Update: HHR is the reporting mark for Hoosier Heritage Port Authority.
I was driving westbound on Indiana State Road 28 during the evening of August 30, 2014, when I noticed a NKP engine setting next to a crossing in Tipton, IN. Fortunately, traffic was light, and I was able to quickly make a left-hand turn into a parking lot next to the tracks. It had started to move so I grabed this picture.
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Realizing I was on the dark side, I quickly ran around to the other side grabbing this photo as I went since I was "loosing" the train. When I pulled into the parking spot, I could see through the open door in the first car that it was some sort of "support" car. Maybe it contained a Head End Power generator and/or tools.
There was not much train and sun left by the time I got to the other side. There was time to zoom from wide-angle to a normal lens.
I digitally zoomed-in on the "farewell" shot. I assumed I had seen a railroad museum train. An Indiana map indicated that the track segment from Tipton south was HHR. But I was not able to find any info on that. Yesterday when I was doing a Google search for, if I remember correctly, "Indiana railroad map" for another project, I found a link to the
Indiana Transportation Museum. I learned that
ITMZ 426 is a 1953 EMD GP-7L. Not only does it have the sheet metal of the original Nickel Plate locomotive, it evidently still has the original 16-cylinder EMD 567BC prime mover. Since this engine did not smoke when it started pushing the train, the particulate quality of the exhaust must be a matter of maintenance rather than age.
This was the Pizza Train operated by the Indiana Transportation Museum, which was based in Noblesville, Indiana. The train was departing southbound, with another locomotive in the lead on the south end, so the 426 was not providing power at the time of your photos.
ReplyDeleteCorrection: it was the ITM's "Blue Arrow" train, which originated in Noblesville and stopped in Atlanta on the way to and from Tipton. There was a 1-hour 45-minute layover in Tipton during which the passengers ate at the restaurant of their choosing.
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