JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX Transportation’s Baltimore & Ohio heritage locomotive, which emerged from the Waycross, Ga., paint shop this week, is the first of several the railroad has in the works.
“To honor CSX’s heritage railroads, employees at the Waycross Locomotive Shop are creating paint designs for many of the predecessor roads. The Waycross team recently completed the first of its heritage designs, which honors the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the first common carrier railroad in the United States,” CSX said in an announcement sent to employees today.
“The inaugural heritage series locomotive — renumbered CSX 1827 in recognition of the year the B&O was chartered — combines colors from the modern CSX and the most recognized of the many B&O paint schemes. It carries the modern CSX logo on the front and the B&O’s iconic capitol dome logo on the rear. The design was initiated by a 25-year CSX employee and generational railroader at the CSX locomotive shop in Huntington, W.Va.,” the announcement says.
CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs and Jamie Boychuk, executive vice president of operations, “they had an idea, a vision to do some of these heritage units. And I kind of brought it to life,” J.D. Cremeans, a carman painter, says in a video the railroad produced on the locomotive.
Cremeans’ father and grandfather both worked for the railroad, and when he hired out in 1998 he was on the B&O roster. “So this B&O locomotive has a little bit of a special meaning to me,” Cremeans says.
The heritage locomotives will wear the current CSX paint scheme on the nose and cab, which will fade into the livery of the predecessor railroad. It’s “kind of like pulling our history behind us … without this heritage, there would be no CSX,” Cremeans says.
A CSX spokesman says the railroad hasn’t decided on a firm number of heritage locomotives yet, but said there will be “quite a few.”
No. 1827 made its debut on the point of Waycross-Birmingham, Ala., merchandise train M646-10 on Wednesday.
“She’s a beauty,” Hinrichs said in a post on LinkedIn.
i kind of like it. the paint scheme is interesting and unique. i’d love to see a C&O paint scheme in the coming months or years.
Ummm, I think the current CSX scheme IS the C&O scheme.
No Rock Island heritage painting please (comment below). Not really at UPRR predecessor, the Rock was parcelled out and UPRR subsequently picked up many of the pieces from CNW and SP.
Also, The Rock was a lousy railroad with its various ugly liveries that became even uglier by clashing with one another.
Oh come on Charles, you didnt like the “Route Rock” R wrapped around the octagonal rock? In neo blue no less?
Hey if NS can do an Illinois Terminal, I am sure there are some other 120 mile legacy railroads CSX can do.
Personally, while legacy engine painting stirs up the fanbase, I find it somewhat a waste of time, because they need to put more effort and detail into their service. If they put as much mind think operationally as they do into the detail of matching paint and logos on engines, they would be a lot farther along as a company.
Well Charles, if you take that approach, many of the NS heritage units can’t be counted either. It doesn’t matter how the railroads were acquired, they still are “predecessor” roads. Other wise UP would have no predecessors as it predates almost of all of its current heritage units…
Too late. Iowa Interstate has two GEVO’s in Rock Island paint already. Then there is the Rock Island Rail shortline operation in Mississippi with the blue and white Route Rock EMD’s and the Red and Yellow C40-8.
It’s what they call a “mixed metaphor”. B+O linked 13 states but CSX is a bit bigger.
Anyway, as far as heritage units, I can’t get enough! These are great programs.
Now here’s what has to happen (this idea isn’t original to me — I nicked it from another person posting on these pages): CPKC needs an all-new livery. The old Canadian Pacific livery from decades ago (grey etc.) will suit us just fine.
I pray and hope BNSF won’t do what CSX did to there heritage locomotives BNSF please when you do your Heritage locomotives in different livery’s don’t faded don’t change the logos don’t mess it up we want to see the ATSF in 90s warbonnet colors so as BN And others thank you
BNSF already did heritage locomotives by putting the logos of predecessor companies on the long hoods of several locomotives.
Chessie & kittens?
Great work CSX! Now BNSF needs to do the same!
First UP, then NS and now CSX. Railroads are making a more colorful railroad image with the painted locomotive in heritage colors. And I’m one who is glad for it.
Also CN.
It’s clearer every day that Joe Hinrichs ,at every level, has CSX leading a “Road to the Future”, a breath of fresh air in the “C” suites of the US class1’s.
Before UP there was Amtrak (GG1 4935 painted in a PRR scheme) and Metro North (FL9s painted in a New Haven scheme and additional FL9s painted in a New York Central scheme.)
Im sorry but no Somebody tell CSX to fully repainted into full Heritage on all schemes
Maybe UP can add a few more like Texas & Pacific, Minneapolis & St. Louis, Litchfield & Madison, Chicago Great Western, Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, St. Louis Southwestern, Denver & Salt Lake. Spokane International, Chicago & Eastern Illinois and the Sacramento Northern just to name the most notable. At least some. It’s interesting for people to see history on the rails. And this time, don’t modernize them unless you have to. The T&P, Chicago Great Western and Rock Island would look just as good in their actual colors rather than being stylized away into something different. For Instance, the SP heritage unit is nice but it could have been put in a straight Day-light color scheme and it would have looked more authentic. And please, with UP own colors, go back to the wings on the front! the big shield and little shield just don’t shine in comparison to the winged shield of the last many years which instantly identify an approaching train as UP.
Mr. Saunders, good points. While they’re at it, the U.P. should correct the paint scheme on their Missouri Pacific heritage unit. Where they came up with the light blue color on that unit, I don’t know. They must not have looked carefully at the old color photos. The original MoPac blue was a rich, dark color, officially “Eagle Blue” if I’m correct. Later during the era of President Jenks, the color went even darker, “Dark Eagle Blue,” commonly referred to as “Jenks Blue.”
NS already did that. Don’t want to copy the competition.
Nice!