Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4, #765

Nickel Plate Road's No. 765 is a restored fully operational 2-8-4 "Berkshire" built in 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works. Famed for its high-speed freight performance on the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad (the Nickel Plate Road) during its service from 1944 to 1958, it is today owned, maintained, and operated by the non-profit Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society (FWRHS) out of Indiana.

Class: S-2.
Driving Wheel Diameter: 69 inches (1.75 neters).
Tractive Effort: 64,135 lbs. (285 kN)
Total Weight: 404 tons (locomotive and tender combined).

cars in Hollywood Boulevard between Orange Drive and Highland Avenue, L.A. 1960

Nearest the camera on the left is a 1960 Oldsmobile Holiday Coupe with a roof rack.

Present day view

great old days of SNCF steam passenger trains

On La Crueize pont, St Sauveur de Peyre de Peyre en Aubrac -- top a 141R, see this page for a model of one in action

Too distant to be sure what loco this one is.

Nickel Plate Road 0-6-0 steam switcher

The Nickel Plate Road was officially the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad.  In 1964, the Nickel Plate Road and several other midwestern carriers were merged into the Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W).

This is a NKP class B-11a built by Alco-Brooks in October 1916. The 9 members of the class featured 57-inch (1.45-meter) driving wheels and were specifically designed to navigate tight industrial curves ranging from 18 to 30 degrees. They had 21x28-inch cylinders and a boiler operating at 180 psi.  All were retired by March 1953 and eventually scrapped.

(colorized)

A Nice to Digne, France, meter-gauge Renault autorail on a masonry viaduct, 1962

 See earlier posts.

South African Railways (SAR) Class 5E1, Bo-Bo type electric locomotive, early 1960s

Despite the name of the train being blue, the loco at this time was painted in green with yellow stripes. Developed by Metropolitan-Vickers (Metrovick), a total of 690 units of the 3 kV DC class were built across five distinct series between 1959 and 1969.

The Blue Train (Bloutrein) between Johannesburg and Cape Town adopted the name in 1946. It has been South Africa's luxury passenger train service with blue-and-silver cars since then. 

See earlier posts.

Santa Fe 2-6-2 built by Baldwin in 1903

This is now on display in Boot Hill Park, Dodge City, Kansas with "Boot Hill Special" on the tender. Initially a Vauclain compound, in 1918 it was simplified during a rebuild in the ATSF Topeka Shops. It received a new boiler around 1940. Upon retirement in 1954 it was donated to Dodge City, which at one time was a notorious outlaw town.

'I'm going to enjoy this good real book tonight'

DB V200 diesel with a local passenger train on the Schwarzwaldbahn, 1973

This was prior to the electrification of this famous scenic line. See earlier posts.

Ampelmännchen ("little traffic light man") statue, Germany

The East German version which was liked more than the West's version. Seen in Wiesbaden which is a big NATO base so the the slogan Grenze Uberwinden (overcome frontiers) seem appropriate.