Editors note: Nickel Plate Berkshire #757 is leaving the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania to join the collection of the Mad River & NKP Museum. Here’s the inside story, reproduced with permission from the Caboose Cable newsletter.
By Dwayne Fuehring, Mad River & NKP Museum
Nickel Plate Berkshire #757
Since their fires went cold nearly 60 years ago, most of the surviving Berkshires have enjoyed a relatively positive life in preservation. Although it could be much worse, the 757 has not encountered a glamorous retirement. Its last run was from Fort Wayne to Bellevue on June 15th, 1958. After arriving in Bellevue, the locomotive was serviced and coaled awaiting the call for its next train which would never come. It spent awhile outside the Bellevue Roundhouse (well into the next winter) parked next to a couple of her sisters awaiting an uncertain future. Once the NKP was convinced that retirement of the 757 was unavoidable, the Berk was offered to the city of Bellevue. Like other cities such as Conneaut, Lima, and Fort Wayne, Bellevue was of major importance to the Nickel Plate. With the largest classification Terminal on the system, large running repair facility, and division offices, it was a natural selection to have a preserved NKP Berkshire in the community. Unfortunately, due to lack of interest at the time, lack of funding, and political in-fighting, the 757 waited in Bellevue at the railroad yard with no home to go to. Years of storage would lead to looting and vandalism of the locomotive. Finally, in 1966, the N&W grew impatient of Bellevue’s lack of action and donated the 757 to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. The locomotive is on outside display at the museum site in Strasburg, Pennsylvania while most of the collection is now indoors and enjoys protection from the elements. The 757 does not have as strong a connection to Pennsylvania’s railroading history as some of their other locomotives and railroad cars, which also require considerable attention. The people of the RRMPA are enthusiastic to see the Berk cosmetically restored to her in-service appearance, but with facility improvements, other restorations, and limited funding, it would take a considerable amount of time before the 757 could receive the attention it needs presently. It’s a reality that another party may have to intercede on the 757’s behalf, if the artifact is to be restored in the near future.
BRING BACK BELLEVUE‘S BERK, THE “B4 PROJECT“.
I believe this all started in came to Bellevue and ran excursions for Norfolk Southern’s 21st Century of Steam Program. It was the first time in 18 years that a steam locomotive hauled passengers through this town. They were employee appreciation trips, so the public did not have access to tickets. Given that, I really wasn’t expecting a strong response from the residents here, boy was I wrong. I worked the trips and was astounded by the locals and even railroad employees that were trackside to watch the train. The museum phone was ringing off the hook from people wanting to know if they could buy tickets to ride! I witnessed a woman that I had worked with for the last 17 years brought to tears at the sight of the 765, I never imagined she had such a connection to the locomotive. It brought out memories in people that I think most had long forgotten. Not many residents of Bellevue are left that worked for the Nickel Plate, and there are even fewer that remember when this was Berkshire Country, but there’s more than I imagined who realized what we once were. Long ago our Grandfathers and their Fathers before them were Nickel Platers who could boil water with coal in an iron horse ahead of wooden boxcars at high speeds.
Shortly after those trips were over, I can remember sitting in the Wreck Diner with Chris Beamer and Dean Meese. It was probably a Tuesday night, most Tuesday nights we meet and do whatever projects are needed around the museum. I told Chris, “you’re going to think I’m crazy but we need to take another shot”. “A shot at what”, he replied. “The Berk, 757”. He didn’t know what to say at the time. The only thing I could get from him that night was, “I’m contemplating it”. We continued to contemplate it for months, it was brought before the Board of Directors and no one objected to making an effort. I’m sure some of the seasoned veterans thought, “go ahead, knock yourself out, we’ve played this game before”. Many had probably lost faith a long time ago that a chance still existed. Unfortunately, standing in the way of action were some major projects going on at the time. The coach yard rebuild started shortly after, followed by the Wabash F-7 restoration, the Holiday Train start-up, the marathon caboose restoration assembly line, and our 40th Anniversary. Just like our colleges at the RRMPA in years past, the timing wasn’t right.
In late 2015, we started reaching out to RRMPA with short letters to get their attention. Although the director at the time was very pleasant to deal with, our message just wasn’t taken seriously. The correspondence was more less a “hi, this is who we are, you have something we want, can we talk?”. I wasn’t aware of it at the time, but a management change was about to happen at the RRMPA. I think they were afraid of major changes at the time. I was throwing darts on the wall to see what would stick, but they all fell to the floor. We were gearing up for our 40th Anniversary Celebration at that time, if we could get lucky with the Berk, it would have made the celebration a lot sweeter. Unfortunately, the timing and approach were all wrong.
After the 2016 Holiday Train passed, it was time to get back to B4. It was decided a new proposal would be made from scratch. Instead of asking for an audience in PA, we were going to tell them exactly what we’re about and lay out everything we planned to do. The final proposal was an 8-page color booklet. Me and Chris talked and agreed that we needed a team of people in the industry that have done what we wish to do.
We’re pretty good at restoring artifacts, general up keep, and displaying, but we are very far removed from moving big equipment. Throughout our history we’ve had some big moves, but not recently, and nothing this complicated. It was also felt that at some point after the locomotive arrives in Bellevue, some consultation will be needed for the restoration. Kelly Lynch was defiantly the guy we wanted to go public with. He’s been involved with numerous fundraising and PR campaigns. I met Kelly on the 2012 excursions. He was firing the 765 as I was the pilot engineer for NS. We started talking more and I was able to convince him to give a couple meeting programs for our members. During those visits before the meetings, our conversations would usually drift between 2 subjects, the Bellevue Roundhouse and the 757. As I’d have an idea I’d chat with him, as he’d receive word of a 757 rumor, he’d contact me. It’s obvious he has a genuine passion to see Bellevue get its Berk back.
T.J. Gaffney was another shoe in. I’ve used T.J. as a sounding board for a while now and his consultation in the museum and preservation field is very valuable. He doesn’t have many opportunities to physically be a presence at the museum, but the behind the scenes help is a great resource that not many recognize. Rick Rowlands was another eager beaver willing to assist. Rick’s Youngstown Steel Heritage Foundation had experience breaking the ice with the RRMPA in acquiring a PRR ore car shunter locomotive. He had the contacts and experience to move us forward. If you can get Rick excited about a project, look out. The man has more drive and determination than any preservationist I’ve ever met.
Now we needed a mechanical steam guy. The very first person I could think of was Danny Pluta. I’ve known Danny longer than anyone else on the committee, probably over 30 years now. Danny was involved in the relocation of the Steamtown collection from Vermont to Pennsylvania. He’s worked on numerous operating steam locomotives, and just recently moved the C&O 1309 from Baltimore, Maryland to Cumberland, Maryland. Finally, we have Zach Hall. I’ve known of Zach’s involvement with operating steam locomotives long before I knew him. He recently was involved in moving Reading 2100 from Tacoma, Washington to Cleveland, Ohio. We have many mutual friends that have nothing but accolades for his work, including Kelly Lynch. Zach found out about the project through Kelly and approached me about his eagerness to participate. I have no doubt this group of professionals is the best we could assemble. All good people working toward the desired goal. With our team assembled, we whipped up a proposal and off to Strasburg it went.
SUCCESS, IN DUE TIME!
One February evening Chris Beamer, Dean Meese, and myself were rebuilding the track where the NKP 900 usually sits (Probably another Tuesday night). I left my phone in the truck while we were working, during a short break I decided to check my phone for messages. I had 3 missed calls in the span of about 20 minutes from Rick. I called him back to find a jubilant Rick reading an email he had received from a member of the RRMPA. Basically, it was the better part of a full page talking about another piece he had asked for and received. Towards the end of that correspondence was a couple lines regarding the 757. A formal request letter was needed from us to proceed with the deaccession process regarding the locomotive.
“Show’s over folks, nothing left to see here “. That’s what I remember thinking at the time. Little did I know the inner workings of the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission (PHMC), and still don‘t. I made contact with the RRMPA and found out that the Director I had been in contact with before had moved on and was no longer involved with the museum. At this point I wasn’t sure if this was good or not. We set up a personal meeting and locomotive inspection for March 4th. Chris Beamer, Rick Rowlands, Danny Pluta, Zach Hall, and myself all entered the keystone sanctuary of railroad history. I can remember me and Chris being very uneasy, almost as if this can’t be real. It felt like April 1st and we were the fools. We met the Curator, a man by the name of Allan Martin. It wasn’t long after we started talking with Allan that our fears evaporated. Allan and a volunteer by the name of Wayne Laepple were the best hosts we could imagine. For the first time, we were finally able to get behind the fence and lay our hands on Bellevue’s Berk. The ole girl is rough but we really didn’t encounter any surprises that are insurmountable.
During that visit, Allan explained to us the process that had to happen next. For the first time in 50 years the RRMPA had released the artifact, nobody had ever been this close before, but that didn’t mean it was ours just yet. RRMPA is a state run museum and falls under the umbrella of the Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission. Now the RRMPA had to petition the PHMC for a deaccession recommendation.
The first chance we would have at getting the PHMC to approve our request was in mid-April. Leading up to that, we chatted with Allan several more times to get all the necessary details hammered out. As the month of April dragged on we were very confident we’d get a favorable ruling after coming off the high of our visit. That confidence was dashed when we discovered our request was denied. I could tell when Allan gave me the news, he was a bit disappointed as well.
Director in place, Mr. Patrick Morrison. Pat would take over the deaccession process moving forward. At this point I was having my doubts we could still make this happen, but Pat was very assuring in his belief that this was nothing more than a delay. Shortly after we began to work with Pat, he was promoted to the Directors position on a permanent basis. This was a shy of relief, now we had the full support of the RRMPA and we weren’t concerned about the next director having a different opinion. Our next opportunity to go before the PHMC was June 21st. Pat submitted the request for approval and we waited, then waited some more. After a few days, most of us were getting concerned. It wouldn’t be until July 6th that we would get the final word. Due to our proposal, and Pat’s work writing the request, the PHMC voted unanimously to approve the deaccession request this time. We finally made the first step in a long-held goal and had progressed further than anyone up to that point. Hallelujah!
This has been, and will continue to be a long-term project that necessitates involvement by many. I’d like to sincerely express my gratitude to all the members of the B4 project, our Board of Directors, and the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Without all of us working together, this never would have left the ground. I look forward to keeping you all posted as we move in to score the goal, stay tuned to future issues of the Caboose Cable for updates on our progress. The new website regarding the project is . Check it out and with a donation you can help us Bring Back Bellevue’s Berk!
