John Eichman is one of the deans of Nickel Plate O scale modeling and an enormous source of knowledge about NKP equipment. He started with the railroad when he was 16 years old and was employed by NKP from June of 1945 until the N&W takeover October 16, 1964 and remained with N&W until after its merger with the Southern in the mid- 1980s. He retired on July 27, 1990, giving him approximately 45 years of railroad service.

John started in Fort Wayne as a Laborer drying sand in the sand house and sweeping floors. He was soon promoted to Machinist Helper in the Fort Wayne Engine House, where his primary duties were alemiting and greasing engines. John finished high school and worked in storeroom. John took time to finish High School, and then went back to engine house and worked until 1948, at which time the Fort Wayne Engine House was closed and the work moved to Bellevue. John was furloughed, but soon returned, to the Water Gang dealing with water problems across the system, checking testing of water, fixing pipes, repairing. He worked on the Water Gang until June of 1948, at which time he switched to the Car Department as Laborer, from which he was promoted to then to Helper, and then to Carman, a position which he held until June of 1966.

In June of 1966, John became Wreckmaster at Fort Wayne. In August 1972 he was promoted to Supervisor, with a title of Wreck Foreman. In 1980, he was sent to the Engine House as Car, Wreck and Locomotive Foreman, a title which he held until his 1990 retirement. John was a Member of the Brotherhood of Railway Carmen and, after his promotion to Manager, a Member of the Railway and Airline Supervisors. He was what was termed a “Contract supervisor” - that is, his terms and conditions of employment were covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

John handled many wrecks. One was at Tippicanoe, Indiana when 20 cars derailed at Tippicanoe River with six cars down the bank and three covered hoppers (empty) cross wise on the bridge. It took the better part of the night to clear them. The biggest wreck John recalls was at Melrose, Ohio in 1963, which involved 52 cars, seven trailers and five locomotives. The train had hit a tractor-trailer loaded with eggs at the crossing. The wreck was in July and, after a time, the smell was overpowering, but the work had to be completed.

John calculates that he rerailed over 45,000 (that’s right, thousand) cars and 1,500 locomotives in the course of his career. Minor derailments were a daily - sometimes several times daily - occurrence, both in the yards and sidings and on the main. The wreck crew was always busy.

John is a long-time member of the Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society, but has not been involved other than as a member. John was one of four founding Members, and a 10 year activist in The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society, which was (and still is) so famous for restoring NKP 765. But, he had to drop out because of conflicts with his "real" job with the railroad.

John started with model trains when he was three and his Dad bought him an American Flyer set. At 10, he received another set. When John was 16, he and a friend saw a display of O Scale built by Carroll Schmidt in a department store window. The display noted the modeler’s name and a phone number. John and his friend called and visited; John was converted to O scale. This was 60 years ago!

John started modeling NKP at once. He bought a Lionel NYC Hudson and converted to appear as a NKP engine. His first NKP Berkshire was a USH engine which he bought in 1969 and had Stu Keinschmidt rebuild the mechanism. He eventually sold the engine to Lou Ertz. John now has four Overland "Berks", 26 engines total, and 250 freight and passenger cars. In the photograph on the previous page [to be added], one of John’s Overland "Berks", 745, fitted with a snowplow pilot as was that model’s prototype in its last years and tuned as described below, rides the turntable on John’s layout. As one might expect given John’s employment, his layout includes a Wreck crane, a 200 ton Industrial Brownhoist from Westside. The model is correct for two NKP cranes, including one of which John was in charge.

John and his wife Markie were married and moved into their present house in New Haven, Indiana, in 1987. With Markie’s permission, John took over the basement and installed a layout. The layout is in two room, the largest of which is 36' x 22 ½’ on one side with a diagonal cutoff down to 12 ½’ wide. In the other room is John’s 18' long yard and Engine House, as well as John’s workshop.

John lays his own track, using Right-o'-Way code 148, 125, and 100 rail, with tieplates and spikes. He cuts his own ties. All of John’s switches are hand- made and laid. He builds switches and diamonds from stock rail; he cuts, bends and fits switch points. All of John’s track and equipment is Proto48, to which he converted in the early 1980's, making him among the earliest Proto48 modelers. Steve Osopovich (deceased), Carl Jackson, and John, started modeling Proto48 together.

A visit to John’s layout is impressive. All of the equipment runs with amazing smoothness and quietness. Nothing derails. Ever. John described several factors which contribute to the impressive performance of his layout. First is the specially-developed roadbed. John uses two layers of half inch Homasote over plywood. The base layer is cut 4" wide and screwed flat to the table. The second layer of Homasote roadbed is shaped to the track, with ties and rail affixed and beveled edges to delineate the roadbed. John affixes that second layer of Homasote to the first layer using screws, but not into tabletop. No sound is transmitted to the benchwork. The result is an almost eerie quiet when trains run.

John tunes all of his engines. John re-motors his engines (big Pittmans with machined flywheels installed on the shafts) and trues up the drivers. He has found that many frames are not accurately milled. Sometimes frames are way off: there can be 1/1000" to 2/1000" tolerance on one side while the other has 8-10/1000ths. Such misalignment allows the drivers to slide back and forth and allows back and forth motion in the rods, wearing egg shaped holes and generating friction and rough operation. The key to correcting the problem, in John’s experience, is to make the wheels the same distances apart. John uses brass shims to eliminate the misalignments and tests and retests the mechanism, which he strips of motors and gearing. When John trues and tightens the mechanism, the result is smoother and quieter operation.

John is also a bug on lubrication. He finds that the locomotives he disassembles frequently have little if any, lubrication, causing extra friction and wear. John periodically cleans the wheels, lubricates axles, opens up gear boxes and checks and renews grease in the box. He oils every moving part on the engines and attributes long life and smooth operation to his meticulous attention to lubrication (as well as the other steps he takes).

John balances his engines. Many engines are not properly balanced when built, and when a bigger motor is applied, the engines get cab-heavy, putting more weight on some drivers, less on others, and resulting in a loss of pulling power. The idea is to balance the weight in the engine so that all drivers are equally weighted on the rail. If that happens, the locomotive’s pulling power is significantly increased. John reports that most locos are oversprung. The engine cannot roll over high or low spots in the track without bouncing because it cannot equalize. He frequently changes the stock springs to allow equalization, which also increases pulling power.

Like many of the rest of us, John aging and may not get to all of the shows and conventions. But, he assures me that he is just as enthusiastic about Nickel Plate O scale as ever.

Nickel Plate/48 at TrainResource.com

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