| By: | Gary Everhart |
| Dates: | 10/29/2011 - 10/29/2011 |
| Album Info: | At the Fort Wayne RR Historical Society open house, there were two outstanding examples of Nickel Plate cabooses there. According to the information posters present, NKP 141 was originally built as a 4 wheel caboose for the Lake Erie & Western RR in 1901. It was later lengthened and 2 additional wheels per axle were added. Eventually absorbed by the Nickel Plate Road in 1922 it served on the fast freight trains until being donated to the society by John Keller in 1975. It is the only Lake Erie & Western caboose now in existence and was rebuilt by volunteers over a period of 5 years. On the other hand, NKP 451 was one of the last built in 1962 for the Nickel Plate Road. When NKP and Wabash merged into the N&W in 1964, it became N&W #557551. Jim Canter donated it in 2006 to the society and it has been returned to the way it looked while serving in the last 2 years of the "High Speed Freight Service." |
