Steam & Excursion > "Dream for Nickel Plate Road 765's home starts to become reality"

 Full story from Trains Magazine here

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Headwaters Junction, Inc., the non-profit group working to create a railroad-themed park that will eventually become the home for Nickel Plate Road 2-8-4 No. 765, has agreed to purchase a mile of former New York Central right-of-way on the Fort Wayne, Ind. waterfront.

...

NS last used the route in 2006 and the tracks have since been removed...NS needs to formally abandon the right-of-way before the sale can be completed, which he expects will take up to a year to complete. NS has agreed to sell the right-of-way for $560,000. Once Headwaters Junction owns the right-of-way it will rebuild the track to connect the proposed park site with the national rail network, enabling the non-profit to move equipment in and out of the site and run excursions. Steel Dynamics, a Fort Wayne-based steel producer, has agreed to donate the rail for the project.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/19 06:12 by nathansixchime.

---

Love it when a plan comes together - that was an important puzzle piece!  Congratulations!

/Mitch

Great news!  

Yes good news indeed. 

It seems like they will inherit a good building to start off with.  There was a bike shop and a kayak rental place in the building when I saw the station the first time in July of 2016.  I was happy to see the great shape the place was in and that it had found a very useful purpose.    

Who owned the building?

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON
 

---

Headwaters Junction is buying the RR right of way that goes past the station, not the station itself, which I believe is still owned by the Hall family, famous for their local chain of restaurants.  Whether the former Fort Wayne & Jackson (NYC) station eventually becomes tied into Headwaters Junction itself , which is proposed to sit about a quarter mile or so past the station remains to be seen.  The station is right at the epicenter of the new riverfront development, so there may be big future plans for it.

The owners of the Cass Street Station are very supportive of our project and have even suggested we sell tickets out of their space. We've even talked about giving them a boxcar or reefer to store some of their inventory in, as right now they use storage containers on an old Nickel Plate dining car frame (the car itself was torched in the 1970s.)

While we haven't formally announced it yet, we have acquired the Craigville depot for use on the grounds of the site itself. Built in 1879, moved and used for a family-owned narrow gauge operation near the 765's home in New Haven, Indiana, and plans call for it to be moved and restored again. The station was originally located on the Clover Leaf District of the Nickel Plate. Black and white image is courtesy Craig Berndt. Recent photo is last spring.

---

---

Thanks for the update, I have put a return trip to Fort Wayne on my "to do" list.

Gerry Gaugl
Ottawa ON

This is the beginning of a dream come true for all of your volunteers.  Having seen what is possible to achieve here in Oregon with the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, I wish all of you the best and hope you can achieve that dream as the volunteers in Oregon did.