Steam & Excursion > Hammond, Ind donates NKP Mikado to FWRHS

The City Council of Hammond Indiana has agreed to donate NKP Mikado #624 and the cars attached to it to the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society. It is expected to be displayed at the planned Headwaters Junction project in Fort Wayne

http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/hammond/hammond-council-may-get-small-pay-boost/article_47989273-4b45-5652-bf10-52919bc82744.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/16 09:38 by Spoony81.

That's good news! What are the cars?

CPR_4000 Wrote:
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> That's good news! What are the cars?

Looking at the Google Street view they are an old refrigerator car and caboose

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.6071618,-87.5138821,201a,20y,286.9h/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

Looks like a reefer and a waycar ....

Regards,
Burlington John
 

---

Perhaps the waycar is a South Shore car? Was there not some volunteers that worked on that engine to restore it to operation? I suppose that would be an NKP H6 USRA Mike?

​Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

Thanks, that's a nice 'fridge. Hard to see it it's wood or steel body, not that it matters much. Odd little buggy, though . . . ex-TP&W maybe?

More pics here:
http://www.dhke.com/rrus/static/static14005.html

Not sure if the paint on the reefer is accurate at all but my recollection is that it is a URTX car.
I'm pretty sure the waycar is from the South Shore.

That tender looks like it was originally used on a Berkshire.  Much bigger than a typical 1922 era tender.

Scott Griggs
Louisville, KY

reference site regarding equipment
http://indianarailroads.org/board/index.php?topic=1071.0
"described in Ron Ziel's landmark 1963
book, "The Twilight of Steam Locomotives" as "two hundred tons of junk."
A South Shore Railroad caboose and Milwaukee Railroad refrigerator car,
which earned national attention last fall when four men were found
living in it, were added to the exhibit in 1976 (see TRAINS News Wire,
November 7, 2006)."

I'm not an NKP expert, but I beleive the NKP did do this and also had some large tenders with one six wheel and four wheel truck on the same tender for some Mikes (does 587 have that?) Again, I'm not an NKP historian, but that is an H-6, (H-6d?) so is either a light USRA copy or bigger than a USRA light. It's got to be a Lima.

​Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com



sgriggs Wrote:
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> That tender looks like it was originally used on a
> Berkshire.  Much bigger than a typical 1922 era
> tender.
>
> Scott Griggs
> Louisville, KY



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/16 16:38 by wabash2800.

wabash2800 Wrote:
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> I'm not an NKP expert, but I beleive the NKP did
> do this and also had some large tenders with one
> six wheel and four wheel truck on the same tender
> for some Mikes (does 587 have that?) Again, I'm
> not an NKP historian, but that is an H-6, (H-6d?)
> so is either a light USRA copy or bigger than a
> USRA light. It's got to be a Lima.
>
> ​Victor A. Baird
> ​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com
>
>
>
> sgriggs Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > That tender looks like it was originally used on
> a
> > Berkshire.  Much bigger than a typical 1922
> era
> > tender.
> >
> > Scott Griggs
> > Louisville, KY

From Steamlocomotive.com, she is Lima #6314, 1922, H-6e. 

mdogg Wrote:
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> From Steamlocomotive.com, she is Lima #6314, 1922,
> H-6e. 

H-6d, actually. The H-6e's were built the following year.

Depending on their anticpated usage and where they were used on the NKP, many of the 2-8-2's were equipped with tenders with either two 4 wheel trucks, one four wheel and one six wheel truck, or two six wheel trucks.  Since virtually all of them started out with tenders with just 4 wheel trucks, any of the others were obviously a different tender.  It is possible that some of them had all three types during their years of service.  

639 in Miller Park, in Bloomington, IL has one of the 6-4 configuration tenders, and I remember vaguely reading that the tender behind the 587 and this one were swapped when 639 came west to the Peoria line.  If so, that would make it and the 587 both engines that had all three tenders during their career, but as I said, I only remember reading that somewhere, and have no certain knowlege of that.   All of the photos of the 639 that I have show it in service around Bloomington and Peoria, where it has the 6-4 tender.
 

I remember seeing builder photos of Erie 0-8-0's with big, six-wheel tanks that were intended as replacements for smaller tenders on road locomotives. I wonder if NKP did the same, or if they bought new tenders separately?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/16/16 10:13 by CPR_4000.

elueck Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Depending on their anticpated usage and where they
> were used on the NKP, many of the 2-8-2's were
> equipped with tenders with either two 4 wheel
> trucks, one four wheel and one six wheel truck, or
> two six wheel trucks.  Since virtually all of
> them started out with tenders with just 4 wheel
> trucks, any of the others were obviously a
> different tender.  It is possible that some of
> them had all three types during their years of
> service.  
>
> 639 in Miller Park, in Bloomington, IL has one of
> the 6-4 configuration tenders, and I remember
> vaguely reading that the tender behind the 587 and
> this one were swapped when 639 came west to the
> Peoria line.  If so, that would make it and the
> 587 both engines that had all three tenders during
> their career, but as I said, I only remember
> reading that somewhere, and have no certain
> knowlege of that.   All of the photos of the 639
> that I have show it in service around Bloomington
> and Peoria, where it has the 6-4 tender.
>  

If I remember the story right, 639 had a big tender in the 50's but the stoker broke, so they swapped tenders with 587, which was about to get donated to the City of Indianapolis.  So 639 has 587's as far as I know original tender, and 587 has one of the "Berk sized" tenders that the NKP bought from Lima.  After fixing the stoker, the big tender was a real aset to 587 while it was in over the road excursion service. Feel free to correct this, as I'm going off the top of my head. 

So are the plans to just costmetically restore it for now?

Last time I visited the park, a family was living in the frieght car. Wonder if they'll be moving to Ft. Wayne too?

clayton5878 Wrote:
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> So are the plans to just costmetically restore it
> for now?

Yes

NKP ordered a number of Lima- built 0-8-0's in 1934 and ha

I suppose much of the resources of the FWRHS and those going toward the new heritage park will be spent on NKP equipment and my Wabash 0-6-0 will lanquish longer? <G>

​Victor A. Baird
​http://www.erstwhilepublications.com