In the top image, Norfolk Southern 7051 is leading the ferry movement of Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 to Bellevue where it will then head east on the Wheeling & Lake Erie for another segment of 765’s journey to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad’s Steam in the Valley 2010. Robert Farkas made that photograph and the middle image of the ferry move on the W&LE east of Bellevue.
The bottom image was made by Paul Woodring who was independently chasing the ferry move. Paul’s image was made on the W&LE at Medina where the 765 was making a service stop.
Here is a favorite of mine that some of you haven’t seen. Nickel Plate Road 765 and Norfolk Southern 8100 (Nickel Plate heritage unit) are leading an eastbound ferry move on NS tracks in Mansfield on Aug. 7, 2012. The 765 is heading to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad’s “Steam in the Valley 2012.”
Here are three photographs dealing with the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad’s Steam in the Valley in 2010.
In the top image Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 is eastbound on a ferry move over the Wheeling & Lake Erie near Norwalk on Sept. 9.
In the middle is the result of a different kind of chase of southbound NKP 765 in the Cuyahoga Valley near Boston Mills on Sept. 25.
In the bottom image, FLNX FL9 No. 484 is on the north end of the southbound CVSR train in Akron on Sept. 25. The train is on the bridge over the remains of the Ohio & Erie canal.
On Monday I got a couple of photos of the Nickel Plate Road 2-8-3 No. 765 ferry move to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. I was hoping to chase it down to Campbell Road yard but that didn’t happen.
After making good time all day on Norfolk Southern the ferry move sat at Berea for almost three three hours waiting to get into Rockport yard. About 7:30 p.m. it finally came so I managed a couple golden hour photos.
After the completion of its restoration to operating condition in September 1979, Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 conduced its first public excursion.
It wasn’t much, just a few trips on Sept. 22 on a short piece of track near Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Bob Farkas has posted photographs of that first trip in the past so to observe the 42nd anniversary of the public debut of the 765 he sent along the two images shown above of a ferry move on the Wheeling & Lake Erie in Copley on Oct. 5, 2015.
Back then the 765 would use the Wheeling to ferry between Bellevue and Akron en route to and from its now annual appearance on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.
Crossing the Vermilion River on the NS Chicago Line in Vermilon.Soaring over Baumhart Road between Vermilion and Amherst. The sign indicates this is in Lorain.Crossing Ridge Road. Seeing smoke prompted someone to call the fire department.Crossing the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland.Backing into Campbell Road Yard in Cleveland
I went out to chase the Nickel Plate 765 ferry move on Monday. We tried to get it west of Bellevue but just missed it. We then got it at Vermillion and Baumhart Road.
We then chased it to Eastland Road in Brook Park but got cloud skunked there. The 765 was supposed to overnight at Rockport yard but instead continued to Campbell Road yard in the flats so we chased it down there, too.
Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 left its home near Fort Wayne, Indiana, this morning en route to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad.
Unlike during past ferry moves, the Berkshire-type steam locomotive is being led by a diesel, Norfolk Southern SD70ACe No. 1183.
The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society posted on its Facebook page that although the 765 is capable of operating on its own it currently lacks its own positive train control system.
At 1:05 p.m. the 765 was reported to be in Fostoria. The ferry move will reportedly run east of Bellevue on the Cleveland District and take the connection at Vermillon to the Chicago Line to head for Rockport Yard in Cleveland.
The steamer will reportedly move to the CVSR on Tuesday. Excursions behind the 765 on the CVSR have been scheduled for Sept. 3, 10-12, and 17-19.
After completing its time on the CVSR, the 765 will head for Bellevue and participate in a series of events at the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum between Sept. 24 and Oct. 3.
Back on Aug. 21, 2012, Nickel Plate Road 4-8-4 No. 765 ran a ferry move from Pittsburgh to Bellevue as part of its return to its home in New Haven, Indiana.
I picked up Paul Woodring in Akron and we headed south to Massillon to begin a chase that would consume much of the day and end in Bellevue.
My goal was to recreate somewhat an image that the late Robert Redmond had made here in 1948. That image, though showed a Pennsylvania Railroad T-1 coming out of the bridge headed westbound. My photograph would feature a Berkshire-type steamer.
It was published in my book Canton Area Railroads.
There were a handful of other railfans waiting with us for the ferry move to come. From a photography standpoint, conditions were less than ideal.
The Fort Wayne Line curves northwestward here which meant the 765 and its train would be coming out of the sun, which in August is still pretty high in sky. It didn’t help that it was about mid day when the ferry move came through.
But those were the conditions I had to deal with to get the photograph.
There is something about getting a train coming out of a large through truss bridge with all of that steel and its orderly patterns and lines.
The Massillon bridge over the Tuscarawas River is among the few of its kind built on a curve.
Countless trains have crossed this bridge including such Pennsy Blue Ribbon Fleet trains as the Broadway Limited, the General, the Admiral, the Trail Blazer, the Liberty Limited and the Red Arrow.
Not only is the Fort Wayne Line through Massillon freight only today but there aren’t that many freight trains using it, either.
I got my photographs and admired the train but not for long. We didn’t have time to tarry for we planned to capture the 765 in other places, too.
It’s early September 2014 and Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 is on the road en route to Northeast Ohio where it is slated to pull a series of excursions on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad. For some railfan photographers, getting a 765 ferry move was just as important than getting it in the Valley.
For today’s steam Saturday we gone back five years to catch Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765 in Bellevue. The Berkshire-type locomotive is on the Brewster Connection to the Wheeling & Lake Erie heading east to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad for Steam in the Valley 2015.
Unlike during past ferry moves, the Berkshire-type steam locomotive is being led by a diesel, Norfolk Southern SD70ACe No. 1183.
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