For as long as he can remember, Adam Matthews has been an aficionado of the former New York, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad — aka the Nickel Plate Road. The admiration for the Midwest’s fast-freight hauler has gotten the Ohio-based 33-year-old involved in three preservation organizations simultaneously:
- Social Media Administrator, Special Marketing Consultant and member of the Technology, Strategic Planning, and Convention committees for the Nickel Plate Road Historical & Technical Society (NKPHTS) out of Ansonia, Ohio
- Webmaster, Social Media Admin, publicity, and general volunteer for the Mad River & NKP Railroad Museum in Bellevue, Ohio
- Photographer and general volunteer for Indiana’s Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society (FWRHS)
How did you get involved in rail preservation?
Adam Matthews: I grew up and still live in Amherst, Ohio, which is on the New York Central mainline but also close to the Nickel Plate Road. So I sort of grew up between the two railroads.
My first serious rail preservation role was with the NKPHTS. Around 2015, I became the assistant to John Fryar, the society’s Internet Services Director. He reached out to me because he had seen all I’ve done in my previous life in the O gauge world. I’ve worked on a couple of projects for MTH and Weaver models as they were all custom runs in the Nickel Plate, which sold out. Frier saw that and asked, “Do you want to help me out with the social media and newsletter?” And I said, “Sure.”
It just grew from there: Ever-increasing responsibilities and getting involved with all the other groups. And that’s been my main job as the person in the room who understands how modern digital media works. I have been inside of countless board meetings in the past decade, and I am usually the youngest person in the room until quite recently when there’s more of the younger generation here to help.
As a young preservationist, what have you found to be the most challenging aspects in the industry?
Adam Matthews: The one big challenge that I’ve faced within groups that can hold a lot of things back was institutional complacency. I hear the words, “But we’ve always done it that way.” I asked, “Why?” And nobody remembers why it’s always been done that way.
That’s a cause for me to say, “Okay, we’re going to throw that in the trash right now because, clearly, it’s not working anymore.” I know people are going to cry and whine about it, but it’s either that or you’re going to go kaput. You have to get serious, adapt, change, and embrace the new stuff.
We also live in uncertain times as the railroads can change their mind as to whether they want us to be there running historic equipment. That’s been handled before if you look at the original Norfolk Southern and 21st Century steam programs. But then you’ve got Union Pacific and CPKC barnstorming across the nation with the Big Boy and Hudson. So, you just never know what’s going to happen. But you got to appreciate what we have while we’ve got it.
What’s been the most rewarding for you so far?
Adam Matthews: That would be my small involvement with the Mohawk [4-8-2 No. 3001] and the American Locomotive Project.
Two years ago, a friend of mine, who is an engineer for NS, called me up. He’s kind of the guy who loves to do estate sales and collect old toy trains and memorabilia. He said, “Hey, there’s a guy over in Lorain, Ohio, and said that he had locomotive blueprints.”
We ended up in the basement of this man who was selling the drawings. We’re going through them and they’re marked New York Central. There was a drawing for every single NYC steam locomotive running in the 1940s and 50s, plus all the accessories. I took a picture of the whole table, sent it off to Fort Wayne Railroad, and all they wanted was the Mohawk drawings.
So I bought all the Mohawk drawings and took them home. All those images that you saw online were scanned and photographed in my sun room across two folding tables. The drawings are literally 12’ x 4’. They’re gigantic! I sent the scans to FWRHS, and they didn’t see the light of day until October 2024 when they started appearing on the internet and went viral.
That was a cool thing to be a part of because I’m a Nickel Plate guy, but I like to think that a lot of us NKP fans are really New York Central fans. But we don’t have any Hudsons, Mohawks, or Niagaras to play with. We just have the Berkshire. Now we have a Mohawk and everything’s going to be different.
Where do you see rail preservation as it is today and what do you hope it’ll become for the future?
Adam Matthews: Like I said, we live in uncertain times, but there’s a whole heck of a lot going on right now that’s amazing.
We’ve got my buddy Nick Martin — who was on Young Guns two years ago and is part of the American Steam Railroad Preservation Association restoring Reading No. 2100 — he just released a video with the Pennsylvania Railroad T1 Trust about the frame. We’re building a 4-4-4-4 T1 in 2025? That’s incredible! Then you’ve got Nashville Steam with that restoration going on, Sugar Express as they’re putting the Atlantic Coast Line Pacific-type No. 1504 back together to go along with No. 148, then No. 614 is going to run again and who would have dreamt that was happening?
We’re kind of in a renaissance again of all this stuff. Things are happening, but you have to appreciate it while it’s still around.
What advice would you give for any young person looking to get involved in the industry?
Adam Matthews: Learn all that you can, ask all the questions, and make friends.
I’ve been involved with the Indiana Railroad Camp for the Fort Wayne Railroad’s Indiana Rail Experience, where we partnered with the local Boy Scout troops, and those have been successful. We’ve turned some of them into volunteers and members, and they’ve been working on our trains. I tell them, “Familiarize yourself with not only what’s happening here with us, but everywhere else too.”
I work between all three groups but I’m not the only one that has all this inter-organizational volunteer status. Many of the most well-known projects, Nashville Steam, Sugar Express, ASR, Indiana Rail Experience, etc., enjoy a dedicated group of traveling volunteers. Being insular is a hindrance, both for yourself and organizations. You have to learn to embrace ideas and methods from the outside.
And most importantly, read. Read books, magazines, and anything else you can on railroading. You’ll gain insight into all sorts of things that way, and learn for prosperity.
