In 1923, the LE&W was merged into the New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad, commonly referred to as the "Nickel Plate Road", and allocated 587 as its new number in 1924.

Since its arrival in Kentucky, NKP 587 has been sold by the Indiana Transportation Museum to a private individual who will remain anonymous until more information is released at a later point.

[5] LE&W was bought by Nickel Plate Road (NKP) in 1922, which spent the next two years consolidating and standardizing the locomotive number system.

[2] On September 9, 1955, NKP 587 was donated to the city of Indianapolis and put on display in Broad Ripple Park.

A group of people, called "Friends of 587", did a feasibility study and determined that the locomotive was a good candidate for restoration.

[11] The ITM also leased a work area at Amtrak's Beech Grove Shops to perform the restoration on the locomotive.

[11] During the process, museum officials discovered that when the welds holding the fire box doors closed (for safety purposes) were removed, there were still ashes in the ashpan.

This indicated that the locomotive was simply pulled from active service and stored until being donated to the city of Indianapolis.

Restoration work consisted of thousands of volunteer hours and nearly $250,000 in donated money and materials.

[18][19] On July 16, 1989, 587 joined 611 and Norfolk and Western 1218 to led a tripleheader from Roanoke to Lynchburg, Virginia for the National Railway Historical Society (NRHS) Convention held in Asheville, North Carolina.

[23] The matter was settled in 1991, with ITM taking control of 587 and returning it to excursion service in the spring of that year.

587 along with a tool car in tow, deadheaded to the Monticello Railway Museum (MRM) to undergo needed repair work.

[28] In late 1998, in conjunction with the NKP Historical and Technical Society’s annual meeting in Noblesville, No.

[29] On November 2, 2002, with the locomotive's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA)-mandated rebuild approaching within a few months, No.

587 made its final runs at the ITM; an all day excursion over the museum's entire thirty-eight-mile line from Tipton to Indianapolis.

This was due to FRA's requirements to have all boiler tubes and flues from steam locomotives to be replaced every fifteen years, or 1,472 days of operation.

The dry pipe was worn too thin to support the steam pressures necessary to operate the locomotive.

It was lifted several inches off its supporting trucks and running gear to allow access to the leaf springs and bushings without the need to drop all the drivers.

The Kentucky Steam Heritage Corporation (KSHCO) made a deal with the museum to relocate 587 before the deadline.

[35] Plans called for the locomotive to be moved to Ravenna, Kentucky and have it stored alongside Chesapeake and Ohio 2716 until the ITM could raise enough funds for restoration, and they wanted to eventually return the locomotive back to Indiana once the restoration is complete.

The winning bidder will be responsible for removing the locomotive and tender within sixty days of notification.

[38][39][40] The movie was cancelled, due to the early 1990s recession, and when lead actor Harrison Ford left the project over script changes.

587 was featured in the Railroads, Rebels & Robbers episode of the Discovery Channel show Rediscovering America.

With the help of the locomotive's old engineer, they rescued the 587 from being cut up for scrap and donate it to the Steam City Railroad museum.