Watch: CSX Adds C&O to the Heritage Fleet
Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor
(Screen-grab courtesy of CSX)
ES44AH No. 1869, in Chesapeake & Ohio (C&O) colors, is the fifth heritage-schemed locomotive to roll out of CSX’s Waycross, Ga., shop. Its number recognizes C&O’s founding year.
Like CSX’s first unit painted in a heritage scheme, ES44AH No. 1827 that honors the Baltimore & Ohio, the livery features a “hybrid design,” starting on the cab with the Class I’s colors and transitioning to a 1960s-era-inspired C&O paint scheme.
C&O, led by industrialist Collis P. Huntington, was formed in Virginia from several smaller railroads, and was a major line among North American freight and passenger railroads for nearly a century. According to CSX, in 1970, it included more than 5,000 route-miles of track, stretching from Newport News, Va., to Chicago and the Great Lakes. Along with the Baltimore & Ohio and Western Maryland Railway, it became part of the Chessie System, which was incorporated in 1973, eventually merging into CSX in 1980.
CSX previously unveiled units commemorating Conrail, Chessie System and Seaboard System.
The heritage series, CSX said, “is reinforcing employee pride in the history of the railroad that continues to move the nation’s economy with safe, reliable and sustainable rail-based transportation services.”
The C&O unit will join the other commemorative units in revenue service on CSX’s 20,000-mile rail network.
