While on a trip north of Columbus I was lucky enough to visit the Mad River and Nickel Plate Museum in Bellevue, Ohio. The museum was constructed in 1976 as Bellevue’s bicentennial project. It has continued to grow and today occupies multiple buildings. It is one of the premiere railroad museums in the area.
The name of the museum references two key railroad’s in Bellevue’s history. The Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad was the first railroad chartered in Ohio. It was built from 1837-1849 with strap iron rails eventually running from Sandusky to Springfield. Once there the Mad River connected with the Little Miami Railroad, forming the first rail link from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.
The museum’s ticket and gift shop area is located in the former home of the Bellevue Monument Company. We were given a guided tour brochure which features a few sentences on the majority of rolling stock on the property. The main building opens with a wooden scale model of the Sandusky built for the World’s Fair. The Sandusky was the Mad River & Lake Erie’s first locomotive and one of the first locomotives to operate West of the Alleghenies. You can see an original photo of engine on the museum’s website.
Also inside “Monument Station” are two very well preserved wooden cabooses. Like many of the other cars on display it is possible to climb up the side and tour the interior of one the cabooses.
Outside the main building is a recently constructed Annex used for protecting the museum’s streamliner passenger coaches. Right now a diner, a sleeper, a coach, and a done car are currently on display. These cars are currently the focus of much of the museum’s restoration efforts, the CB&Q Silver Done Car #4714 being of particular interest. This was the first dome car constructed, rebuild from an old coach in 1945.
Once through touring the streamlines we headed across the street of the Museum’s original site. This property was at one time the residence of Henry Flager of Florida East Coast fame.
When touring this area, you’ll notice a lot of Nickel Plate and Norfolk & Western equipment. Bellevue was a major terminal on the Nickel Plate until the N&W acquired the company in 1964. Today Bellevue is still a major terminal with N&W successor Norfolk Southern and the museum continues to share a close relationship with the railroad. Many of the pieces were donated by the railroad in honor or memory of specific employees.
Some highlights of the collection include:
- A Wabash F7A diesel built in 1951 and a Fairbanks-Morse built H-12-44-4 switch engine. The switch engine was built in 1952 for the Milwaukee Road.
- The private collection of Ted and Sarah Church of Erie, Pennsylvania. This collection of documents and other memorbellia are displayed in 3 former troop sleepers along the edge of the property.
- PRR Post Office Car #6570 built in 1910 and used for mail sorting en route.
- NKP #900 and #329, a GP30 and RSD-12. Both were donated by Norfolk Southern in 1992 and 1981.
The above list is just a sampling of the equipment on display. Nearly all of the cars and locomotives in the main museum were cosmetically restored and painted relatively recently. Tomorrow I’ll finish up this virtual tour with some highlights from the musuem’s Coach Yard and maybe some more photos from the main property. For more photos of the museum check out the Ohio Valley Railroads Facebook page.
