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Nickel Plate Years, The by Eric Hirsimaki FIRST printing DJ
The Nickel Plate Years by Eric Hirsimaki
Hard cover with dust jacket (has protective covering)
Copyright 1989 FIRST PRINTING
144 pages
This book is the result of a lifelong interest in the Nickel Plate Road. A native of Conneaut, Ohio, I witnessed only the road's final years because the merger occurred while I was a senior in high school. Most of my memories consist of vacant shop buildings, strings of cabooses sitting (in their "Nickel Plate High Speed Freight Service" scheme) in the yard, striped diesels -and rows of stored steam locomotives. The steamers were from an era I had just missed. I often wished for a chance to see a 700 - or any steam locomotive - in action. I finally did see a live 700 years later in the form of the 759.
In the meantime, I gathered bits of data here and there that have been used to reconstruct the glory days of the Nickel Plate Road. I was fortunate that John H. Keller and others made available other pieces of information which helped fill some gaps. This enabled me to make what was meant to be a brief overview of the road's motive power a more complete picture. Space, and the lack of additional records, have precluded going into any more detail. The idea is to let the photos tell the story.
THE NICKEL PLATE YEARS isn't intended to be the definitive work about the road's motive power, though every effort has been made to provide a fairly detailed overview of its policies. My primary interest was the period 1940-1964, the final quarter century of the road's existence. In this rather brief period of time the Nickel Plate became one of the nation's premier railroad investments, embraced the internal combustion engine, and merged with the Norfolk & Western. For this reason the early years are covered briefly and the post-1916 period in increasing detail.
One of my goals was to create a book that offered the reader fresh material. Every effort was made to explore areas or topics not previously discussed or to find and use illustrations that were unpublished or helped tell the story. Also, I've tried to explain what was done and why, hence the many tables to help put things into perspective. The road's interest in EMD's Branch Line 1 road switcher in 1947 is particularly intriguing as is the coal-fired gas turbine project. One has to wonder what other stories remain untold.
The dieselization of a railroad is seemingly a simple matter: once the decision has been made to adopt the new form of motive power, enough units are bought until all the steam locomotives can be retired. Actually, the process is much more complex due to several factors. Among these are financing, operating practices, traffic levels, allegiances to certain builders, and the human factor. Like all railroads, the Nickel Plate was influenced by them, but was more fortunate than most. It learned as it dieselized, though there were few major mistakes.
One area in which the Nickel Plate was a leader was the use of road switchers exclusively for freight service. It was perhaps the first railroad to adopt them as its primary freight unit. Other large lines, like the Central and Pennsy, also acquired geeps at the same time, but continued to buy cab and booster units too. A few other roads, the Illinois Central and Norfolk & Western among them, also rostered only road switchers, but they started dieselizing long after the NKP and after the industry had learned its lesson.
The end of steam was speeded up by the sagging economy of the late 1950's, otherwise 700's might have operated into the 1960's. I've tried to describe what was happening so the reader can get a better picture of the situation. Curiously, despite the road's affection for, and the widespread attention shown the 700's, the end of the steam era was hardly mentioned in the employee magazine. For a railroad so steam oriented, this is an interesting omission.
The NKP's venture into second generation diesels was another area where outside events controlled motive power policies. In this case, it was the pending merger with the Norfolk & Western. That, and the fact most of its locomotives were fairly new, resulted in minimal interest in the new models being offered by EMD, GE, and ALCO.
I've attempted to reconstruct motive power rosters for various dates using an assortment of records. They are designed to show the ebb and flow of the road's motive power. One problem is that even "official" records can be wrong, thus you may find some discrepancies between the totals shown in annual reports and elsewhere. However, there should be no major errors in the rosters. The point they are intended to stress is the fact there was more than 700's hauling freight on the Nickel Plate Road.
Many people graciously contributed illustrations and material for the book, they are listed on another page. I was particularly pleased with the illustrations that became available because they helped depict a more balanced view of the road. Too often too much emphasis is placed on the 700's on the NKP District. They played a key role, but were only part of the scene. The Nickel Plate was a system that functioned like a fine-tuned watch, everyone and everything had a role to play. Unfortunately, the abundance of material that became available meant much of it had to be left out. Perhaps it can be used in another book.
Thanks to my many supporters: G. W. Deucher for the maps and artwork; Bruce Dicken; the staff at Mag-Tape Composition who set the type; my printer, Great Lakes Lithograph; Louis A. Marre; Parkway Graphics, and the Allen County (Ohio) Historical Society, and the Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society. They did much to make this book a reality and it was through their efforts that the resulting high quality was obtained.
I hope you get as much enjoyment from reading THE NICKEL PLATE YEARS as I did producing it.
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