wanted the liability of excursions. And PSR is a cut to the bone mentality, which doesn’t allow room for frivolous things that cost money and interfere with normal operations. EHH hated steam on his railroads and PSR was his idea. Now all the class 1’s are anti steam except UP and maybe the new CPKC if Creel lets it run again.

[@brianwv64]

Why no footage of hawks nest bridge?

[@DivergingClear]

Because George may well have been shooting stills instead of video there. I never asked him.

[@projvls.2441]

Can i use this video to record 765's whistle?

[@rgsnidow1]

It may have been like that in 85 but it was still doing it in 92 but in 93 it didn't have that lag in it...And of course CSX ruined everything over their insurance deal but they were bitching about everything even broken Japanese rails a road foreman told me about that deal around Hinton

[@leslie0965]

what year is this one

[@justahillbilly7777]

1985, the first year the 765 was on the NRT.