The Nickel Plate Road heritage ES44AC NS #8100 has been painted.
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=393441
OK
But I prefered the NKP's White & Blue passenger scheme.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Based on my preference for zebra stripes (see my prior comments about PHL and old ATSF paint schemes), I think that this looks better on a hood unit than the Bluebird colors. I just hope that it has a better sounding horn than the NKP GP7's and GP9's that ran through my old neighborhood.
I'm impressed!
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Nice!
I like it! Tim
I would rather see this scheme compared to the Bluebird one. The Bluebird would not look right on a GEVO sorry but the rounded curves would not fit the Profile of teh nose right. The Pennsy is going to be hard enough to digest on a saftey cab unit. Let alone the NYC on one. Sorry but when I think those schemes I think E units hauling Passenger trains.
That unit is going to look great pulling Trailers and Containers.
Russell
Yep, the freight scheme is the only one that makes sense.
Incidently, as an old NKP passenger-train rider, I feel free to say the "bluebird" moniker for the PAs was a misnomer. It should have been "bluejay," whose colors the units more truly reflected -- with no bluebird orange to it.
CSSHEGEWISCH Based on my preference for zebra stripes (see my prior comments about PHL and old ATSF paint schemes), I think that this looks better on a hood unit than the Bluebird colors. I just hope that it has a better sounding horn than the NKP GP7's and GP9's that ran through my old neighborhood.
The exception was the steam generator-equipped Geeps that pulled the passengers after the Bluebirds succumbed c. 1962. They had the same sweet Nathan chimes as the PAs. I can still put myself to sleep at night recalling how No. 5 sounded at night passing through East Cleveland!
dakotafred The exception was the steam generator-equipped Geeps that pulled the passengers after the Bluebirds succumbed c. 1962. They had the same sweet Nathan chimes as the PAs. I can still put myself to sleep at night recalling how No. 5 sounded at night passing through East Cleveland!
I guess it would have been too much for NS to duplicate heritage units horns as well ??
Let me add my voice to the chorus of praise for this wonderful old NKP color scheme. As dakotafred indicated, shades of 1962!
But dakotafred, we gotta talk! I lived in East Cleveland then, too! However, because the railroad ran through this very crowded city on an embankment with bridges over every street, I never heard any locomotive, steam or diesel, sound its whistle or horn. It wasn't until the first time I saw 765 on a fantrip years later that I actually heard a Berkshire make its distinctive sound. Where were you in East Cleveland that you could hear No. 5 blowing its horn?
I've often felt sorry for the poor folks in Lakewood, Ohio who hear the trains blow their horns for each and every crossing, one block apart. The din must be incredible!
A few days ago I passed through Croton-Harmon, where I saw out the window of my sleeper the familiar visage of an NYC-painted diesel. Then, today I see this NKP photo. In some respects, this is a great time to be a railfan.
That is a very sharp looking unit.
NKP Guy (see above), I'm guilty of speaking inexactly. My actual home was in Cleveland Heights (approximate neighborhood, Monticello Blvd. @ Noble Road), so I'm not sure where the crossings are for which the NKP blew. When I said East Cleveland, I was guessing. I surely do remember that NKP and NYC were all separated grade thru the East Cleveland station and all the way west to downtown.
Didn't mean to muddy the water! Probably now, from my attempt at locating myself, you can tell me the crossings No. 5 was blowing for?
It's been so darned long. My most frequent NKP sightings in those days were from the windows of a Rapid Transit train. Then once in a while I would walk the old Indian Hills Railroad short line from the Heights down to the NKP main line. Can't remember if there were any crossings down there or not.
NKP Guy #2:
Disclaimer (so I'm not guilty of manufacturing more history):
We adventuring, railroad-walking boys called it the Indian Hills Railroad. Don't know where we got that. Looking into my John Rehor NICKEL PLATE STORY (pages 23, 56, 276) I'm satisfied this was the Euclid Railroad, a 2.49-mi. independent (as of 1965, when Rehor wrote) operated forever by the NKP. Used to serve a quarry, Rehor says, now (1965) mostly "inbound loads of limestone" --for whom R. does not say.
Well, dakotafred, I admit to being more than startled: From 1960 until 1971 I lived on Delmore Road, between Noble and Bluestone Roads. I assume you know where that is! Did you attend Monticello or graduate from the World's Best High School? I did, and later got to teach at both, too!
Your candor explains the horns you heard. While living on Delmore we could, on still nights, hear the NKP away off, too. The NKP had its first grade crossing east of East Cleveland (where I lived from 1951 until 1960, next door to the main line) at London Road, then at Wayside Road, then next at Dille Road, etc. But when we lived in East Cleveland we never heard the whistles and horns. I fondly recall that all one heard was a tremendous, sudden roar, accompanied by the earth shaking, as a train sped past. Needless to say, understanding speech on TV was impossible for a minute or two!
That branch of the NKP you refer to was built about the turn of the last century to serve the Bluestone quarries (think Euclid Creek Reservation or Park). You're luckier than I, for I was never brave enough to walk it. "Too many snakes," I was told. But in 1965, while working as a teen at Gent Machine at Green & Glenridge Roads, I saw what I think was the last movement on that line. An NKP switch engine arrived at the end of the track behind our factory's lot and coupled up the ancient caboose that had been sitting there for years. After some minutes, a loud chorus of horn blasts announced the short train's slow return north, down to the main line on the other side of Euclid Avenue. I never saw another train there; the tracks simply rusted and then were removed. I think you can find out easily what information on that branch there is. Google Euclid Railroad, or NKP branches, etc.
Your comments on seeing NKP & NYC trains from the windows of the CTS rapid transit resonated with me. I did that hundreds of times, hours on end. I was the kid standing next to the motorman's cab, staring out the front window mile after mile, drinking it all in and sorry that I hadn't been born years or decades earlier. Now, I'm just so grateful for what I did see!
What a pleasure its been to read your posts here. I wonder if we know each other or had friends in common.
But let me say again what a joy it'll be if I ever get to see this NKP-painted 8100 diesel unit!
NS did miss one little thing with 8100, there isn't any NYC&StL lettering on the widenose. I can recall that all NKP motive power and rolling stock carried this lettering.
As far as the wretched-sounding horns, I remember them sounding for the grade crossings at Torrence Ave and again at 130th Street near the Ford Chicago assembly plant. Occasionally, a valve might unstick and the horn would change chords while sounding.
NKP guy Well, dakotafred, I admit to being more than startled: From 1960 until 1971 I lived on Delmore Road, between Noble and Bluestone Roads. I assume you know where that is! Did you attend Monticello or graduate from the World's Best High School? I did, and later got to teach at both, too! Your candor explains the horns you heard. While living on Delmore we could, on still nights, hear the NKP away off, too. The NKP had its first grade crossing east of East Cleveland (where I lived from 1951 until 1960, next door to the main line) at London Road, then at Wayside Road, then next at Dille Road, etc. But when we lived in East Cleveland we never heard the whistles and horns. I fondly recall that all one heard was a tremendous, sudden roar, accompanied by the earth shaking, as a train sped past. Needless to say, understanding speech on TV was impossible for a minute or two! That branch of the NKP you refer to was built about the turn of the last century to serve the Bluestone quarries (think Euclid Creek Reservation or Park). You're luckier than I, for I was never brave enough to walk it. "Too many snakes," I was told. But in 1965, while working as a teen at Gent Machine at Green & Glenridge Roads, I saw what I think was the last movement on that line. An NKP switch engine arrived at the end of the track behind our factory's lot and coupled up the ancient caboose that had been sitting there for years. After some minutes, a loud chorus of horn blasts announced the short train's slow return north, down to the main line on the other side of Euclid Avenue. I never saw another train there; the tracks simply rusted and then were removed. I think you can find out easily what information on that branch there is. Google Euclid Railroad, or NKP branches, etc. Your comments on seeing NKP & NYC trains from the windows of the CTS rapid transit resonated with me. I did that hundreds of times, hours on end. I was the kid standing next to the motorman's cab, staring out the front window mile after mile, drinking it all in and sorry that I hadn't been born years or decades earlier. Now, I'm just so grateful for what I did see! What a pleasure its been to read your posts here. I wonder if we know each other or had friends in common. But let me say again what a joy it'll be if I ever get to see this NKP-painted 8100 diesel unit!
NKP guy, this is quite a thrill. We were surely close in space if not in time. My parents' house was at the approximate intersection of Cambridge Road and Windsor Avenue. So your house and ours were only blocks apart, on opposite sides of Monticello. I did indeed graduate from both Monticello (Jan. 1957) and CHHS (Jan. 1960). I wonder if they still have those midyear graduating classes?
Small world, eh?
I'd love to establish contact and visit on these and other parochial subjects not necessarily of interest to the forum. My e-mail address is ahwiprie@gmail.com., if you are also so inclined.
Meantime, it is indeed cheering to have the NKP remembered so many years after it was folded into the old Norfolk & Western. I am a half-posteriored model railroader; and, altho my road is the U.P., for whom I worked for a while, I've merged my way into a transcon (UP-RI-NKP-LV) that allows me to run both Bluebirds and the zebra "torpedo boats."
Best, Fred
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