An overview of the Nickel Plate Railroad

While predecessor railroads to the NKP were formed in the late 1860s, the railroad achieved its familiar form in 1922 when it acquired the Lake Erie and Western and the Clover Leaf .

The NKP was primarily a bridge railroad, carrying mostly high priority freight from its western terminals in Chicago, Peoria, and St. Louis Eastward to its terminal in Buffalo NY. Along the way, the NKP interchanged quite heavily with other railroads. In particular, lots of traffic was interchanged with railroads that were also owned by the Van Swearingen brothers: C&O, Erie, and x.

The NKP was famous for its fleet of Berkshire locomotives. The big, superpower 2-8-4s were ideally suited to hauling long manifest freights across the rolling terrain of Indiana and Ohio. Forever endearing themselves to railfans, the NKP kept steam running strong until 1958.

The NKP was also famous for its family esprit de corps as it engaged in bettering its bigger rivals at taking fast freight to Eastern markets more rapidly.