For CSX, the company’s participation in the annual horse racing tradition will come trotting into downtown Louisville in the form of its office car train. CSX will be escorting a trainload of customers and employees using its executive EMD F40PH fleet and luxurious passenger car train set.
Jay Westbrook, CSX assistant vice president of passenger operations says the Class I railroad’s involvement in the tradition is an opportunity to serve customers and collaborate with Kentucky state officials on new ways to spur economic development.
“It is a special train that is operated to thank customers. We also recognize the train can provide mutual benefits for the government and CSX,” Westbrook says. Each year, the railroad invites the Governor of Kentucky and his staff to ride along for the experience. For this year’s tradition, Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin will be unable to participate, but other representatives from customers served by the railroad will be on board.
“Locating a new employer and shipper along our tracks in Kentucky is a win-win for Kentucky and CSX,” Westbrook says.
“This is my 22nd year coordinating CSX’s Derby activities. I can’t tell you what a tremendous honor it is to be part of this tradition,” Westbrook says. “It is gratifying to be a part of the broad smiles traveling by train for the first time – or even traveling to their first Kentucky Derby.”
In previous years, Westbrook says that as many as 15 passenger cars would be part of Kentucky Derby consist with power provided by two of the railroad’s four executive locomotives. When necessary, the railroad will lease additional cars from other organizations. Each year, the train is deadheaded from Jacksonville, Fla., to Frankfort, Ky., in the days leading up to the derby. Once it arrives in the state’s capital city, it is prepped and furnished with supplies for Saturday’s trip to Churchill Downs. The office car train then follows CSX-owned tracks to Louisville early Saturday in advance of the race. CSX also partners with R. J. Corman Railroad Group to operate along track they lease from Frankfort, Ky., to Anchorage, Ky.
Westbrook says the tradition been a part of the railroad’s history for many decades – a tradition inherited by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad and other predecessor railroads that are now part of the CSX system.
During the heyday of privately-operated passenger trains, the annual event would bring 12 to 15 special trains from diverse points such as Texas, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Atlanta, New Orleans and Chicago. By the day of the race, the coach yards surrounding Louisville Union Station would berth well over 200 Pullman cars. Typically, the L&N would assign five extra yard-switching jobs at Union Station to accommodate the extra passenger cars.
Motive power varied each year, however the L&N was known to operate a number of different steam locomotives including Pacific class and Mountain-class 4-8-2s and smaller 2-8-2s. The 1956 L&N Derby special was notable for being the only time the four passenger-equipped “Big Emma” M-1 2-8-4s were used. The quartet handled special trains between Cincinnati and Louisville along the railroad’s Short Line subdivision to Cincinnati.
As steam transitioned to diesel, the railroad’s diesel-era motive power remained just as diverse. On the L&N, the railroad maintained a healthy roster of motive power with steam generation and signal lines for such passenger service, including EMD FP7s, GP7s, GP9s, Alco RS-3s, FPA-2s, and E-units – E6s, E7s, and E8s.
A rapid decline of privately operated passenger trains has brought the total number of annual Derby specials down to only a handful of runs in subsequent years. Today, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and R.J. Corman are among the three main railroads that continue the tradition that began in 1875 when the L&N delivered passengers to the first Kentucky Derby.
CORRECTION: The 2016 running of the Kentucky Derby is scheduled for May 7. The date was incorrect in an earlier version of this report.
Is NS running a train this year?
I thought that BNSF usually brings a train of some 5 to 7 cars to the Derby? And, what about UP?
The Kentucky Derby is for thoroughbreds, they don’t “trot”…they may walk, gallop, jog and/or run. But, they don’t trot.
Southern’s Spring Street office was in Atlanta.
Let’s try for May 7th, not May 2nd.
When I worked for Southern Railway in the Spring Street office back in the 1970’s I remember seeing the Derby specials run each year from this location.
Dose BNDF or UP send a train also?