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Celebrate the Christmas season with the Mad River & Nickel Plate Railroad Museum at the annual Holiday Train in Bellevue, Ohio!

This event is perfect for young children, families and railfans. For just $7 per rider (convenience fee may apply), you can take a short ride on one of our three restored railroad cabooses. After your ride enjoy hot cocoa and cookies in our beautifully restored Nickel Plate Road dining car before heading over to our Museum’s Monument Station for a visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. 

THE HOLIDAY TRAIN EXPERIENCE 

The train boards at our Coach Yard which was once the site of Bellevue’s New York Central Railroad passenger station. Volunteers will check you in and direct you to your caboose. These cabooses are heated, comfortable, and fully operational. If you have a large group with you we will do our best to accommodate everyone in the same caboose. Once aboard you will get to experience the same ride as railroaders of a bygone era when cabooses marked the end of every freight train across America.

The train ride lasts about 10 minutes. Please remain seated while the train is in motion. Once the ride is complete car hosts will direct you to the Nickel Plate Road Diner Car No. 127 for hot cocoa and cookies. Once you have enjoyed your treats, you can make your way over to the Museum’s Monument Station and Trackside Gifts for a visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus. 

Trackside Gifts is a great place to shop for train-related gifts. We have plenty of railroad related items to choose from including books, DVDs, apparel, toys, memorabilia, and collectables

IMPORTANT INFORMATION, PLEASE READ

ALL TICKETS ARE PRE-SOLD, NO TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE DURING THE EVENT

Trains depart on a set schedule. Passengers can choose their preferred time when purchasing tickets. This eliminates wait times at the boarding site and provides a more enjoyable experience for passengers. Ticket holders are expected to be at the boarding site at least 15 minutes before departure time. If you miss your scheduled time, we will attempt to provide space on the train for your party at a later departure time, but space is not guaranteed. Tickets are only valid for the day purchased. Tickets will not be accepted on the wrong day. MR&NKP will not validate tickets sold by a third party, only tickets sold by MR&NKP via the TicketLeap Service are authentic. All riders regardless of age (even infants) must have a ticket to ride. Once you arrive at the boarding site, a ticket agent will be there to assist you. Please provide the name the tickets were purchased under and the number of persons in your party. In the event of technical difficulties, it’s strongly recommended ticket holders be prepared to show proof of purchase, this could be a printed ticket, emailed ticket receipt, screenshot on a mobile device, etc.

Refunds will be considered up until 15 days before the event, after that ALL SALES ARE FINAL. If you’d like to request a refund, please email madrivernkp@gmail.com. Please do not call the Museum.

IF YOU SHOULD FIND YOURSELF BLOCKED BY A TRAIN AT THE SOUTHWEST STREET RAILROAD CROSSING PLEASE USE THE VETERAN’S MEMORIAL OVERPASS, OH-269. DON’T WORRY, WE KNOW TRAINS CAN SIT STILL FOR A LONG TIME BUT THEY WILL EVENTUALLY MOVE.

The Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. The Museum operates with an all-volunteer staff and is funded by donations, admissions, and fundraising events such as the Holiday Train. All proceeds from this event go directly to support the Museum. Due to the historical nature of the equipment used for this event, cabooses and dining car are NOT HANDICAP ACCESSIBLE. 

France Stone Company No. 353

Our train is powered by locomotive No. 353, a GE 45-ton diesel-electric built in 1942 for the US Navy. The engine also served with the Air Force before eventually being sold the locally based France Stone Company. The engine has a long history with the Museum as it helped cut the ribbon for the Museum’s opening day in 1976. It would also appear at annual events such as the Cherry Festival but was never officially a part of the Museum’s collection until 2004. The No. 353 is our workhorse capable of moving anything and everything around our Coach Yard. It is currently painted in a hybrid US Air Force/Spirit of ’76 scheme and is named for our founder Bill Fuerhing.

Nickel Plate Road No. 783

The 783 is a classically designed cupola caboose based on a Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway design built at the Ironville Shops near Toledo, Ohio in 1954. The caboose ran all over the Nickel Plate Road up and into the Norfolk & Western era. It was eventually acquired by the Little Miami Railroad before being donated to the museum in 2015. The 783 is our most well traveled caboose since it served as our crew support car during the move of steam locomotive Nickel Plate Road No. 757 between Strasburg, PA and Bellevue in 2019.  The caboose proudly sports the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad’s Nickel Plate High Speed Service paint scheme. 

New York Central No. 20480

Built in 1952 by the St. Louis Car Company, the No. 20480 is a bay window style caboose which was popular in the post-war era of railroading. It served the New York Central, Penn Central and Contrail in the Ashtabula, Ohio area on coal and iron ore trains for decades. It was saved for preservation by a group of railroaders and historians in Minerva, Ohio where it sat in a park for 25 years. With ticket sales increasing the Museum was in need of another caboose and at the same time the Village of Minerva wished to give the caboose a better home. So in 2023 the caboose was trucked to Bellevue where it was restored in record time, albeit in a brown primer paint which was close enough to the older NYC brown paint scheme, for the 2023 Holiday Trains. It now sports the famous Century Green “Cigar Band Emblem” paint scheme of the late 1950’s and 60’s era of the New York Central. 

Norfolk & Western No. 557981

Another bay window caboose built by the St. Louis Car Company in 1952, the No. 557981 was originally Illinois Terminal No. 981. The IT was originally an all electric interurban railroad before it transitioned to a mostly diesel powered freight railroad in the Chicago area. In 1981 the entire line was absorbed by the Norfolk & Western Railway which is now Norfolk Southern. The caboose came to the museum in 2010 and was our first and only caboose for our inaugural Holiday Train in 2015. In 2024 the caboose was dedicated to the memory of MR&NKP Founding Member Dennis J. Brandal. 

Nickel Plate Road Diner No. 127

A diner-lounge built in 1927 by the famed Pullman Company, the No. 127 is one of the few heavyweight-type passenger cars that has been preserved from the Nickel Plate Road. The car once traveled across the entire system serving up meals between Buffalo, Cleveland, Chicago and St. Louis on named trains such as the Nickel Plate Limited and the Westerner. After WWII many of the Nickel Plate’s heavyweight cars were modernized and lost their clerestory roofs but for some reason 127 was skipped and kept its old fashioned roof, making it the only heavyweight car to be painted in the iconic “Bluebird” paint scheme. The car ended up in Maintenance of Way service serving track workers before coming to the museum in 1997. After an extensive restoration inside and out the car was returned to its blue and aluminum paint in 2023. 

Nickel Plate Road No. 757

While static we couldn’t not say anything about our resident steam locomotive! No. 757 was built in 1944 by the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio for the New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad. No. 757 was one of 80 superpowered 2-8-4 Berkshires-type steam locomotives rostered by the Nickel Plate Road. With 4,500 HP at its disposal it could haul both freight and passenger trains at speeds up to 80 MPH. The Berkshire’s operational efficiency gave rise to the Nickel Plate High Speed Service motto. While neighboring railroads modernized with diesels the Nickel Plate Road ordered more Berkshires as they were found to be more reliable and affordable. 

Retired in 1957, No. 757 was slated for display in Bellevue but negotiations broke down and the engine ended up being sent to the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in 1962. The successful Bring Back 757 campaign of 2019 resulted in No. 757 returning to Bellevue where it always needed to be. Since then the locomotive has been undergoing an in-depth cosmetic restoration to preserve the locomotive for future generations to enjoy. 

A full operational restoration would cost at least five million dollars and would require infrastructure that the Museum simply does not posses. Sister locomotive Nickel Plate Road 765 is operational on the Indiana Rail Experience as is cousin Pere Marquette No. 1225 at the Steam Railroading Institute. Fun fact – the computer animated locomotive in the Polar Express film is based on No. 1225 making the No. 757 a perfect twin of the iconic Polar Express!

The Coach Yard

Our trackage is one of the few remaining operational portions of what was once the New York Central’s Norwalk Branch. Once stretching from Elyria, Ohio to Millbury, Ohio, this old branch line is better known today as the North Coast Inland Trail. Today the old Coach Yard serves as the railroad operations hub of the Museum. Home to our movable equipment and our Mary Cooper Restoration Building. The large garden you pass on your ride sits in what was once the site of the former passenger station. 

Monument Station

Our main museum building is called Monument Station as it was once home to the stone engraver Bellevue Monument Works. It houses Trackside Gifts and some of our oldest historic trains including a 100+ year old replica of the Sandusky the locomotive that opened the Mad River & Lake Erie Railroad in 1837. 

Public restrooms are located inside this building.

Main Museum Rail Yard

Since everything is outdoors our Main Museum Rail Yard is closed during the winter months. Please make sure to come back during our open season between May and September to enjoy the entire Mad River & Nickel Plate Railroad Museum’s historic collection of locomotives, passenger cars, freight cars, cabooses, railroad buildings and countless artifacts. 

The site itself was once the home of industrialist Henry Flager who went on to create the Florida East Coast Railway and through it developed modern day Florida. The former Key West Extension of the railroad is better known today as the Overseas Highway.