Steam Saturday: When a Nickel Plate Steam Locomotive Pretended to be a C&O Kanawha

In 1993 Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 was dressed as a Chesapeake & Ohio Kanawha-type locomotive for that year’s excursion season.

In August the “C&O 765” ran a series of two weekend trips from Akron to Pittsburgh on the CSX New Castle Subdivision and over former Pittsburgh & Lake Erie tracks into the Steel City.

We chased the trip of Aug. and rode the next day. We then chased the trip on Aug. 29. The first two photographs show the eastbound 765 in Akron near Arlington Street.

The second of those photographs shows what appears to be Rich Melvin as the locomotive engineer.

The third photo shows the train passing RN tower in Ravenna while the final image was made in New Castle, Pennsylvania.

Article and Photographs by Edward Ribinskas

Tags: C&O 765, Chesapeake & Ohio steam locomotives, Edward Ribinskas photograhs, Nickel Plate 765, Nickel Plate Road 765, Nickel Plate Road No. 765, steam excursions