NKP 765 Trip Tickets Nearly Sold Out

Tickets for the June 17 and 18 excursions in Chicago behind Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 are almost sold out.

The restored Berkshire steam engine will pull trips from Joliet, Illinois, to Chicago’s LaSalle Street Station over tracks owned by Metra and once used by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific.

The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, which owns the locomotive, said that half of the trips are sold out.

These include both Saturday trips. Earlier this week there were about 100 tickets left for the Sunday trips.

Hickory Creek to run on NKP 765 Excursions

Former New York Central observation car Hickory Creek will be part of the consist of the Joliet Rocket, the excursion train to be pulled by Nickel Plate Road No. 765  on June 17 and 18 between Joliet and Chicago.

Tickets to ride in the Hickory Creek are limited and are priced at $219.

The Hickory Creek once operated on the Chicago-New York 20th Century Limited.

The car is being made available through a special charter by Headwaters Junction, Inc.

The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society said some tickets remain in economy coach, deluxe coach and first class on select dates and times for the excursions.

Some Railroad Sights From Joliet, Illinois

Amtrak 62 is a French Turboliner that Amtrak used out of Chicago in the mid-1970’s. Here she is in front of Joliet Union Station on June 15, 1974.

Rock Island 654 leads three other Rock Island E8s approaching the crossing with the AT&SF on August 18, 1973.

AT&SF 314C was in Joliet on April 14, 1973. By then some passenger units were on freights as well as on Amtrak.

Mike Ondecker had heard about how Joliet, Illinois, was an excellent location to railfan and wanted to railfan it.

Never did I realize it would become a favorite location and a mandatory stop on westward trips.

Here are three photos taken when Mike and I visited Joliet on different occasions.  By this time Mike had stopped taking photos, but thankfully his being employed by the Erie Lackawanna and his knowledge of railfan locations helped each trip be a great experience.

Of course the fact that Mike loved driving and drove all the time gave me more time to try and navigate to the next location as well as check out the scenery for things of interest. We truly got along well.

Article and Photographs by Robert Farkas

The Whole Was More Powerful than the Parts

It is August 12, 1972, and Mike Ondecker and I have been given permission to take photographs around the Rock Island engine facility at Joliet, Ill.

At the time, I took mostly roster shots instead of train shots. Had I concentrated on a roster shot of Rock Island 641, the shadow of the sand tower on the rear of the unit would have driven me mad.

Here was an E7A in beautiful light, yet it had that distracting shadow. Thankfully, I stepped back and got more of the whole scene.

That engine house had certainly seen better days and while the rectangular 35mm slide format cut off part of the sand tower, enough was there so that there weren’t two strange diagonally-running pipes appearing out of nowhere.

Also, a roster shot would have cropped out part of the reflection. Did I plan the image this way? No. I just took it to have something.

Yet 40 plus years later, it serves as a good example of the whole image being far more powerful than its individual parts.

Article and Photograph by Robert Farkas