Community mourns loss of local railroad legend

East Allen Times:

NEW HAVEN - The Fort Wayne Railroad Historical Society reports one of its founding members, Glenn E. Brendel, died unexpectedly at his home in New Haven on Tuesday. He was 71 years old.

As a boy, Brendel grew up in a railroad family, and began to love the industry early on. Brendel visited with tower operators and railroad employees of the Baltimore & Ohio and Wabash Railroad in his hometown of Spencerville, Ind., as well as with locomotive engine crews on the Nickel Plate Road in Fort Wayne.

In the early 1970s, Brendel joined other railroad preservationists when they approached the city of Fort Wayne to save and restore the Nickel Plate Road steam locomotive No. 765, installed as a monument in Lawton Park, to commemorate the city's "Elevate the Nickel Plate" project. ...