The 765 — the locomotive that still works here

1944–TODAY · NICKEL PLATE BERKSHIRE No. 765

The engine: One Fort Wayne train is famous far beyond the freight districts: Nickel Plate Road No. 765, an S-2 Berkshire steam locomotive built by the Lima Locomotive Works in September 1944 for the Nickel Plate's fast freights. After the war she was assigned to Fort Wayne, and in June 1958 she made her last run for the railroad — steaming to the aid of a stranded passenger train — the last Nickel Plate Berkshire under steam. Her Fort Wayne fame, though, begins with a case of mistaken identity that the record states plainly. When the city sought a locomotive for display in Lawton Park, it asked for No. 767 — the engine that had hauled the first train over the Nickel Plate elevation in October 1955. The 767 proved to be in poor mechanical condition; in 1963 the numbers were switched, and it was the sound 765 that went into the park wearing 767's number, while the true 767 went to scrap. The Museums section owns the Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society as an institution; the locomotive as a train belongs here.

The second life: The historical society, founded in 1972 to put a Fort Wayne steam locomotive back under power, leased the engine from the city, pulled it from Lawton Park in September 1974, and rebuilt it with volunteers at New Haven from 1975 to 1979. On 1 September 1979 the 765 — her own number restored — moved under her own steam for the first time in twenty-one years. She has worked ever since: mainline excursions for Norfolk Southern's steam program from 1982, a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1996, a return under Norfolk Southern's 21st Century Steam program in 2012, and seasonal excursion service — in recent years including the Indiana Rail Experience trains run from Pleasant Lake — that makes her one of the largest operating steam locomotives in America and the only train in this section that a traveller can still buy a ticket for. She is kept, as she has been since 1974, at the society's shops in New Haven, just east of the city line — Fort Wayne's own locomotive, with her home stated plainly.

Sources: Nickel Plate Road 765 history (Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society record) — built at Lima in 1944, Fort Wayne assignment, the last run of June 1958, the 1963 number switch with the 767 and the park display, the first moves under power 1 September 1979, Norfolk Southern steam-program excursions from 1982; Museums section of this history — the society's founding in 1972, the 1974 removal from Lawton Park, the 1975–79 restoration, the National Register listing of 12 September 1996 and the 21st Century Steam program of 2012; Nickel Plate elevation record — the 767 as the first engine over the elevation, October 1955.