#nickelplate

Happenstance and Heritage

While on the road today, I saw a diminutive train along an unknown line and made chase.

I got ahead of it and pulled into what turned out to Plymouth, Indiana. There I saw another line running more or less perpendicular, supposed a crossing to exist, and made for that. I was able to set up so that I could showcase the ancient Pennsy home signal, still doing its job after what I would suppose to be greater than a century.

I'm standing on what was once the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railway, which was part of the Pennsy of course (and now operated as the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern). Our little train is on what was the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, which became part of the New York Central and later the Nickel Plate (and is now operated by the Elkhart & Western).

The little train appeared to be powered by one Paducah geep on each end, with but a few cars in between. After it trundled away, I took an additional shot of the decaying station along the Pennsy, which can be seen lurking in the background of the first few images.

To add to the rail history in this spot, Rail Guide (a fabulous website where one can track down the heritage of any rail line in the US) says the the Panhandle (also part of the Pennsy) crossed here as well, creating a triple crossing. Go to the pull down menu under "maps" and click "early owners".

Unmistakably Alco

Number 332, working for the Indiana Hi-Rail Corporation, is an Alco C420. Discerning the lineage of this locomotive was fun: to begin with, the gray color made me think of the Louisville & Nashville.

Indeed the engine ran for for the L&N as number 1332. [It seems that IHRC simply removed the "1" to create a new number: 332.] But the story goes on: the bell on the nose is a tip-off that this locomotive once ran for the Monon, which was subsumed into the L&N in 1971. The C420 was purchased new for the Hoosier Line in August of 1967 and ran with the number of 515.

Gibson City, Illinois

This is a triple crossing in the center of Gibson City, Illinois. While two of the three roads at this point are of the Norfolk & Western, formerly it was the Wabash, the Nickel Plate, and the Illinois Central all meeting here.

We’re looking up the Illinois Central, the Nickel Plate line is on this side of the tower, and the train is northbound on the former Wabash line between Bement and Chicago. Note that all of the locomotives have high short hoods, a signature feature for the N&W, along with the  Southern Railway.

🔧 Fun Fact: Nickel plating also improves the hardness and lifespan of materials, making it crucial for industries that require precision and performance.

AlloyO Special Metal: commercial pure nickel N02201 1.0mm thickness coil has been tightly processed

 A few days ago, AlloyO delivered N02201 pure nickel 1.0mm coil ordered by a domestic user.

The coil has a width of 1219mm and is produced by the US SMC at Huntington. It is ASTM B162 standard and is annealed and softly delivered.

Since user has subsequent processing steps such as stamping, there is a special specification for the hardness of the material at the previous order.

The bulk order was also based on the success of the previous sample test.