First Excursion Period
Between 1979 and 1993 the 765 became quite famous, pulling 100,000 passengers over about 52,000 miles of special excursions in sixteen U.S. states east of the Mississippi River.
The 765 was first restored in 1979, but still required more repairs to run on the mainline. In 1982, the engine was finally in shape in time for the Southern Railway to lease the engine. The Southern's own rebuilt 2-8-4, ex-C&O 2716, was having mechanical problems, and 765 easily stepped in to handle these trips in its place. The trips brought the 765 as far south as Atlanta.
In 1984, the 765 participated with also freshly rebuilt Norfolk and Western 611 for the 1984 NRHS Convention in Cincinnati. The engines doubleheaded for part of the trip.
The FWRHS gained ownership of the engine in 1985.
Between 1986 and 1993, the 765 was the power for the "New River Trains" run by the Collis P. Huntington Chapter of the NRHS. These trips became very popular, and the 765 was annually given the ultimate test when it hauled trains of up to 33 cars (including water car and tool car) nearly 150 miles on a twisting route with a 0.5% grade through the scenic "New River Gorge". The locomotive was also used in the film Matewan, which was shot around Thurmond, West Virginia.
In 1987. the 765 ran the Ex Reading Company's Main Line to The Blue Mountain and Reading Tourist railroad at Temple, PA.
In 1988, the 765 ran East to New Jersey for yet another NRHS Convention.
In August 1991, NKP 765 was partnered with Pere Marquette 1225 for the NRHS Convention in Huntingon, WV. The engines doubleheaded to Huntington, and later ran side by side between Huntington and St. Albans. The following day, the Berkshires doubleheaded 32 cars between Huntington and Hinton, WV.
In 1993, the 765 teamed up with Nickel Plate 2-8-2 587 between Ft. Wayne, IN to Chicago, IL. The two later doubleheaded as part of the NRHS Convention. Shortly after, the engine was briefly relettered and renumbered to C&O 2765. The engine pulled several excursions on CSX, concluding with the New River Train.
After completing her excursion season in 1993, 765 was rolled into the FWRHS' shop building in New Haven to be overhauled. Originally, the overhaul work was supposed to be focused on the running gear, but it was later decided to perform a full rebuild of the locomotive.
Read more about this topic: Nickel Plate 765
Famous quotes containing the words excursion and/or period:
“Midway the lake we took on board two manly-looking middle-aged men.... I talked with one of them, telling him that I had come all this distance partly to see where the white pine, the Eastern stuff of which our houses are built, grew, but that on this and a previous excursion into another part of Maine I had found it a scarce tree; and I asked him where I must look for it. With a smile, he answered that he could hardly tell me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“It is as if, to every period of history, there corresponded a privileged age and a particular division of human life: “youth” is the privileged age of the seventeenth century, childhood of the nineteenth, adolescence of the twentieth.”
—Philippe Ariés (20th century)