On June 17th of this year I had the rare once in a lifetime opportunity to be at the throttle of Nickel Plate 765. Not only behind the throttle but to actually pull a train a few miles down the track and then back her up the same distance! Here she is first thing in the morning. I was the first one that day to be behind the throttle. I some video that I will try and post at a later date. There people from as far as England who came to do this. While I was playing engineer one of the other guys was the fireman across from me. After I was done we switched places and I then became the fireman. Needless to say it was a great time not only to be behind the throttle of NKP765 but to do it on the old C&O line. The next picture is at North Judson a few days earlier pulling a short freight similar to the one I had the pleasure of pulling.
oldrk, that's great, man! Glad to hear that you got to run the 765. Only the steam fans like us can appreciate what a thrill that is. I got to run 1225 way back in 2000, and one of the restrictions was no cameras in the cab. Bummer. I had a few cousins who lived nearby and they got some photos of me in the cab. The experience of a lifetime. :tb-biggrin: :tb-biggrin:
OK, so I have been a long time getting this photo of yours truly after my time behind the throttle of 765. I know I am suppose to post the video. Hopefdully a little quicker than this.*L*
I saw 765 going through Watseka IL on the way to TrainFest. What a magnificent machine! You are a very lucky man!
Oldrk, fantastic! I used to drive by 765 when she was on display in Fort Wayne - and always wondered two things - what did it look like pulling a train, and what would it be like to be in the cab!
Man I just saw this post. Don't know how I glossed over it before. How great! I'll be there this summer with an organization I belong to. I am trying to get them to let me partake in their "guest engineer program" as part of our involvement with them. We'll see, though obviously that's with their switcher (I think) rather than this fantastic engine!
I must say it was a rush. Scary too. We went through a few grade crossing. I was afraid I might hit a car or roll the engine or blow it up or.....But still....what a rush!!!!!!!
I remember riding Amtrak's Cardinal over the C&O of Indiana in August of 1985 but unfortunately slept thru North Judson. I had a family connection to the town back in the 60's and 70's as my uncle was a local high school band teacher (his name was Tom Lawson) there. His family would come to visit for a couple of weeks in the summer and my cousins would tell me about all of the railroads that crossed in or near North Judson.
Here's a photo that I took of NKP 765 in October 1986 at Prince, WV on the famous New River Train excursion. The tunnel is known as Stretcher Neck Tunnel and I had arrived several hours ahead of the train and claimed my spot. By the time the train showed up there must have been at least 50 photographers at that location but surprisingly we managed to stay out of each others shot.
Nice photo, Allen. I had a similar experience on the 1993 New River trip, when 765 was disguised as C&O 2765. I guess it was somewhat different, as it was a scheduled photo runby at Thurmond, and there must have been hundreds of people photographing the train. I managed to get one with no people in it. :tb-biggrin:
I also got a shot of NKP 765 at Thurmond on the other weekend that the NRT ran. I had teamed up with a group of railfans from Ithaca, NY and when we got to Thurmond we staked out a parked C&O caboose. As I recall, there were 6 of us on the roof waiting for the train and battling the yellow jackets (luckily nobody got stung but then I think we'd already had several heavy frosts by then). There were actually several guys up on the signal bridge and the sand tower. We did have a talk with a C&O special agent but a promise of a print and a warning was all he demanded. This was on a Saturday, on Sunday, the caboose was gone and nobody climbed on anything. BTW, I spent the better part of 7 years railfanning in the New River Gorge and I'm in the process of assembling a book based on a program that I gave to a NRHS chapter back in the early 1990's.
