Nickel Plate Road 190

Nickel Plate Road #190
No. 190 at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center in 2012
Type and origin Power type Diesel-electric Builder American Locomotive Company Model Alco PA-1 Build date March 1948 Rebuilder Morrison-Knudsen Co. Rebuild date 1975
Specifications Configuration: ​  • AAR A1A-A1A Gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) Trucks General Steel Castings Prime mover Originally: ALCO 244 Rebuilt: ALCO 251 Engine type Four stroke diesel Cylinders 12
Performance figures Power output 2,000 hp (1.49 MW)
Career Operators Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, Delaware and Hudson Railway, Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, Ferrocarril del Pacífico Numbers ATSF 62L, D&H 18 Nicknames George W. Hockaday Current owner Doyle McCormack Disposition Under restoration; located at the Oregon Rail Heritage Center, in Portland, Oregon

Nickel Plate Road #190 was built in 1948 as an ALCO PA-1. It was rebuilt in 1975 and classed as a Morrison-Knudsen PA4 diesel locomotive. It ran for 19 years as Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway 62L, and was sold to the Delaware and Hudson Railway (D&H) in December 1967 along with three other retired PA-1s.

As of 2012, it was one of only two ALCO PA locomotives remaining in the United States.^[1]

History

Delaware & Hudson ALCO PA 18 in 1975 with an Amtrak EMD F-unit. The PA still had the D&H paint scheme, albeit faded, when brought back to the U.S.

The D&H renumbered it 18 and sent it to Morrison-Knudsen for rebuilding in 1975.

In 1978, this locomotive was sold to the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México, along with the other three surviving PAs. It and the former D&H 16 were both out of service by 1981, and spent 19 years stored in Empalme, Sonora, Mexico. The Smithsonian Institution and rail preservationist Doyle McCormack obtained the damaged and gutted unit and brought it back the United States in 2000, along with the former ATSF 59L/D&H 16, which was donated in 2011 to the Museum of the American Railroad in Frisco, Texas. The other two units are preserved at a museum in Puebla, Mexico. Restoration began in 2002. McCormack has chosen to restore the locomotive as a Nickel Plate Road PA-1, the first unit he ever rode in.

In 2012, the near-fully restored NKP 190 was moved to the new Oregon Rail Heritage Center, in Portland, Oregon. Most of the needed replacement components have since been installed, including an ALCO 251 prime mover, which was successfully started for the first time in 2013. McCormack is working to make NKP 190 fully operational in 2018.

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