NKP 779 in Lima, Ohio

tomgears · **Posted:** Sat Aug 21, 2010 9:29 am

A recent visit to the google archives turned up this story about the 779 being placed in the park. It reveals that the donation was part of a deal that allowed the railroad to get out of a contract with the city to maintain the shops and roundhouse within the city. it also explains her builders place were stolen and new ones were being made.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=lS ... tive&hl=en

big-bad-2666 · **Posted:** Sat Aug 21, 2010 8:06 pm

It great that she has been under shelter for her entire retirement and display!

dinwitty · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm **Posts:** 2226

If you were to restore it to steam the engine has already had runtime on it, 765 was in very good shape when donated to Ft Wayne as it had been recently outshopped before retirement and donation. Not so for 779.

Richard Glueck · **Posted:** Sun Aug 22, 2010 11:08 am

Din, more about the 779's service life and/or end of service, please?

Gary P Bensman · **Posted:** Sun Aug 22, 2010 2:18 pm

The 765 was not recently shopped before her retirement. When we rebuilt the 765 in 1979 and began running, we felt she had about 40,000 miles service on since the last major shopping. Later records were found that showed that shopping in Conneaut in August,1957. We have copies of every monthly filed during her entire service life. She ran in regular service until June, 1958 - and then was stored most of the time in the East Wayne enginehouse until donation to the city of Fort Wayne in the fall of 1963. She was used to steam heat a special train that was layed up over night in Fort Wayne sometime in 1960 if memory serves making her the last Berk to steam on the Nickel Plate Road.
The 779 maybe received one major shopping in her 9 years of service - and was retired with many miles on her since that one shopping.

dinwitty · **Joined:** Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:18 pm **Posts:** 2226

I don't have direct records, I call from memory from what I learned.

The donation of 765 to Fort Wayne was a key issue because it was in better shape than 767, which had been in an accident, and had been more recently outshopped than 767, so the number change, and 767 was scrapped.

Regardless if you every want to try to restore 779 you will go over every inch and fix it all, how much work that has to be done is relevant to the wear and tear and sitting for many years.

j32885 · **Posted:** Wed Sep 22, 2010 3:09 pm

Here's my Nickel Plate Road 779 video:

Nickel Plate Road 779 (Park Tour), 03-23-2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQqAKW7ZqHw

Enjoy! ^_^