#NKP 765

[1863-project]

Sharing your hobbies with those most important to you is always a delight.

[2inx4inx8inbrick]

Nickle Plate Road 765 at the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society. Angola Indiana June 17th 2023.

Camera info: Nikon d5500, 70mm, f/5.6, iso 350

[theflyingkipper]

tell me everything about your interpretations of real life locomotives

i just think they're neat

hello I am so sorry for making you wait months for an answer on this, I hope this is good!!

So I do have some locomotives from real life as part of my headcanons for TTTE characters (for example, Onslaught, Glory, and Greyhound are part of my D10 lore- and in my headcanon Diesel 10 is warship D810 “Cockade”)

But there are a few that don’t exactly relate to TTTE. I’ll be talking specifically about how I characterize them, with some links to past artwork I’ve done and any other informative links

Santa Fe 2926 (or “Santi”)

(2926 is the only one I’ve given a name that’s different from its running number so far, since shes the only one ive officially made into an OC)

Santi had a very short working life when she was still in service, and spent decades as a static display in a park. Oddly enough, shes not so grouchy as most display engines tend to become. I like to think she was in limbo for the most part while on display, kind of like Duke being buried in the shed. (Or like Captain America getting frozen for 75 years) When she woke up during the beginning of her restoration in the early 2000s, she was unaware of how much time had passed- which was very disorienting. Fortunately she’s had the restoration team catch her up on the last 60 years of human history.

Santi as of writing this post hasn’t been on any excursions yet as far as I know, and is still cooped up in the yard. I think she keeps an audio log of how she’s slowly going crazy in there.

“Day 325 - the restoration team fixed my whistle! Its a shame I have no one of my own kind to scream at with it!”

I think Santi and R&N 2102 are pen pals. preserved 4-8-4 besties for life ❤️🚂

they narrate what they want written out loud to their engineers, they both sign off with 0000-00000000-0000, their shared wheel arrangement in text.

~

Denver and Rio Grande K36s

(I want to give them names, and they’d probably all start with the same letter)

9 out of 10 of the K36s are preserved, the 5th one got scrapped. In reality, the group is split across the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad and the Durango & Silverton, but for the sake of this interpretation they’re all together

I found out about the K36s through a video by History in the Dark, he has a series of videos of “10 of the best trains ever”. I cant find the exact episode :(

Imagine the Dieseasel but there’s NINE of bill and ben instead of two. Though they aren’t as mischievous, they’re definitely just as irritating. They’re sort of a strange hive mind of little engines, akin to Ariel’s sisters in the Little Mermaid. Any time something spectacular happens on their railway, they find some way to spiritually communicate the happening to dear #485, their sibling who fell in a turntable and had to be scrapped- her damage was too severe. Though 485 was very much like the rest of them, she sort of becomes their saint- who they leave offerings of coal and water for in her old shed berth like its a medieval icon. Any time one of them misbehaves, one of their siblings is sure to tell them that 485 would be ashamed and she is not smiling on them right now.

Although this strays from their real life history quite a bit (and their gauge, which is 3ft), I think it would be hilarious if Thomas met them in a RWS-ified BWBA. He comes to their little railway and they all go front over wheels about their strange visitor. I also think the dynamic between them would be interesting, since the K36s are 9 out of their original 10, and Thomas is 1 out of the original 10 E2s. However, It’d probably take a while to get to that point in conversation with how supremely creeped out Thomas is by the K36s slightly cultish practices

Also, they’d probably chase him out of their little railway with pitchforks and acetylene torches if he brought up anything about turntables. They’re a bit of a touchy subject .

~

NKP 765

the 765 isn’t hard to find videos of XD Since shes the pride of the Nickel Plate Road and not converted to burn oil like lots of other large preserved engines, she takes pride in her unique status. I like to think she has the attitude of a great aunt or grandma with a gritty sense of humor and a laugh that could shake the walls. She does get puffed up in the smokebox, though, and has a hard time admitting she’s wrong. She has a bit of a parental relationship with the diesels on her railway, some of whom call her “granny”, and other endearments relating to her age.

~

New Zealand V Class

in a very different vein than everyone else, the V class all met the absolutely horrifying fate of being BURIED IN MUD

in my interpretation of them, The V Class have all become eldritch horror abominations, and local engines have kept their ghost stories alive and well. (usually taking the form of wayward vengeful spectres that like to make themselves known in uncomfortable places)

I had an idea where the V class emerges as one giant metal monster festooned with river sediment and garbage and terrorizes the locals but I don’t know enough about New Zealand or its railways to make an effective story.

[collinthenychudson]

Nickel Plate Road 765 and Pere Marquette 1225 team up with each other as they perform a special photo charter recreating history. Models and Route by: K&L Trainz, Auran, and Download Station

[4449fandom]

Two little cousins: 4-8-4 SP 4449 Daylight chills with her Lima Locomotive works relatives for a family reunion of sorts: 2-8-4 NKP 1225 from the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad -- aka the Nickel Plate Road. Lima 2-8-4 Pere Marquette Railway 1225. The get together was a little steamy with late nights spent around the turntable hosted by the sisters, little 0-4-0 tank engine Little River 1 and her grown up sister, Little River 110 -- a 4-6-2 with a tender behind -- 1 invited a couple of her friends too, other 0-4-0 tank engines Flagg Coal 75 and Viscose 6.

They all enjoyed receiving loving rubs and attention. But 4449 wanted more attention, so, like a naughty engine, she stubbed her pilot truck on a turnout frog and made a big fuss. She enjoyed the extra attention while it lasted, but it meant that she wasn't allowed out to play with her cousins later.

Ah, family reunions...

[guerrerense]

8M4T6793 13x19 sharpened por John Troxler Por Flickr: Showroom Fresh - My 1st photo taken of the NKP 765 during a morning of the open house weekend, October 2005 in New Haven, IN. 2005 was her 2nd rebuild.

[ironhorsegirl]

Taking a break from maintenance, which I do every Wednesday, to explain something since I was chatting with my co-workers and figured out how to put it in layman's terms!

Most people who like trains are aware that it takes multiple diesel units to pull really long freight trains. They also pull these trains really slowly when they're really long. A big part of the switch from steam to diesel for these sort of things is due to their thermal efficiency - diesel locomotives are usually somewhere around 30%-40% thermal efficient, whilst the average steam locomotive was closer to 8%-9%. This means that steam locomotives went through more fuel - up to six to eight times more fuel. If you're pulling a mile-long train, you want to find the most efficient way to do that, and combined with their lower repair and maintenance costs, most railroads finished that switch by the end of the 1950s.

Now, that said, the thing with diesels is that their horsepower is more consistent. They run with internal combustion engines, like your car does. You can generally expect the same horsepower output out of them day to day, even as you open the throttle more. As an example, the famed EMD GP40-based passenger locomotives are usually rated for something like 2000-3000 HP, and their freight counterparts were consistent at around 3000 HP. The F40PH, a passenger locomotive, can get up to 3200 HP.

Modern diesels and diesel-electrics have even more power - Bombardier's ALP-45DPs, one of which I'm looking at in the yard right now, are rated thusly:

Both the power output and the tractive effort, which basically translates in layman's terms to "how much can this locomotive push or pull," are higher for electric than diesel. You'd think that this would mean a push for more railroad electrification, but...well, you probably know why cleaner forms of energy don't get used by now, so I won't get into that.

Now, for comparison, let's look at some steam locomotives. This is Nickel Plate Road 765, a 2-8-4 Berkshire built in 1944:

When you think about it, those numbers really aren't too different! By the 1940s, steam technology was really at the best it had ever been (superpowered steam). When they started testing diesels en masse, it was actually found that performance-wise, the locomotives more or less kept pace with each other. Ultimately, the diesels won out because they were easier to mass manufacture, were cheaper to maintain, and could be operated by one person (not recommended, safety first!). You can hook multiple diesels up to each other and operate them from the one in the front, whereas if you doublehead steam locomotives you need a crew to operate each one. So yeah, it was a cost-saving measure, ultimately, because executives are like that.

Just for fun, let's look at the Big Boys for a second, though.

Yeah, you're not gonna beat those numbers. Union Pacific's Big Boys were some of the most powerful machines ever built. Those mile-long freights that you see three or four diesels on? A Big Boy could pull those by itself without breaking a sweat.

But if the horsepower and tractive efforts come across mostly the same, why do steam locomotives appear to be able to pull more weight? It's all about how steam power actually works.

A diesel engine, as mentioned above, will have fairly consistent horsepower outputs. Steam locomotives take a bit more to get going, and you have to start pulling heavy loads slowly because of potential wheel slip. But once you get moving...that seems to change.

Here's a great story from Rich Melvin, who was the engineer of NKP 765 until he retired several years ago:

Now, in the comments of this video, I found someone explaining this really well:

Basically, the harder you work a steam locomotive, the closer it gets to its actual peak power output. The more you open up the throttle, the more fuel you have to add to the fire, and in turn, the hotter the fire gets. This means the steam in the superheater is actually drier, and that means that it expands more. So you can use less steam per stroke that way, and that means you can really get up to using your full power.

A diesel will have an easier job starting to pull, because they're great for getting those things moving. But if you have it running at higher speeds, the steam locomotive will have an easier time pulling it from that point.

So there you go.

[toast-com]

maybe a irl loco ship with NKP 765 and CVSR 6777 for the celebration ask thing?

congrats on 101, dude!

The Little Things about You

"I'm tired." Nick yawned, leaning against Cuya, who was reading, his black bangs falling into his eyes. Cuya smiled, setting down her book, allowing Nick to rest his head in her lap. "But I don't to sleep." He glanced up at her.

"Well, do you want to talk?" Nick nodded.

"About what?" Cuya merely smiled, stroking Nick's hair.

"How about... The things we like about each other? I'll go first." She paused and smiled down at Nick.

"I love your eyes."

[dumbraveanu]

Chasing NKP 765 In Northeast Ohio Part 3: Trouble On The Connection (A G...

[joezworld]

Happy National Train Day!!

Happy Train Day! I spent it with trains!

[1863-project]

I Watched The Steam Locomotive Episode of Digimon

I’m going to preface this by admitting that normally I don’t watch or play Digimon, and I just went in for the sake of seeing this one episode because, like Kichii, I was The Train Kid when I was younger and I get where he’s coming from. I went into this watching it from the perspective of someone who loves trains and especially loves steam locomotives, and from viewing it from that lens and not just a Digimon lens, it hits in a different way for me.

This episode comes from Digimon Xros Wars, a series that ran in 2011-2012 or so, and can be watched on Crunchyroll. In it, the main character finds out his classmate Kichii Funabashi is somehow traveling all over the world at night, and he’s getting very sleep deprived as a result. Kichii loves trains, and he offers to take the main character along on a trip to prove the photos are real. The protagonist agrees and meets him on what appears to be the roof of the school, where he’s picked up by Kichii, who shows up in the cab of a flying 2-8-4 Berkshire named Locomon (a Digimon, of course).

Kichii relates the story of how he and Locomon met, and in the flashback he manages to be one of the best depictions of being the Train Kid that I’ve ever seen:

He literally moves his arms as if they’re the drive rods of a steam locomotive. Honestly, he’s a mood.

But what really sold me was that Kichii clearly understands steam locomotives.

Kichii gets it - trains are a form of accessible travel and should be for everyone, not kept to oneself. He also understands that operating a steam locomotive isn’t ownership - it’s partnership.

I have driven a steam locomotive, Strasburg #90. I’d admired her for most of my life, and 30 years after I first saw her I got to step inside the cab and take my place at the throttle. I’ve driven many different vehicles before in my life, but never a steam locomotive, and it felt different from anything I’d ever operated before. I was attached to my first car, which I had for over a decade, to the point that I gave it a name, but I couldn’t feel a soul emanating from that car. When I climbed into 90′s cab, there was an internal sense of warmth I can’t quite describe. Sure, the firebox was giving off heat, but this came from within.

When I was a little kid, I rode horses for a couple of years (before realizing I was more of an Iron Horse Girl than a regular Horse Girl). Sitting down in the cab and getting settled in, I felt more like I did when I rode horses than I ever did driving a car. This machine felt almost alive, and she had a soul, and she was going to lend me her power for the next 30 minutes. I wasn’t in control, we were a team, and we had to work together. I opened the throttle and we took off, and I felt like I was supposed to be there. It was her job to keep me safe in the cab, and my job to keep her safe on the rails by making sure we were at the right speed and didn’t have anyone crossing the tracks in front of us. I helped her use her voice by blowing the whistle before crossings and when we were about to move forward or in reverse. By the end, I felt so comfortable in the cab that I didn’t want to leave, and I felt like if I needed to I could have kept going forever. For 30 minutes, my soul was entwined with 90′s soul, and we were a team.

When Kichii has to rescue Locomon at the climax of his episode, he invokes that same feeling. Locomon is a 2-8-4 Berkshire - locomotives that weren’t as fast as, say, Atlantics, Pacifics, or Hudsons, but were immensely strong and well-suited for freight work. Lima Locomotive Works made likely the most famous Berkshires, both Pere Marquette 1225 (the Polar Express locomotive) and the Nickel Plate Road Berkshires, a representative of which, 765, runs excursions to this day. NKP 765 maxes out at around 80 miles per hour - not slow by any means, but not as fast as some steam locomotives (Mallard, a Pacific, holds the official record at 126 mph) and certainly not as fast as modern high-speed rail in Japan. Locomon dreams of going faster, and this is exploited by an antagonist group for a time until Kichii manages to bring Locomon to his senses - by reminding him that they’re a team.

Kichii demonstrates he both understands Berkshires - known for their strength, not their speed - and steam locomotive operation in general. These machines feel like they have souls, and engineers speak of them as if they’re alive, with their own quirks - much like horses, or any other animal humans have partnered with to get things done. Kichii, in his little conductor uniform, single-handedly snaps Locomon out of it and brings him back to his senses by reminding him that they have a bond. Locomon runs on the smiles of his passengers, and he ultimately realizes making them happy and enjoying his friendship with Kichii is the most important thing. The protagonist and his partner Digimon are able to help rescue Locomon, the antagonists are beaten off for the time being, and Kichii and Locomon are officially reunited as a team.

At the end of the episode, the two of them are seen operating together, with Kichii offering the traditional Japanese railway employee salute to the protagonist as they pass by:

Whoever wrote this episode clearly also must love trains, because they nailed the way it feels to work with steam locomotives specifically so accurately through Kichii’s dialogue. It reminded me of my experience with 90, and how for that brief half hour we were a team, working together to do things neither of us could do alone. Steam locomotives are one of the closest things we’ve come to creating something truly alive - they have to be fed and given water, and they can “breathe.” We have to work with them, not against them. Kichii and Locomon are an excellent representation of how that actually feels to do, and it hit me squarely in the heart.

[jasperdoodles-art]

have i ever talked about canonical siblings in ratw before? no? well here ya go

SO

Nickel Plate 765 is a guy who is pretty laid back and just wants to lay around and do nothing because why not? he loves running excursions and trains in general but he also likes his free time. his sister, Nickel Plate 757 is definitely more energetic than him, which also leads her to be a little stubborn and come off as someone who goes "work first, dammit!" half the time. she means well, though. they love each other as siblings, i promise you.

questions about ratw are always appreciated!!

(design inspiration came from one of @theflyingkipper's drawings of them, specifically the whistle battle one. which was also what inspired this whole drawing, hence the fire hose. go check em out their art is chef's kiss)

[theflyingkipper]

americanned trains with guest appearance by emily

(What the first drawing is about)

[collinthenychudson]

Masquerading as a C&O Kanawha, Nickel Plate Road 765 powers an excursion through Tennessee with a train of CSX Office Cars in tow.

Models and Route by: K&L Trainz, JointedRail, TrainzProRoutes, Auran, and Download Station

[capewolfe]

Nickel Plate Road 765 - Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society - Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad - Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio.

[guerrerense]

Pleasant Lake por Robby Gragg Por Flickr: NKP 765 leads a passenger excursion West through Pleasant Lake, IN.