Steam & Excursion > 765 trips in June to set 50 year milestone with NYC car

Headwaters Junction Inc., the entity created to pursue development of a railyard park and roundhouse attraction for Nickel Plate 765 and the collection of the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, has chartered New York Central Pullman observation car "Hickory Creek" for the June 17th and 18th runs of The Joliet Rocket.

The Hickory Creek once brought up the tail end of the 20th Century Limited and has not been back to LaSalle Street since 1967. As the Joliet Rocket trips are "pull-pull" with motive power on either end, the Hickory Creek is planned to be the closest passenger car in the consist to the locomotive.

These trips will operate twice each day and feature:
- photo runby
- brunch or dinner themed appetizers
- open vestibules (where available)
- a 2 hour layover at a private reception at LaSalle Street Station featuring live entertainment, an event photographer
and more...

All are included in the ticket price.

Tickets for the Hickory Creek are $219.00. Many first class and dome seats have sold out already.

Meanwhile, Headwaters Junction continues to make progress in Fort Wayne:

Press release: http://fortwaynerailroad.org/2017/04/headwaters-junction-charters-historic-car-for-summer-steam-excursions/

Trips, details, FAQs and tickets here: http://excursions.fortwaynerailroad.org/



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/17 06:40 by nathansixchime.

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While we're on the topic of LaSalle Street...

The June 1957 fan-trip behind NKP 764, parked near where the 765 will bring her trips in this year.

A gritty shot of the NYC Hudsons at LaSalle Street from the amazing John W. Barriger III National Railroad Library: http://www.umsl.edu/mercantile/barriger/index.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/17 05:17 by nathansixchime.

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That is a beautiful car. I've had it on 58.

Mary McPherson
Dongola, IL
Diverging Clear Productions

There is more to this 2017 event: Ray and Scott Clauss of Star-Trak are working with the FWRHS closely on this,just so the HICKORY CREEK can return to LaSalle Street Station for the first time since the Twentieth Century Limited was discontinued in December 1967. We have asked them to bring along their piece of the original red carpet used at the two end points of the Century. Talk about a photo op!

This event just gets cooler and cooler.

Does anyone involved know if Metra has been approached to run a Chicago-Joliet extra early enough to connect with the excursion? That would ease logistics for those of us attending from out of state.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/28/17 09:07 by njfrn.

Kelly, you've really done it this time! It's taken alot of work and we still have some small details to work out, but this is gonna be really cool! It's come a long way since that night in the shop kicking around ideas for the next run on Metra. When you get two groups of dedicated people together with a common goal, there's no telling what might happen.

Tim Pitzen
Roadway Engineer
Metra

A LaSalle Street Station history trifecta!

Now, all three heritage railroads which used LaSalle Street Station are represented in this trip:

Nickel Plate - 765 locomotive

New York Central - Hickory Creek observation car

Rock Island - Excursion route



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/29/17 05:14 by RuleG.

Just pulled the trigger and bought a ticket. Open vestibules. Awesome!

njfrn Wrote:
"Does anyone involved know if Metra has been approached to run a Chicago-Joliet extra early enough to connect with the excursion? That would ease logistics for those of us attending from out of state."

Metra will run a normal schedule. No extra trains will operate for this event.

R.R. Conway

Things keep getting better and better!

R.R. Conway

It's almost like we have some guardian angels at Metra...