1985: Nickel Plate 765 Ferry Run, Meadville-Buffalo via Old Erie & PRR Buffalo Line

This is the first in what will be a 3-part, long-form series on 765's two-week, hammer-down residency on Conrail's Southern Tier main line in June of 1985. But before she started running Buffalo-Corning round-trips, she had to make the ferry run (non-revenue) to Buffalo and boy, did they pick an exotic way of getting there. DJMV's coverage of the move starts at the Erie coaling tower at Meadville, PA, and we get a nice mix of both speed and traction as 765 + a water tender and 18 coaches burn through New Cambridge and Union City and dig in to surmount the low foothills of the Allegheny mountains along the NY/PA border. Additional locations include the diamond of the old PRR Philadelphia & Erie line, with great shots of the brick tower at MS-Corry (PA), as well as a lubrication and coaling stop at Salamanca, adjacent to the now-demolished 1851 Erie station there. The latter stop, in particular, is a very cool time-capsule kind of catch of the way things were done in the main line steam excursion era of the 1970s and 1980s. At Olean, the train is split and wyed, both to arrange the consist to put the beautiful Budd obs' on the tail as well as to line her up for the sunset move west over the former PRR Buffalo Line. As far as I know, this was the most recent time that steam ran over either of these lines. Rare mileage indeed! Please subscribe if you haven't already! The next two chapters in this series are up and down the Conrail (nee-Erie Lackawanna) Southern Tier Main and it's a blend of high-speed chasing and pacing, long-gone semaphores, and a seen-to-be-believed epic march of this Lima-built beauty up the indominable Attica Hill. Frame Rate Doubled to 59.94 FPS, Slight Resize to SD PAL 4:3, Sound Restored, Enhanced & Converted to Dolby 5.1 Surround. Restoration and Production Charlie Monte Verde, EDO Trains, ©2026. All Rights Reserved.