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.

Watching the Trains Go By

Next I headed down to Ohio to catch some trains.  I'm not used to getting down there as early as I did.  I was hoping that I would catch a few trains in Bellevue.  It seems like mornings and late afternoons work the best.

 I saw this train heading towards Bellevue as I was on US-20.  I thought I would have plenty of time to catch it but as soon as I parked the car, I heard the horn.  I wasn't able to get the shot I quite wanted, but this one will do.

 I think I really like this shot.  It's not often that I see CN trains in Ohio.

 It was pretty slow after the CN train, so I started to doze off and then I heard the distinctive sound of diesel engines.  I got out in time to catch this shot.

 It stayed slow for a while, so I decided to head over to the Nickel Plate Museum.  Sadly it was closed but there are trains that are out in the open.  I started with a picture of this Norfolk and Western engine.

 I believe this is a caboose painted in Baltimore and Ohio livery.

 I think this is a variant of a Nickel Plate scheme.

 Another Nickel Plate engine.

 I really like this one.

 A switcher.

The France Stone Company was founded by William and Nathaniel France in Toledo, Ohio.  They owned a number of quarries in Ohio.

 This engine ended up heading towards Fostoria.

 I kind of like the picture with the signal lights in the distance.  After this train, I decided to head towards Fostoria as well.  It seemed like every signal in Bellevue was red and I'm not sure what was going on.

 I was able to beat the train to Fostoria but it turns out that it was only going to Fostoria.

 Which was fine because I was able to get some pictures that I don't normally get. 

 A shot of the engine.

 And the trailing engine.

 I kind of liked this shot with the engine, cross buck and the Fostoria tower.

 It says "Save 6132" on the wheels.  Not quite sure what that means for this engine.

 Another shot as the engine backs into the yard.

 A train coming down from Toledo.

 Once of the reasons why I love this spot.

 This engine was pulling out Auto-Racks.  It ended up having to do a multi-point turn to end up heading west.

 A west bound intermodal.

 Another train hiding between the cars.

 Another reason why I like Fostoria.  It's not often you can get a picture with more than one train in it.

And one more engine before heading out.

Watching the Trains Go By

It was a pretty nice day, so I decided to head to Ohio to do some trainwatching.

 First  I headed down to Bellevue.  When I arrived there was a train rounding one of the curves and a train was leaving the area.    It wasn't too long before this group of engines appeared.  The one is front is a high hood style.

 It was actually pretty busy as it wasn't too long for this train to appear.

 As it heads towards the eat.

 I saw this train on the way into town. 

 A nice headshot.

 And the train winds it way through the track.

 Then I decided to head over to Fostoria.  This train was waiting there.  I guess there was a problem with the switch and it took them a while to figure it out.

 That gave me the opportunity to get different angles of the train.

 I kind of like the lines in this one.

 I kind of wanted to give the overall view.

 another angle.

 The light was hitting it just right.

 A shot of the cab.

 And then it started to move.  At this point the sun was starting to set and as much as I wanted to stay in Fostoria, I wanted to try and find a place near Toledo.

 As I was leaving Fostoria, I was tempted to turn around because I saw three trains stacked up.  I kind of liked the looks of this one, so I stopped.

This was about as close as I was going to get to a headshot.