Monday, September 27, 2021

A 757 of a Different Sort

 Like I said in my last post, I had bigger fish to fry in Bellevue.  Those bigger fish came in the form of Berkshire engines.

The Nickel Plate 757 (no relation to the Boeing 757 but almost as cool) belongs to the Mad River Nickel Plate Museum.  
The 757 called Bellevue, Ohio its home.  It was built in 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works and remained in service until 1958.  It was originally designated to be donated to the City of Bellevue but Bellevue could not find a home for it.   It was donated to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum in Strasburg.
In 2017, the Mad River Museum and the Pennsylvania Museum negotiated a deal that would return the locomotive to Bellevue.  And in 2019 that happened.  The museum has restored it to a display capability and I believe the plan is to store it inside.  They didn't have the millions required to convert it to a living locomotive but this is still pretty cool.
While it was nice to see an engine with the number of my favorite airplane, it was even cooler to see the Nickel Plate 765.
Especially since that one is a living, breathing locomotive.
There is something magical about a steam engine.
Given the sounds they make, you would swear they are actually alive.
It looks like the Fort Wayne folks did some work on her.  She looks like she at least got a new paint job.
One more shot of the 757.
I thought I was going to head out but I decided to look for another spot where I could catch it.
This spot was a little better because I was shooting with the sun instead of against it.
My only complaint is that they had it facing the caboose.  I would have loved to get a front shot of it.
It backs out.
Kicks off a little steam.
And it blows out the lines.
It starts to head back.
It wasn't going all that fast.
A blow of the whistle.
Another angle of that.
Blowing out some of the other lines and the picture that made the trip worth it.
I had to get a couple more pictures.
And one more.



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