38 CLASSIC TRAINS FALL 2019
Nickel Plate Road S-2 2-8-4
WHEN 1944 ARRIVED, the New York, Chicago &
St. Louis — the Nickel Plate Road — was already field-
ing one of the most efficient of all steam fleets, with 40
of its famed S-class 2-8-4 Berkshires on the road.
These engines were perhaps the most famous products
of the Van Sweringen roads’ Advisory Mechanical
Committee (AMC). By 1943, the need for more was
clear — NKP expected a big role in moving men and
materiel to the East Coast for eventual deployment to
England for the invasion of Europe. In 1943, the WPB
allowed Nickel Plate to order 15 more Berks fromLima, in the S-2 class; soon after, another 15 were
tacked on to the order. The 1944 engines were similar
to the NKP’s original 2-8-4s of 1934, but included roll-
er bearings on driving and pilot-truck axles, plus auto-
matic train stop, which helped NKP keep its single-
track main line fluid. NKP would go on to order 10
more 2-8-4s in 1949, bringing its fleet to 80. Two of the
1944 S-2 Berks went on to great fame in the excursion
era, 759 in the late 1960s and early ’70s, now at Steam-
town, and today’s very active 765, the pride of the Fort
Wayne Railroad Historical Society [see page 86].An AMC classic goes to war
Nickel Plate 763, today in the Age
of Steam Roundhouse collection
in Ohio, makes time with a west-
bound freight west of Buffalo in
October 1953. William P. Price