Catching up with the Nickel Plate

On Sunday, I decided to head down to the Cuyahoga Valley to catch the Nickel Plate 765.  It has been a couple years since I've seen it last.  I thought I had a slight chance to catch it last week but it had to head back to Fort Wayne for some repairs and it made its moves during the day.

 I started in Peninsula but I saw that it wasn't heading that far north.  After staying there a while, I decided to head to the next station south which was Indigo Lake.  At the time, I didn't know it was that though.  There was a little parking lot and a police officer and he explained that the Nickel Plate was there doing its photo run bys and it was still there.  As I got to the spot, the train was waiting there and the passengers were boarding.

 It started to head back north for a little bit, so that meant I had a chance to get some pictures because it had to come back this way.  For some reason, this one was a little overexposed so I tried to see what doing it in black and white would do.  I kind of like it.

 It was being pulled by the diesel units in front.

 And it starts to disappear out of view.

 I decided to cross the tracks to get pictures from the station.  I thought it was a better view and it appeared again about a half hour later.

 I think I actually like this spot better than the one I originally went to.  It is a little more scenic.

 A full head of steam as it passes by.

 It looked kind of cool.

 Couldn't quite get the side shot though.

And the F unit passes by.  Even though this is a diesel, it is a museum piece in its own right.

A Nickel Plated Day

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad is hosting the Steam in the Valley again.  They were doing it last weekend and this weekend.  I decided to head down there last weekend because I have a game coming up on Saturday.  Unfortunately, I acted to late to get tickets, so I had to get tickets for the morning run of the train which meant that I had to get up pretty early.

 This is an FPA-4 unit that was built by Alco and General Electric.  It was first produced in January of 1946 and production ended in 1959.  The FPA was designed to handled both freight and passenger trains.  This particular unit was built by the Montreal Locomotive Works in 1959 and served with the Canadian National Railroad.  I like the looks of these old diesel engines, they almost look like a face.

 The Nickel Plate 765 has been on this blog several times now.  It is a 2-8-4 Berkshire type steam locomotive built in 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio for the Nickel Plate Railroad.  It was first used in Bellevue, Ohio for the fast freight trains and then it was used in a classification yard.  It was last used in 1958 and was the last Nickel Plate steam engine.  It was acquired by the Fort Wayne Historical Railroad society in 1974 and remains in their possession.

 A friendly wave from the engineer and coaler.  The name underneath is one of the people who supported the railroad and passed away.

 I ended getting deluxe tickets which meant that I was seated in the dining car.  I think this was a bit nicer than some of the other cars.  Our car attendant was pretty cool.

 As we were waiting for the trip to start, I saw this bird on a post outside our window. 

 The train moves through the Cuyahoga Valley which is a now a national park.  It consists of land that used to be part of the Ohio and Erie Canal.  It was used to transport goods from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.

 It is a pretty nice little park

 If you look closely in the upper right, you can see an eagle's nest.  Just above that, you can see an eagle.

 I think this is part of the Cuyahoga River.

 Another part of the river.

 This was an old truck that passed us.

 One of the things that I like about this particular excursion is that they set up an area where they can do a run by of the train.  It makes for some pretty cool pictures because they line up the people on one side and you can get clean shots of the train.

 They actually do two passes of the train.  So if you screw up pictures on the first run, you have another chance.  First it was blowing off steam before the run.

 And the first run.  It gets up a pretty good head of steam and the engineer usually blows the whistle.  There is nothing quite like the sound of a steam engine's whistle.

 Like I said, it was a pretty nice run.

 This is an Alco RS-18 Engine that was originally owned by the Canadian Pacific railroad.  It was not quite the star of the show, but that's not going to stop me from getting pictures of it.

 Another shot of that particular engine.

 I guess my only complaint about the pass was that for one of the parts where I wanted a picture, I was shooting right into the sun.

 The train starting another run.

 Another bit of blowing off steam.

 I think I like this shot a little better.

 A sort of stern shot of the train.

 This is the car that we were riding in.  Like I said, it was a dining car.

And the people start to file back on the train to finish the trip.

I think of the excursions that I've ridden, I like this one the best.  It's long enough to enjoy the ride on the train and it goes through some pretty nice terrain.  They give a nice opportunity for pictures of the train itself.  And most importantly, the staff that operate are awesome.

A Stop With the Nickel Plate

I ended up heading over to Conneaut Ohio on Saturday.  I was going to check out all the covered bridges in the area over there.  There are 17 of them and I managed to catch all of them.  I will post pictures of those later.

 One the way over, I decided to chase after the Nickel Plate 765 as she was wandering through the Cuyahoga Valley.  This was last weekend to catch her.

 I decided to catch her at Independence, OH.  I'm not sure if that was the best place to catch her but it was a place I knew that I could probably find parking and get a decent place.

 Fortunately, the weather was iffy on Saturday, so I didn't have to compete with too many other people.

 It gave me some relatively clear shots of her.

And her helper engine.

An Alco FPA-4

I arrived at the station to wait for the Nickel Plate.  It was the same spot where I caught her last year.  And just like last year, there was the regular run just before the appearance of the Nickel Plate.

 Unlike last year, it was one of the older units of the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.  In this case, one of their FPA-4 units.

 These units were produced by a partnership of the American Locomotive Company and GE starting in 1946.  This particular unit was used by the Canadian National Railroad and was built in Montreal.

 There were 1401 FA units produced in total, out of those there were 152 produced in Montreal.

 I'll have to admit, I like the looks of these old diesels.  For some reason, the front reminds me of a face.

 The end of the train.

 There was another unit on the back.

One more shot of that.

Post from Today

So today I went down to ride on the Nickel Plate 765 as it went through the Cuyahoga Valley.  I took this ride last year and I enjoyed myself, so I figured I would do it again.

 A few minutes before the Nickel Plate appeared, one of the trains from the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad appeared.  I know it's an older style diesel but I don't remember it's designation.  I like this style of engine.

And then the Nickel Plate appeared.

I will post more pictures when I get my cable back.

A Train from the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad

Prior to the arrival of the Nickel Plate, we got to see the regular Cuyahoga train stop and pick up people at the station,

 This particular train is just a regular diesel engine but since it's a train, it's still pretty cool.

I will have to say that it is a pretty neat looking engine.  Although I wish I was seeing one of their older style diesels.

Looking down the long string of cars.

One more shot of the engine before it moved on.