Trains News Wire first reported about the locomotive on March 10 when photos appeared on a Facebook page dedicated to workers and former employees of the railroad’s Huntington shops. The original poster later removed the photos.
Text with the post indicated that the Chessie locomotive was headed to the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Pa., near Erie. The museum hosts a growing collection of preserved GE-made locomotives. A museum representative declined to comment.
It is the first time a Chessie System locomotive has been painted at the Huntington shops in more than 30 years. The shop, located on the railroad’s ex- Chesapeake & Ohio mainline, was once predominantly responsible for painting C&O and Chessie System locomotives.
C&O No. 8272 was built in January 1980 and was later renumbered to CSX No. 5554. It was retired more than six years ago and placed in deadline storage at CSX’s Cumberland, Md., locomotive shops. It was transported to Huntington in 2016 for cosmetic overhaul.
Trains News Wire has reached out to CSX for additional comment on the locomotive and its restoration in Huntington.
Let’s hear it for the “sleeping kitten”!
What a gorgeous looking pile of junk.
Beautiful looking
A very nice gesture on CSX’s part to restore this GE “B Boat” back to its original Chessie System paint scheme. Major kudos & thanks to the Huntington shop team for doing a very nice job.
Yes, “North East” Pennsylvania is one of those geographically odd towns being located in “Northwest” Pennsylvania. OR, the city founders had a sense of humor?
Nice loco!! Someone needs to recheck their geography though……Erie, PA is in the North WEST Corner of the state not North East as the article states
The Borough of North East, Pennsylvania is located in the northeastern corner of Erie County, which is in northwestern Pennsylvania. Confusing, what?
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Historical Society posts Amazon Smile.
Apparently last week’s Facebook posts and the photo(s) shared, mentioned above, got deleted after parties involved expressed fears that premature release of the news and photo might result in CSX management (specifically a new CEO) changing their minds on the donation. Yes, it sounds absurd after the loco has already been painted, but stranger things have happened over the years.
Yet here we have a photo obviously taken on/from railroad property, and the article above states that Trains have not gotten comment from CSX and that “a museum representative declined to comment.”
I agree it’s newsworthy, but perhaps Trains staff should have waited for official confirmation before running this photo.
Very nice gesture by CSX.
I would like to thank the Huntington Shops staff for re-painting this unit. I am always grateful for any effort by the Rail Freight Industry to help in preservation.
Beautiful, oh for the good ole days.
CSX needs to incorporate the Chessie “C” as the C in CSX. Or better yet, just adopt the Chessie livery in full as the CSX corporate paint job!