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Nickel Plate Road Passenger Service The Postwar Years by Kevin Holland HC
Nickel Plate Road-Passenger Service The Postwar Years by Kevin J Holland
Hard Cover
128 pages
Copyright 1997
CONTENTS
Foreword4
The NYC&StL6
Routes & Services 1945-1964 10
Beyond the Timetable44
Merger and After54
Locomotives 66
Rolling Stock76
A Color Album102
Along the Line112
Rosters122
In the years since the Nickel Plate Road disappeared as a corporate entity in 1964, new technology and business practices have erased much of the physical evidence of a truly dynamic company. Fortunately, a great deal of the Nickel Plate's history has been preserved in published works and museums, through the memories of former employees and by the dedicated efforts of organizations such as the Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society, the Allen County (Ohio) Historical Society, and others.
When former "Nickel Platers" talk about their employer, a common thread of loyalty and pride emerges. This was a top-notch property, an underdog even in the postwar era that had no option but to provide better, faster and more innovative service than the competition. In a 1979 letter to the author, Norfolk & Western president John P. Fishwick observed that, fully 15 years after the merger, a great many N&W employees still thought of themselves first as former NKP railroaders. This was a challenge for N&W management, yet speaks volumes to the legacy of the Nickel Plate. From the general public's perspective, that corporate pride was exemplified most readily in the Nickel Plate's passenger operations. The NKP ran a small but first-rate group of trains with a dedicated following of passengers and, in more recent years, rail historians and enthusiasts.
The Nickel Plate's broad appeal today is disproportionate to its relatively small size and geographic scope, and may be attributed in part to the road's late operation of steam power and the subsequent restorations of several large locomotives for mainline excursion service. That image of the Nickel Plate as an underdog has also figured largely in the road's enduring appeal. From its construction, calculated to infuriate the rail barons of the day, to its early control by the Vanderbilt monopoly, through volatile periods of financial uncertainty and fledgling independence between the World Wars, the Nickel Plate emerged not merely as a survivor but as an industry leader whose impact was felt far beyond its own rails.
The same disproportionate appeal seems to hold true for the road's postwar passenger services. An eclectic equipment roster, colorful pool services, and an early exit from the market without a prolonged decline are all contributing factors to the interest in Nickel Plate passenger operations. In a 1948 NRHS Bulletin essay (Vol. XIII, No. 4), photographer and author Richard J. Cook, Sr., characterized NKP passenger trains as possessing a "subtle personality and homeliness" and of "doing a job and knitting the countryside together." There were faster trains, and flashier ones, and more of them, too, over on the Pennsy and New York Central, but the passenger trains of the Nickel Plate Road earned their place in our collective memory. One day at a time, often in the shadows of the competition, but they earned it.
The pages that follow chronicle the history and equipment of these trains, on their own merit and in the context of the markets and times in which they competed.
Kevin J. Holland Burlington, Ontario January 1997.
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