Nickel Plate Road Passenger Trains

Nickel Plate Road passenger trains are often forgotten since the railroad (officially known as the New York, Chicago & St. Louis) served markets that were stiff in competition from other well known carriers like the New York Central, Pennsylvania, Baltimore & Ohio, and Norfolk & Western. However, at least for a few years it held its own in the Midwest region, in conjunction with the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western, with trains like the Nickel Plate Limited, New Yorker, City of Cleveland, and City of Chicago. Still, it was tough to compete with the big boys and coupled with increased competition from outside forces like highways and air travel, the Nickel Plate bailed out of the passenger business in the early 1960s.

Aside from the railroad’s underdog status, which continues to make it an interesting study even today, it is also remembered for a number of other things including its famous 4-8-4 Berkshires and its beautiful blue and gray passenger livery (albeit the railroad never had a strong market for passenger service). The famous Berks, which was a diverse and extremely capable locomotive for the railroad (it was used for everything from heavy freight to speedy passenger service), soldiered on for the Nickel Plate as late as the summer of 1958.

Nickel Plate Road passenger trains were modest, yet classy and respectable. Flagship among its trains was the Nickel Plate Limited which connected Chicago with Buffalo, and then on to Hoboken near New York City courtesy of ally Delaware, Lackawanna & Western aboard that carrier’s train, the New York Mail. The Nickel Plate Limited began operations in 1950 and featured light and heavyweight passenger equipment from Pullman-Standard with power courtesy of the American Locomotive Company’s legendary PA-1 model diesel locomotives. The Nickel Plate had purchased eleven of these locomotives between 1947 and 1948, numbered 180-190, although the railroad did not purchase matching "B", booster units.

The Nickel Plate Limited was adorned in a stylish blue and white livery dubbed the “Bluebird” scheme (not to be confused with the Wabash Railroad’s passenger train of the same name) and through the 1950s the train, along with sister New Yorker (which followed the same route but on a different schedule), actually remained profitable. Also during this time the trains were renamed as the City of Chicago and City of Cleveland.

While Nickel Plate Road passenger trains were somewhat successful in the 1950s the 1960s were much different. Increased competition from not only larger railroads but also other modes of transportation eventually caused the NKP to throw in the towel on passenger services to focus on what it did best, moving freight very fast and efficiently. Then, only a year from having discontinued most of its passenger operations the Nickel Plate was folded into the Norfolk & Western along with what remained of its passenger services. By 1965 all of the Nickel Plate's named trains had been discontinued by the N&W.

Today, give the fact that other, more popular historic named trains make the run between New York and Chicago for Amtrak this is little hope in ever seeing Nickel Plate's named passenger trains ever returning to the rails. However, an ex-Santa Fe Alco PA is currently being completely restored into the Nickel Plate’s famous “Bluebird” livery and numbered 190. Work has been ongoing since 2002 and while a completion date is not yet known one day you will be able to once again glimpse a bit of what the Nickel Plate’s passenger operations once looked like.

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