Nickel Plate Road

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Nickel Plate Road

System map at time of consolidation
Nickel Plate Road GP9 number 526 switches a way freight at Gibson City, IL, on November 24, 1962.
Overview
Headquarters	Cleveland, Ohio
Reporting mark	NKP
Locale	Buffalo, NY to Chicago and St. Louis, MO - extensive operations in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania
Dates of operation	1881–1964
Successor	Norfolk and Western
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge

The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (reporting mark NKP), abbreviated NYC&St.L, was a railroad that operated in the mid-central United States. Commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road", the railroad served parts of the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. Its primary connections occurred in Buffalo, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Indianapolis, St. Louis, and Toledo.

The Nickel Plate Road was constructed in 1881 along the South Shore of the Great Lakes to connect Buffalo and Chicago, in competition with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. At the end of 1960, NKP operated 2,170 miles (3,490 km) of road on 4,009 miles (6,452 km) of track, not including the 25 miles (40 km) of Lorain & West Virginia. That year it reported 9.758 billion net ton-miles of revenue freight and 41 million passenger-miles.

In 1964, the Nickel Plate Road and several other midwestern carriers were merged into the larger Norfolk and Western Railway (N&W). The goal of the N&W expansion was to form a more competitive and successful system serving 14 states and the Canadian province of Ontario on more than 7,000 miles (11,000 km) of railroad. In 1982, the profitable N&W was itself combined with the Southern Railway, another profitable carrier, to form Norfolk Southern Corporation (NS).