Happy 50th anniversary, the light-off of restored steam locomotive Nickel Plate Road 759

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Steam & Excursion > NKP 759, August 17, is the 50th Anniversary of Lite-off

Date: 06/24/18 20:11
NKP 759, August 17, is the 50th Anniversary of Lite-off
Author: wcamp1472

Fans of ages... and all types, join me in a toast to 2018..

​2018 is the 50th year since the return of the NKP 759 to steam by Ross Rowland and the High Iron Co... and we celebrate that historic event..
But also, we celebrate all of the following locomotives that were returned to steam..Many still running. Others had a few years of Glory, and are now resting, in a deep sleep.
Their Glory days were generated.following the powerful example that Ross established---- for running a Professionally Managed team that did everything to assuage and facilitate RR Management's concerns and cooperation.

Everything about Railfanning as we know it today, started on that August day

​Thanks to all that spread the fame of 759, and to all the copy-cat efforts they undertook during these past 50 years...

For me its been a terrific ride, truly the Rail Fan's Dream..

​It would be fun to hear how operating steam engines affected your lives over the past Fifty Years of Glory Days....
​I invite you to make us all smile.. There are many of my, & our friends that are no longer with us, celebrate their contributions, too.

Wes Camp

This is the restoration that kicked off the "big steam on the mainline" era.

The 759 is my favorite steam locomotive. It came to Roanoke, Virginia, a few months later for some trips on the Norfolk & Western. I bought a ticket for the second trip, up to Shenandoah and back, on Sunday, November 3. As I was waiting for that trip, I ran across an account in the New York Times of a round trip it made from Harmon, New York, to Buffalo and back.

Another thread in Trainorders about the 759: Steam & Excursion > NKP 759 Almost Fifty Years Ago

Here is a picture from that November trip:

Direct link: http://www.godfatherrails.com/photos/pv.asp?pid=375



Some videos:

Get out your leisure suit. Isn't that a Studebaker Hawk at 1:14?

A train enthusiast named Mike Eagleson came up with the most brilliant idea ever for a photograph of the Golden Spike Centennial Limited. He talked Island Airlines into sending one of their Ford Tri-Motors, still in regular service back then, down to central Ohio to fly over the GSCL. Then, from another aircraft or helicopter, he took a picture of the Tri-Motor and the GSCL as it made its way west, on My 6, 1969.

I don't think this can be topped:

Additional Details:

A sight that will most likely never be repeated is this Mike Eagleson view of High Iron Company's leased Berkshire 2-8-4 Number 759 leading the infamous Golden Spike Centennial Limited on May 6, 1969. Keeping pace with the ex-Nickel Plate Road 5-2 (owned by Steamtown, U.S.A.) over Ohio is an Island Airline 1928 Ford Tri-Motor

[Cartoonist]

1. I'm a railfan

I don't like steam engines. They should be called coal engines. In a museum, fine. Actually out polluting the air, not good.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

2. Uh-oh. NT

[MicaelS]

3. Oh FFS.

How many operational steam engines are in the US, and how often do they run?

I spent 17 years as a Brakeman and Conductor, and the shit I saw put into the air by diesels vastly outnumbers the little put into the air by steam engines.