Knowing that Friday at the NRHS 2006 Convention would be a day of seminars, Board of Directors meetings and the NRHS Membership meeting being held inside the Holiday Inn, I set up a visit for Chris Parker and I to go to the Mad River and NKP Museum in Bellevue. We were expected to be there at noon. I researched some other rail activities we could see along the way and some of the local Amish would provide others. Sleeping in this morning and after our now usual continental breakfast, we departed the Knights Inn at 7:53 AM and started north on Interstate 77 to north of Dover. At Strasburg, we took US 250 west to Ohio 93 north to our first stop at Brewster, home of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railroad.
At the four-story Wheeling & Lake Erie Station and railroad offices, I went inside and asked about seeing the shops and was told it was OK but to be quick and stay off the tracks. With directions we drove over to the shops.
An overview of the yard and fueling pads.
Akron Barberton Belt 1203 and W&LE 2699.
The Brewster Shops.
A look across at locomotives waiting for their next assignment. With that completed we left the Wheeling & Lake Erie and headed north on Ohio 93.
With that completed, we left the Wheeling & Lake Erie and headed north on Ohio 93. Just north of town, what should be coming down the road, but an Amish horse and buggy. After a semi truck went flying by them, I snapped a picture and all the Amish then smiled at me and waved. Chris Parker wanted to see more of this type of activity but I told him to be patient and we would sometime later today. We took Ohio 93 north to US 30, the Lincoln Highway, west to Ohio 57 which we went north on to our next stop at the Orrville Depot.
A Pennsylvania Railroad Caboose, tower and depot.
View of the Orrville Station from on top of the tower steps.
View of the west side of the Orrville Station.
Closer view of the west side of the Orrville Depot.
The Orrville Tower. Satisfied with what we got here, we continued north on Ohio 93 to Medina, where we turned west on Ohio 18. We came to a grade crossing and got two surprises. We found the Medina Depot now an antique store and W&LE engines.
W&LE 4016 and 3016 wait for their next assignment.
Views of the Medina Depot. We continued west on Ohio 18 and in Wellington, stopped at Certified Gas and Food for snacks and drinks. This location was right next to the double-tracked CSX mainline to Cleveland.
We crossed the CSX mainline through Wellington. Just west of town we came to our next stop, the Lorain & West Virginia Railroad.
The station sign in front of the Lorain & West Virginia Railroad.
Overview of the station area.
L&WV E-8A 101.
L&WV 2932.
L&WV 2919.
L&WV 2938.
The Station Building. Once we were done, we continued west on Ohio18 to Norwalk where we rejoined US 240 west the rest of the way to Bellevue. We drove through town looking for the museum's blue sign, which we could not find one then turned around and saw one which led us to the museum.
Mad River and NKP Railroad Museum 7/21/2006
We parked and then started our look around the outside exhibits of this unique museum.
Nickel Plate Railroad {NKP} RSD-12 329.
NKP GP-30 900.
Wabash F7A 671.
B&O Caboose C-2424.
Norfolk Western Wrecker 514900
View of some of the equipment.
Cargill Michigan Division 864.
Switcher 2.
Lackawanna RRMX 3545
Norfolk Southern Wreck Train Dinner NS 920494 MW.
PRR 2 Atlas Car Pusher Sandusky Coal Dock.
N&W 402 Safety Instruction Car.
New York Central Snowplow 3X665.
A ground scene.
Amtrak 3226 Sea Island Beach.
Formerly Penn Central 7.
The New York Central Freight House.
TSCX 9110 Baggage Car with a ramp.
The view by Southwest Street.
Great Northern Empire Builder 1384 Lewis Clark Pass Sleeper.
Amtrak 5688.
The rear of the Decker and another car.
A small switcher with 1776-1976 on it so it must have been a bicentennial unit.
I heard a freight horn and caught a train out on the Norfolk Southern mainline. Now it was time to visit the interior of the museum and the grounds. I paid with another coupon from the 2006 Tourist Train book. They gave me a wrist band to get me in across the street and I started my tour of the museum in Room B.
Inside there is a replica of the Sandusky, the first locomotive in Ohio as well as several displays.
Views of the inside of Room B. Once I was finished in Room B, I moved to Room C which has Nickel Plate Road wooden caboose 1047, a Railway Express truck and more displays.
The wooden caboose 1047 and a Railway Express Truck.
More view of the wooden caboose 1047.
More views of Room C. From this room, I walked into the newest area of the museum housing four unique passenger cars/
CB&Q Silver Dome 4714 {Amtrak 9401}, the first dome car built in the United States
Inside of the Silver Dome.
Amtrak 80002 ex Seaboard Airline Diner.
Inside of the Diner.
Nickel Plate Coach 105.
Greg and Deb two visitors enjoy a seat in the Coach 105.
The seat in the other end of the 105.
The American Life Car was built for the Erie Limited.
The Pullman Ladder and Berths made up.
The view from the passenger cars across the street to the other part of the museum.
From the passenger cars I walked back into Room B.
I went through Room A to exit this part of the museum to cross the street.
One enters this part of the museum by going through the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern {NYC} section house. I then went outside to see all that this museum had.
A Plymouth Diesel Switcher built for the US Department of Defense. Later it was owned by Alcoa Aluminum Company before it was donated to the museum.
Milwaukee Road H-12-44-4 740.
NKP GP-30 900.
NKP RSD-12 329.
NKP Dynamometer Car X50041.
Nickel Plate Caboose 700.
Nickel Plate Bay Window Caboose 423.
Milwaukee Road Coach 618.
Inside of the 618.
Pullman Troop Sleeper.
The B&O Alco SA 9096 and NW Steel Caboose 518397.
B&O 9096.
NS 8895 East passed the museum site.
Chris Parker videoing the NS Freight Train taken from inside the Wabash F7A 671.
Lehigh and Hudson River Ore Car.
Fruit Growers Express Wooden Ice Refrigerator Car FGEX 35932.
Metal Reefer URTX 31003.
Tank Car.
Inside of the Wheeling & Lake Erie Depot from Curtice, Ohio.
Another view of the inside of this depot.
Curtice Depot plus track equipment.
Milwaukee Road Ice Bunker URTX 37351.
Porter 0-6-0 Fireless Cooker built in 1943 for the Avon Lake Plant of Cleveland Electric.
NKP Gondola 70130.
Pennsylvania Railroad United States Mail Railway Post Office Car 6570.
Former Troop Sleepers turned in Box Cars holding the TSCX Collection of Ted and Sarah Church of Erie, Pennsylvania.
N&W 401 Railroad Safety and Mechanical Instruction Car.
B&O Switch Engine 0-6-0.
The Curtice Depot.
Another view of the B&O 9096.
The view looking out of the museum.
Looking across Southwest Street towards the Silver Dome under cover. This ended our tour of the Mad River & NKP Museum. After I bought some postcards and thanked the members of this fine museum, I met Chris Parker in the parking lot and we headed over to Bellevue Tower at the Norfolk Southern junction of several lines.
A W&LE train headed north out of Bellevue.
NS 5560 West.
NS 5560. With Chris and I both hungry after that great visit, we stopped at Wendy's for Chris and A&W for me on the way out of town. We had one more stop to make, if we had time, on our way back to New Philadelphia. We took US 250 east, and south of Savannah we spotted a CSX train stopped on their mainline. We zigzagged the crossing to get close enough for a picture then climbed and walked the side of a reservoir to get the picture.
CXS 6772 West stopped dead on the mainline. Back on US 250, we avoided rain showers as we continued our trek back. When we passed through Apple Tree, I spotted an Amish horse and buggy and directed Chris onto a side road to get a picture. He was now a happy Chris but still wanted more. We drove out of Apple Tree and I started seeing "horse droppings" along the road.
We drove over a hill and guess what we saw coming the other way - an Amish horse and buggy. A non-covered buggy means the male driver is single. Over the next few miles we had four more buggies which Chris videotaped as he drove with a big smile on his face. My favorite moment was in Mt. Eaton when we stopped at a red light. First a truck went through on the green light followed very quickly by another Amish horse and buggy. After Mt. Eaton we passed through a rain shower as we turned onto Interstate 77 before we stopped in Dover at the Warthers Carving Museum.
