Nickel Plate Roads. While the 2024 RailFest weekend at Steamtown featured a special Nickel Plate Road reunion, so did 2015. On September 5, 2015, long term Steamtown resident Nickel Plate Road (New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad) 759 (S-2 Berkshire, 2-8-4, Lima, 1944) was sitting jealously watching visiting Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society's NKP 765 as it was backed out of the roundhouse after a trip around the turntable. Over the long weekend, it operated excursion to the Delaware Water Gap from Scranton, Pennsylvania, the most recent mainline steam locomotive to operate at the National Historic Site.
The Van Swearingen Brothers standarized freight power for their railroads with nearly identical 2-8-4 Berkshires. Two of these engines are still in excursion service.
