One of a decreasing number of operating steam locomotives in the US, this is Nickle Plate 765, built in 1944 in Lima, Ohio, about 50 miles or so south of where this picture was taken.
It is owned and operated by the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society and on this trip was heading on 'home' rails to the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad (near Cleveland, OH) for this years 'Steam in the Valley' series of excursions. I say 'home' rails because even though it is now Norfolk Southern RR, before Norfolk and Western acquired the Wabash, the Nickel Plate (officially the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad) and Virginian RR's and then merged with the Southern to form Norfolk Southern, these rails were NKPRR (Nickel Plate) tracks. The overpass bridge that carries the tracks over US Route 23 in Fostoris, OH still carries the Nickel Plate Road name.
Of interest here is that Norfolk Southern allowed this movement over their very busy line through Fostoria (the town as a whole now sees over 100 trains a day between NS and CSX) without a 'guard' engine. There is no diesel protection running behind the coal tender, something that you normally see on steam operations on other lines. I also note that they are taking another gondola of coal along, something that was not needed when steam was king and coaling towers were everywhere.
I knew this smoke breathing dragon was scheduled to pass through town on Thursday (the day I was leaving my Sister's) but did not know a time frame, and did not have the luxury of hanging out in the Iron Triangle waiting with camera in hand. I had my car all packed and was about to hug my Sister good-by when the sound of the dragon's call (sounds for all the world like a steam whistle) sounded in the distance. I looked at Baby Sis and said 'That is NOT a diesel..' She said 'grab your camera and let's go.' I feared that the tower would clear the steam special right through which would not have allowed us enough time to get there, but, fortunately in this case, NS does not control the diamonds (CSX inherited that right from predecessor C&O which inherited it from predecessor Hocking Valley, a railroad my Uncle worked for way back when, maybe in the late 1920's - he died at age 102 about 10 years ago now) so the steaming beast had to wait for several CSX movements to clear up giving us time to get into position. I was most grateful.
All in all, it was a very good week. ;-)
(For trivia buffs, The Union Pacific RR is the only US carrier that never retired it's complete steam roster. They have kept locomotive 844 - a 4-8-4 type - active... They also now have Challenger 3985 4-6-6-4 active, and have recently brought 4-8-8-4 Big Boy 4014 from being stuffed and mounted in California to it's shops in Cheyenne, Wyoming where it will undergo restoration to operating condition. That should be interesting...)