In 1968 saw NKP 759 run out of Hoboken, NJ. 1977 saw NKP 757 rusting away outside in Strasburg, PA. In July of 1988 I was a babysitter for NKP 765 at Cranford, NJ while on NYS&W/ Rahway Valley property. Someday I hope to see the other three.  

rattler21 posted:

What is the one by the Civic Center in Hammond, Indiana?  John

Isn't that an NKP 2-8-2? Certainly NOT an NKP Berk.

There ain't nothing like a "Big Mike" with pilot mounted headlight!...........................Just an opinion!.......................

Unfortunately, the headlight, the mars light , the bell and the number boards were all stripped off of that Mike. Hammond has doe a nice job of taking care of that static steamer

I suppose they've got bigger issues.

Another fan of the Big Mike...with sand dome in the right place !

Anyone interested in meeting up or putting together a small group outing to visit Conneaut this Summer?

(It's essentially the Northern End of the Ohio/PA line.....FWIW.)

rattler21 posted:

Today's local paper mentions the Hammond 1922 Berkshire has been donated to the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, Inc.    About five years ago I heard it would take $1 million at one time to get it running.  More if not at one time.  Nothing in the article about restoration plans but displaying it at Headwaters Junction is mentioned. If anyone in The Region has pictures of the engine, the wood side reefer and/or the caboose which have been on display for many moons, please feel free to post them.   John in Lansing, ILL

The engine in Hammond is not a Berkshire, it's a 2-8-2 Mikado.  

I've probably seen at least 10 in 1.5" scale. But this one for sure is the best one. Owner is Larry Kirshner at Maricopa Live Steamers, he also owns a  NKP Mikado 

This thread is especially interesting to me as I did not realize that there were more than about three of us kids who grew up with the NKP in Erie, PA during steam days. My dad worked all of the crossing towers in Erie and when he worked the Sassafras Street tower, my mom, sister, and I could see dad in the tower from our kitchen window so I guess it is safe to say that I was up-close and personal with NKP Berkshires 24 hours a day.

I had a paper route and much of it was along 19th St. I’d get home from school, dump my books, and head over to the Sassafras street crossing tower where the Erie Times News would put my paper bundles in the coal bin beneath the tower to keep them out of the elements if it was raining or snowing .Hopefully dad would be working that night in the tower. I’d spend a few minutes with him and maybe help him light the green, amber, and red lanterns which he hung in the back of the tower.

In the winter I would throw a few lumps of coal in the stove and warm up a little in anticipation of the cold trek that lay ahead on my paper route. Encountering a 700 along 19th street was always a thrill that I never got tired of. But in the winter it was all the more intimidating as I would just seem to freeze in place, partly due to the cold but I’m sure that most of it was due to the overwhelming ambience of my surroundings that I was about to experience, particularly after dark. As the engine passed I would close my eyes as most of the time I was about to be engulfed in steam and blowing snow with the smells of hot oil and grease, not to mention the sounds.
After I finished my route I would sit in the tower for a while with dad and hopefully we would hear another whistle and upon the tower bell going off, dad would say “you know what to do”, as he let me operate the crossing signals, for four or five crossings under his supervision of course. 

Brag on Hudson5432! I understand the experience and we will never forget it.

Well I got kind of long winded here but as to the original question, I have seen all six of the existing NKP Berkshires.

Outstanding post, Jim.  Excellent story and prose that is just as good. 

That was a great, three paragraph read.  I could almost put myself in your shoes. 

Sincere thanks for sharing!

Berkshire President, glad you enjoyed my comments and thank you for your response.

Some trivia on the six remaining 700’s come to mind;

I used to take NKP’s #7 at 7AM the 29 miles to Conneaut and spend the day walking around the shops and roundhouse, and sitting on the footbridge over the yard. I then caught the NYC back to Erie about the middle of the afternoon. If I remember right it was late in the summer of ’59 and all steam was dead in Conneaut of course but there was plenty of it sitting around. There were some 39 or 40 700’s in Conneaut at the time. All of the S-3’s were in a dead line at the west end of the yard, including the 779. One of the brakeman who was doing some switching came up to me and said “hey kid, they are going to save that one,” and he pointed to the 779. The engine had some small tubing running along the left side running board and the cab numerals looked like they had been cleaned so that you could read them. I wonder if that tubing had something to do with some temporary brake or signaling equipment to be used in a dead move.

They 755, 759, and 763 were in the roundhouse and I sat there and watched one of the Diesel yard switchers go around and pull several of the 700’s in the roundhouse out to the end of the turntable and push them back in. I found out later that the engines in the roundhouse were “laid up” with the possibility of being fired up while the ones out in the dead lines were “awaiting disposition.”

The 757 was “laid up” in Bellevue and the 765 was, of course, “laid up” in Fort Wayne.

As a side note, the picture shown in an earlier post of the 1-1/2” scale NKP 2-8-4 759 is one that I designed and sold parts for.  

Another great post, Jim.

If you're up for it, I'll gladly meet you in Conneaut next Summer....for lunch and some Berkshire visiting.

Jim, when can someone sit you down for an hour or two to get these stories on camera? They are wonderful.

Berkshire President and Kelly - Thanks for the nice comments about my reminiscing. It would be nice to get together with you guys and perhaps sometime we can do that. My wife and I do not get back east (We live in California.) too often anymore although I would like to, especially with 765 making some really nice trips like it has been doing. We last visited Fort Wayne, Conneaut, and Erie about two years ago.

I don’t know if you are aware Kelly but I was quite involved with 765 from 1980 until 1998.

For those who might be interested, I created a public Facebook group, “Berkshire Modelers – 1/8 Scale 2-8-4” where the discussion includes details about the prototype and Berkshire modeling, particularly in the larger scales. Anyone interested is invited to join the group.

Count me in! I last saw Jim Kreider when he was at Conneaut two years ago...went to dinner in Erie and talked about 700's the whole time. Really enjoyed it!

Hudson5432 - I also really enjoyed our getting together. Glad you joined in on this discussion as you will have a lot to contribute.

Do you remember how much we would have paid for those tickets between Conneaut in Erie in '59?

Some more trivia on the remaining NKP Berkshires:

The 755 last came out of the shop after a class 3 overhaul on March 19, 1958 and I don’t think that it was ever fired up again as evidenced by the fact that the superheater units still had data marks on them when they were pulled out to go into the 765 long after the 755 had been placed on display in Conneaut. Some of the guys from Fort Wayne could verify this. I remember seeing 755 in the Conneaut roundhouse after the Berkshires stopped running.

 The 757 last came out of the shop after a class 3 overhaul on November 12, 1957 and did see service after that.

 The 759 was the last engine overhauled by Conneaut and came out of shop after a class 3 overhaul on May 14, 1958. I remember it sitting in the easternmost stall of the roundhouse and thinking to myself what a beautiful looking machine it was resplendent in its brand new paint.

 The 763 last came out of the shop after a class 3 overhaul on August 8, 1957. It saw a lot of service on the Buffalo division before it was laid up. I remember seeing it many times.

 The 765 last came out of the shop after some class 5 work on May 16, 1957.

 The 779 last came out of the shop after a class 3 overhaul on December 31, 1956.

 Of the preserved locomotives, it looks like the 765 and 779 probably saw the most mileage prior to being laid up.

 I’ve been asked how a 13 or 14 year old kid managed to meander around the shops and roundhouse somewhat unencumbered. The answer is I don’t know except that the railroad people were very friendly back in those days to an inquisitive kid, especially one that seemed to be acting in somewhat of a safety conscious manner. I did, however, manage to get caught on a couple of occasions by the railroad cop who politely escorted me off the property. One time I even got hauled into the master mechanics office where it was explained to me how dangerous it was to be hanging around a railroad yard. My reply was “yes sir”. I failed to mention to him, however, that I had just spent the last two hours playing engineer on half of the dead S-3’s in the somewhat remote western part of the yard.  

In going through some photos I came across two which relate to my comments in the previous posts on this thread. One photo shows my "playground" when I referred to "playing engineer" on some dead S-3's in the remote western portion of the Conneaut yard. The other shows the 779 and the tubing I referred to above the left running board. The 779 photo came from my friend the late Harold Vollrath.