Steam Was Great on the Nickel Plate - Rare vintage footage

This rare 16mm footage with color and original sync sound showcases the famous Berkshire steam locomotives of the New York, Chicago, and St. Louis Railroad in their last two months of operation in June and July 1958.
#NickelPlateRoad #NKP765 #Vintage

[@iMadeAPromise42]

Some folks have commented about the whistles sounding different than 765. This is because the Berks in this film were equipped with whistles of different construction; 765's whistle (in actuality 700's) is made of brass. The S-2 whistles were made of cast steel. By 1957 these cast steel whistles were well-worn from many years of blowing for grade crossings, and so they were out of tune.

[@ahhlucas]

I wish the NKP still existed as a company

[@rayvaul3539]

Yeah same. It would be nice and fantastic to still have nearly all the old fallen flags from the 40s and 50s.

[@peterlv68]

Whoever filmed and digitized this did a great job

[@jean-jacquesdeclercq516]

Often forgotten !

[@peterlv68]

@@jean-jacquesdeclercq516 Ha, now I watch it and think it needs to be rescanned in 1080p!

[@b3j8]

What's interesting to me is that if you really listen, each whistle often had a slightly different sound compared to the 765. Some of these guys were really moving too! I think the original film is about an hour long.

[@TERRYBIGGENDEN]

Tremendous sights and sounds. They were remarkable locos-some of the very finest.

[@kristoffermangila]

Well, this was the finest design of the Advisory Mechanical Committee of the Van Sweringen railroads (the Nickel Plate, C&O, PM, Erie), and Alco and Lima did a good job translating that design into real steel.

[@bobrathke5724]

A great video as I remember NKP steam....and refrigerator cars and stock cars too. I photographed NKP Berkshires in Northeast Ohio in 1957 (Ashtabula and Conneaut), but steam was gone when I was back there in the Summer of 1958, although a few steam switchers were working in Conneaut in the Spring of 1959. Then in 1962 the only NKP Berkshires I photographed were on the scrap line in Pittsburgh.

[@evertcleveland2578]

My father was an electrician in Conneaut for 30+ years for the NKP. Great train town. Grew up about 200 yards from the train museum located on Depot St.

[@JOEMAMA_534]

Nice to see that there are still people who remember the engines as they were working.

[@pennsy6755]

As a neat little side fact, I go to school just a few yards away where those NKP berks were unfortunately scrapped.

[@OKFrax-ys2op]

We would love to see your photography, I used to live in the Ashtabula area. And visited the railroad museum in Conneaut yearly, oh that 755 : )

[@b3j8]

My Dad took me out to East Wayne Yard in New Haven Indiana in the Spring of 1962 to see the NKP Berks in the dead line there. (No I dont remember I only have the pictures he shot.) I do remember us often driving by NKP 765 in disguise as the 767 when it was on static display at the corner of 4th St. and Lafayette. At nite the number boards and headlite were lit which was pretty cool.

[@Toledo1940]

You can tell that this was filmed near the end of steam operation: (1) the locomotives appear to be dirty, and (2) the 1958 Chevrolet at 7:40 was built no earlier than 1957.

[@johnuhelski8613]

And also the headlights turned on in daytime , rare in early 50's .

[@JohnSmith-sd4yu]

This is a wonderful piece of history and childhood memories. The sound made it!!

[@thomasavensjr.2790]

I always enjoy seeing footage of steam locomotives in operation during the steam era, the NKP Berkshire type locomotives were handsome fast freight service engines and it's great to see that six Berkshires were preserved.

[@marvindoolin1340]

During the 1940's and early fifties we lived atop the Mississippi river bluffs and heard the Nickle Plate trains heading north to St. Louis and south to I don't know just where in the river bottoms, especially at night. My dad said the trains were often more than a mile long. Not sure whether he knew that for sure, but two of his brothers worked for the railroad.

[@ericoxner8333]

It's surprising to me just how long these trains were.Looks like the mile long trains have been around longer than I thought.Growing up in the south NC.We lived about a 2 or 3 miles from the SCL..I went to school which was right close to the tracks.Every time I hear a train I would watch it go by.Being this was in the 1970s.I saw a lot of boxcars from the 1940 and 1950s with the railroad names.A a few wooden boxcars with steel bracing.And the locomotives were GP7 and GP9 at first then the larger locomotives started showing up.Funny I seen as many 6 or 7 locomotives pulling a long train.

[@rippersix293]

Well, a mile is 5280 feet, let’s say the locomotive and tender is 100 ft and the caboose is, say 35 ft, that leaves 5145 ft. The average length of the freight cars in this video was 40 ft. So, a train with 128-130 freight cars plus locomotive and caboose would be a mile long. I counted cars on the train shown at the very end and got to 45 before the video cut off, that put it at nearly 1/3 of a mile and still going.

[@marvindoolin1340]

@@rippersix293 I was notified of your reply, Charles, McCrimmon, and watched the video again. I love the sound of the old steam engines. A BNSF loaded coal train was stopped on the west side of the Illinois River near Beardstown, IL, a while back, and I checked my odometer to see its length. Not the same, of course: two diesels at the front and one at the rear. It was well over a mile long, but since I didn't write it down at the time I don't remember how much longer, and I didn't count cars. My "baby" brother was a brakeman, then a conductor on that line between Galesburg and Centralia from the early seventies until he retired (I believe before the caboose was phased out, or not long after). Cancer took him at seventy.

[@rippersix293]

@@marvindoolin1340 sorry to hear of your brothers passing. I too am from a railroading family my grandfather was a conductor with the Grand Trunk Western. His brother was a brakeman with the Canadian National, sadly he was killed on the rails in the late thirties. I grew up jus a few blocks from the New York Central and Pennsylvania RR yards in Detroit. It was just a short bicycle ride to the Detroit-Windsor Railroad tunnel and the yards for C&O, N&W and the DT&I. I guess you could say I was a “child of the rails”!

[@marvindoolin1340]

@@rippersix293 Thanks for the reply.

[@PrimeMoverVideos]

Spectacular footage of the NKP! Loved it!

[@newriverproductions12]

Can't put a price on a beautiful S-2! Thanks for sharing FWRHS!

[@jacksalvin364]

The Glory Days of Nickel Plate Road Steam.

[@LearnwithJanice]

Hello from Kansas 🇺🇸

[@jltrain-zgamingrailfan202x3]

NKP #742 0:05 - 1:00, 2:39 - 3:28, 8:29 - 9:51 NKP #768 1:01 - 2:12 NKP #7##? 2:13 - 2:38, 3:28 - 4:16, 5:47 - 6:53 NKP #756 4:17 - 4:56 NKP #745? 4:57 - 5:47 NKP #749 6:53 - 7:30 NKP #74# 7:31 - 8:28

[@b3j8]

Looked like the 767 at 5:04. Highball!

[@NukaCola6962]

747 at 7:31 to 8:28

[@joenayrikafletcher738]

Missing numbers 767 764

[@joenayrikafletcher738]

Was 742 scrapped?

[@jltrain-zgamingrailfan202x3]

@@joenayrikafletcher738 Sadly yes... But hey, at least we have six surviving Berkshires of the NKP fleet.

[@wildcatindustries8030]

After understanding Limas place compared to Baldwin and Alco I have a new appreciation for the Berkshires and the NKP. They are by no means the strongest or fastest, but they are very efficient. That definitely seems to be what the NKP prioritized the most, fast, efficient service

[@VincesArtDesigns]

I always thought it would be cool if someone were to film NKP 765 with a 16mm camera in today’s age and see if it would look like old time footage but it would actually be today’s era!

[@ericgriswold1268]

This is how I remember steam , and specifically the NKP. Grandparents lived in Fostoria, Ohio at the time. It sounded like a long rag was being ripped when they would come through town, or maybe - a rocket !! But I remember !!!

[@e-train765]

Grandfather was an NKP engineer so maybe he was in this video somewhere

[@louislamonte334]

Outstanding footage!! Thank you!!

[@bretthowland8717]

Yes, but there is one. Long live 765 and her organization!

[@johnwood2788]

my father and grandfather worked for the nkp. out of Brewster. and the nkp was still operating Berkshire in 1959. just before the n and w took them over. it was great to see the ladies of the nkp agaon

[@scoobycarr5558]

Wouldn't you believe that Norfolk Southern is now in charge of the old NKP and hot intermodal trains and GE diesels have replaced the classic Berkshires and the reefer cars like Armour and Swift they once pulled.

[@larrywellborn4681]

My Grandfather Kenneth Krinke also worked for NKP out of Brewster, Oh

[@RailsofMichigan]

Steam's magical reign might be over, but it will never be forgotten. "Jim Wrinn"

[@ThePainTrain765]

Great stuff!

[@bradleewilliams381]

Ahhhhh...so nice to see original rolling stock that wasn't vandalized by taggers😡

[@packr72]

Bradlee Williams That’s because spray paint wasn’t widely available for purchase.

[@sarjim4381]

There was plenty of spray paint available in 1958. I used it to paint my bike. There just weren't "artists" who believed they could practice their "art" anywhere they wanted to.

[@NKP1155]

All the paint today is supposed to stolen. Not the case back then

[@firelynx1108]

I think we should rebuild the *entire* NKP berkshire fleet

[@TWIGYBNSF]

WOW! Just WOW!

[@JohnSmith-sd4yu]

My sentiments exactly!!

[@scoobycarr5558]

Union Pacific, I hope you're watching this and see what you have missed. Looks like the Nickel Plate Road defeated you.

[@mikeytrains1]

I honestly wouldn’t say that. UP and NKP steam are both decent in their own right, to compare them is a bit of a weird move I’m not too big on UP steam myself, but it’s got its quirks and so does the Plate

[@PereMarquette1223]

Ummmm… what?

[@CourageousCoward1728]

@@PereMarquette1223 huh?

[@Ndoggy1127]

You really think up cares in 2024 or 1950? Steam was never a competition within railroads, it was an inner work to build the best locos for what they needed. No one ever competed for the best locomotive. Your comment sounds like a classic dumb foamer! 🤣

[@RailPreserver2K]

Glad nickle plate saved a good number of there locomotives, including the final steam locomotive built by lima 779

[@robertfogarty3253]

still great today,looked like Whiting indiana lake front steel mill?

[@ericdameron7176]

Wonderful videos, thank you for preserving history. I am new to this site and I am curious if there are videos of the NKP Cloverleaf line from Delphos, OH to Toledo? My grandma’s farm was next to Douglas, OH in Putnam County. After the tracks were ripped up to Douglas on occasion trains would go to Douglas and back to Delphos until 1998. I’m searching for trains that went on this line. Thank you.

[@psyclonejack1523]

Love the Oscar Mayer cars!!!!👍

[@ethanmorel2746]

If only NKP 587 was in it. She was a step sister to the S Class Berkshires like the 765 that she once did a doubleheader.

[@jmstifler7525]

The nickel rate road looks like the polar express

[@kristoffermangila]

The Nickel Plate Berkshires are similar to the ones on the Pere Marquette (who originally owned PM 1225, the basis of the locomotive of the Polar Express) with some differences peculiar to each railroad (ie, the design of the pilots). They are based on a standard design by the Advisory Mechanical Committee of the railroads owned by the Van Sweringen brothers, which included Chesapeake & Ohio, who called them Kanawhas, after the West Virginia river.

[@CoalChrome]

Something about it like that, dirty and grimey hauling a freight train is distinctly different than the way it's done now. I wish Fort Wayne would let 765 get this dirty once, and do a photo shoot with a freight.

[@fortwaynerailroad]

N&W 2156 Y6a (we have)

[@CoalChrome]

@@fortwaynerailroad really? I need to see that video.

[@manga12]

@@CoalChrome yea and you can come help clean it up and repaint the lettering, helping out at the shop I have helped scrap grease off of her many times, from her running boards and her drive rods, it aint fun, well the drive rods arnt too bad just the grease is thick as asphalt and you have to scrap off the putty knife or scraper you use, fill up about 2 coffee cans, you really learn to appreciate what it took to keep the contry running and how much work it took and what our ancesters had to do every day, and some still do as far as taking care of boilers abit usually stationary and not usually solid fuel anymore, and tank vessels like the tender all that needle scaleing rust off, light grinding and sandblasting and cleaning up after it. we also frequently are doing some kind of fabrication work restoring metal that has corroded on things, remember we have more then just 765 out there, we also have diesles and other rollingstock we have to occasionally work on, like the diesel that we are restoring, one or both of the shop switchers, and when we get around to it trying to slowly patch the walbash back togather and get funding to work on her, as well as the cabooses, axillery tender, and toolcar, and the other cars we have around the property, at any given time we have several things going on remember we are all volunteers, from many many backgrounds, some of us work for railroads for our living some of us dont, though it dont make us any less railroader then our ancesters doing the things they got paid to do 50 years ago nor does it take away from the hard dirty dangerous work, but it dont take long for 765 to get as dirty as you want to see, and if you dont keep after it it becomes a bit harder to clean.

[@peterrosenquist]

@@fortwaynerailroad what do you mean by 2156?

[@JOEMAMA_534]

Steam *was* great on the Nickel Plate.

[@T128Productions]

Indeed it was.

[@VincesArtDesigns]

Well they were right! Steam was great on the Nickel Plate!

[@machinistmikethetinkerer4827]

Mars light!

[@e-train765]

"And then there were none." Not true thankfully, 6 survive; one of which is VERY much alive today.

[@kristoffermangila]

What that line refers to is the fact that, after that film, there were no steam locomotives on active revenue service.

[@ATrainVideo]

I wonder why there's a passenger car on the freight train at 5:44.

[@allegheny48]

In my opinion that passenger car appears to be something converted to work train service. It is probably 60 feet in length and has roof vents commonly used where a galley or kitchen is present. On rare occasion foreign railroad passenger cars (foreign meaning other than NKP) were deadheaded from one place to another via a passenger train if necessary but rarely via a freight train.

[@bobbypaluga4346]

A. Train I don't have the expertise you all have so it's I'm off the wall make those rocks soft. Isn't it possible that a person with a private rail car needing to get from A to B might pay whatever the railroad deems the cost or per pound cost to for his custom job to pulled along with other freight cars. Airlines night ferry aircraft from city X to Y late at night because the aircraft that would usually be parked at a gate awaiting an early 6-7am flight had to be pulled from service replaced by the ferried aircraft. Suppose the Desert Sun or any other passenger scheduled train was going to take on more passengers at Dallas than expected for the Dallas LA portion of the trip.Rather than turn away a group from the Dallas Raccoon Lodge headed for their annual convention in LA, they just sent another passenger to 5154. Once in Dallas the extra assented car is added to the Desert Sun, Maybe the railroad president has his own company car and wants to check out operations in Slimewater Junction? If I'm not close to reality just add this incident to the Imponderables to remain a mystery. Every morning at 1-2 am, a BNSF train cuts my town in two I live just upside Phoenix, bedroom community deal. There are NO Amtrak trains coming through Phoenix. You can either take a bus to Flagstaff for the LA bound 2am rain or to Maricopa to catch the Amtrak between Dallas or Houston to LA. Either way is a huge hassle. About once a week an Amtrak zips through town in the early hours having 6-8 cars. It's not scheduled maybe a detour??? I grew up listening to the California Zephyr pass through the city I was born in at around 9 every night. There were other trains and lots of freight but the CZ was special. What's better than hearing train whistles and wheel noises late into the night. The tracks have no buffer as they pass through housing developments shocked they are allowed to toot at crossings, since they crossings are loud s the flashing lights bright, they come down and raise.

[@allegheny48]

Bobby: Although you did not direct your questions to me i would like to try and answer them for you as best I can. Just as airlines may move planes to make them available for morning or evening commuter flights the Nickel Plate used to doublehead their freight locomotives to better balance the power available at their various engine terminals. Back in the days before corporate jets and the like many "captains of industry" traveled via private Pullmans. They were always added to a passenger train so that steam and signal lines were compatible with both the train and the private Pullman. The owners were also charged a premium for this service. They seldom, if ever, were moved in a freight train. it just wasn't done. Nowadays, the occasional private railway car is most often moved in an Amtrak passenger train provided the private car meets or exceeds Amtrak's rules and regulations. I'm sure that, if the need arises, Amtrak would add an extra passenger car to one of its trains to accommodate excess passengers if one is available. i too live within a mile and a half of both NS and CSX tracks and I love hearing the trains going through and whistling for the grade crossing. During my travels, if I am near one of the many grade crossings in town and a train is approaching i will pull over and "watch the show". It is also a law that a train must sound its horn (and bell) for grade crossing to warn today's drivers who often are multitasking while behind the wheel. In rare cases some municipalities have made agreements with the railroads who maintain grade crossing within their city limits to only ring the bell for crossings.

[@sarjim4381]

It looked like a dynamometer car to me, probably being used to measure something like tractive effort on the train.

[@NKP1155]

That certainly was not NKP equipment. I'd expect it belonged to a RR contractor and on its way to or from a job site.

[@rogerlollar4325]

Steam was great on All American railroads

[@CoalChrome]

I think the S2s look way better in plain black than with lining. #bringbacktheblack #bringbackthemarslight

[@danikoo582]

IMO I just don't like the gray smokebox, with lining or not. Mars light makes it look even better

[@wurlitzer1538]

The 742 was always my personal favorite berk on the NKP. Why does it have a cast pilot unlike the rest?

[@fortwaynerailroad]

It wasn't uncommon for the Nickel Plate to replace pilots after wrecks or collisions.

[@joenayrikafletcher738]

@@fortwaynerailroad was 742 scrapped?

[@danikoo582]

0:10 742 1:02 768 2:12 759 2:40 742 3:28 747? 4:17 756 4:56 7?5 5:48 76? (73?)? This one COULD be 765 6:52 749 7:30 747 8:28 742

[@matthewgeist8245]

Just cool

[@joenayrikafletcher738]

Is 765 in this

[@allegheny48]

Is this footage available commercially on DVD? If so, please post the details. This is great footage.

[@Bob.W.]

Mars lights on those Berkshires?

[@T128Productions]

Always have been.

[@lynwood5503]

was any of this shot in hammond Or south gary...Indiana?

[@pullmanjunction5854]

The opening scene is the old Hammond drawbridge. The following scene is Osborn, then Van Loon. Great footage!

[@b3j8]

@Grapes767 Yeah the automated refrigerator car era was getting under way by this time, but changing over infrastructure wasn't a quick and easy process. Believe it or not afew manual ice plants lasted till the late 1960s!!

[@juliesmithbauer1925]

It is

[@southwestvirginiarailfan729]

Is the sound the real deal, or just added in.

[@engineer6325]

Looking at the plumes of steam from the whistles, they match the sound perfectly, so I'm guessing this is the actual sound.

[@southwestvirginiarailfan729]

engineer6325 Thats kinda what I thought upon closer examination, I just wasnt sure as i knew cameras werent great back then.

[@fortwaynerailroad]

It's the real deal.

[@southwestvirginiarailfan729]

ok, thats cool. Thanks for sharing this.

[@b3j8]

The sound had to be recorded on bulky reel to reel, or wire sound recorders in those days, and additional heavy equipment to change over 12vdc battery power to the 110vac the recorder ran off of also had to be drug along if no source of ac power was nearby. Plus microphones, etc. Quite an adventure compared to the digital dream equipment we are blessed with today. Several fans routinely did it all tho thank goodness.

[@jonadams4402]

where were these locations?

[@fortwaynerailroad]

This is all primarily Northwest Indiana between Calumet and Valparaiso.

[@SndrewAonkin]

I live in Chesterton so I’m in valpo a lot nice video

[@GRE2057]

second view First Comment. Very Cool Video

[@DavidMaurand]

no graffiti....

[@trevorjosephmedia1550]

Alright, who disliked this?

[@capitollimitedproductions211]

Trevor Brown CSX

[@MikeinVirginia1]

Probably trolls.

[@joenayrikafletcher738]

Probably Angus Paul and Scout

[@danikoo582]

NKP haters

[@chndlrrr]

103 view second comment, inspired by him v!