NKP 765 Travels to the Rock Island Train Festival

Posted by: Yard Goat on Jan 5, 2012

Tagged in: yardgoatimages , Yard Goat Images , Steamin' Summer , steam train video , steam train DVD , steam locomotive , Steam Engine , steam DVD , railroad video , railroad dvd , NKP 765 , Nickel Plate 765 , locomotive dvd , heritage locomotive

January 5, 2012

Maybe I sound like a broken record about the days we worked on the Steamin’ Summer DVDs, but one of the hottest, most unbearable days I’ve ever experienced was the day I attempted to follow NKP 765 Travel to the Rock Island Train Festival across Indiana and Illinois. I say attempted because the extreme heat put a temporary end to the locomotive’s journey just short of the Illinois border.

My day started in northern Indiana near the Michigan border where I was getting footage of the three tank engines (Flagg Coal 75, Lehigh Valley Coal 126, and Viscose 6) in their truck convoy to Rock Island. The convoy had started late due to a problem with one of the rigs as they were leaving the Little River Railroad in Coldwater, Michigan. I was set up in LaGrange, Indiana for quite some time to record the trucks passing through town. The owner of 75 and 126, John Gramling, was advising me of progress by cellphone.

I finally caught them when they passed through LaGrange, then I was able to get ahead for a freeway shot near South Bend. Because of the delay and the probability of getting caught in Chicago sprawl before I would get ahead of the trucks again, I decided to break it off to see NKP 765 Travel to the Rock Island Train Festival.

Finding NKP 765

I traveled southwest and finally caught up to NKP 765 as she was nearing Goodland, Indiana. It had been cool and comfortable in the car when I saw the smoke on the horizon, and was surprised to catch up so quickly. When I caught sight, I could see why, as NKP 765 was CREEPING along very slowly due to slow orders, which I had been aware of hearing it on the scanner. The Toledo, Peoria & Western (TPW) was justifiably concerned about heat kinks in the tracks.

I opened the car door and and faced the miserable heat and humidity, got my shots, re-stowed the gear, then headed down the road to get ahead again. Usually when you follow a locomotive of NKP 765’s caliber, you will be lucky to get ahead in 30 minutes or more, but today it was just a few moments as the engine and a line of chasers oozed down the soft pavement on that miserable day. It was no problem getting several more runby shots before the train had been halted by the dispatcher. In fact, the entire TPW was instructed to stop all train movements, until the weather "cooled" later that evening.

NKP 765 and its train rested beside Highway 24 in front of a classic farm house. Soon, cars and trucks parked along the road, and the front yard of the house was full of people, mainly because of several welcoming shade trees. The farm family was there too, and they offered chairs and refreshments to their unexpected visitors! Nice folks!

So I captured additional footage and photos of the becalmed train there on a hot Indiana afternoon, and felt sorry for NKP 765′s engine crew in their heavy clothes, especially now with no breeze coming in through the cab windows. Still, they seemed happy to allow some youngsters to climb up for a look inside the fiery hot beast.

NKP 765 eventually makes it to the Rock Island Train Festival

Since there was no way of getting any more daylight footage of this trip, I decided to head to my final destination of the day, Rockford, Illinois. On the way there I stopped at the TPW yard in East Peoria, where NKP 765 was to have spent the night. When I arrived, warning sirens were sounding because a tornado had been spotted close to the rail yard. In fact the security guard pointed to some trees on the edge of the yard as the place he had seen the tornado just minutes before my arrival. Fortunately the twister never touched ground or did any damage in the area.

Late in the evening, NKP 765 was given clearance to finish its trip to East Peoria, IL, where it arrived before sunrise. It completed its trip over the Iowa Interstate (IAIS) Railroad and arrived at Rock Island later that day, while I was covering the photo special at the Silver Creek & Stephenson. Had it not been for this hot weather, we would have been able to follow NKP 765’s trip over much of this route the day before.

So, a lot of miles and sweat, some good footage even if not as much or as exciting as I had hoped for. But, I met a lot of nice people on this day, and the experience gave me some new appreciation for the hard work of a steam locomotive crew. Remember, the people in charge of maintaining and operating NKP 765 are all volunteers. Their pay is the experience, and the smiles from the lucky ones who view the engine in steam. Today they really earned it!

Thank you and thanks to all volunteers!

The tank engine convoy is presented on our DVD Steamin’ Summer – Volume 1 and our story about 765’s journey to the Rock Island Train Festival is found on Steamin’ Summer – Volume 2.

Thanks, Steve Mitchell, Yard Goat Images