Fishing for the NKP Heritage Unit

I was in Conneaut last Sunday when Norfolk Southern delivered a surprise.

NS 8100, the Nickel Plate Road heritage locomotive, was leading Bellevue to Buffalo train No. 316.

The 316 had work to do in the yard, so I had the opportunity to capture it in two places, one of which is the NKP-built trestle over Conneaut Creek.

A bonus for that image was a fisherman wading in the creek to cast his line as the 8100 rumbled over.

I made it a point to get 8100 with the NKP era block signals still standing west of Chestnut Street.

They won’t be there much longer. New signals have been put up and are waiting to be placed into service.

Vestiges of the Nickel Plate are falling by the wayside. Even the NKP trestles are being replaced, although if NS has long plans to replace the bridge in Conneaut it is likely to be awhile.

Ohio’s Next Railfan B&B

I ventured out west last Saturday with my friend Joe from the Conrail Historical Society. Our goal was to update some of his ATCS data from points west of Bellevue and Fostoria on Norfolk Southern and to photograph some of the remaining former Nickel Plate Road signals out that way.

Although we didn’t get as far west of Fostoria as we would have liked to, we still came away with a lot of data and photos.

One of the more interesting photos of the day was a Norfolk Southern eastbound passing this “handyman’s special” house (shown above) near Maple Grove.

Also at Maple Grove RTEX 8138, a former Canadian switcher, was out and sitting under some conveyor machinery.

We concentrated on the NKP signals at North Findlay. There is a passing siding there and the CSX former Toledo & Ohio Central crosses right in the middle of it all.

Bracket masts are located at East N. Findlay and West N. Findlay with the CSX crossing (Mortimer on CSX) protected with straight masts and a dwarf.

It’s somewhat of an odd track arrangement, too, with both trains having to take diverging routes to pass.

Article and Photographs by Roger Durfee

We are at the CSX diamond looking east towards Fostoria. Note the ex NKP dwarf protecting the siding’s diamond.

A “worm’s eye view” look at East N. Findlay as 17K approaches in the distance.

17K splits the signals.

17K beside that classic NKP mast.

On our way back east we stopped at Arcadia and caught a local with a former Southern HH SD40-2 pulling six carbon black cars west on to the line to Lima, the former NKP main to St Louis.

Another view of the local.