JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – CSX Transportation has released its fourth heritage unit, a salute to Conrail.
“Okay rail fans. Here is a sneak peak of the fourth CSX Heritage Locomotive. #1976 celebrates our Conrail heritage. Look for this one out on the road soon. Another great job for our ONE CSX team in Waycross, GA. Enjoy,” CEO Joe Hinrichs wrote in a LinkedIn post this afternoon.
The number of each heritage locomotive – including Baltimore & Ohio, Chessie System, Seaboard System, and now Conrail – corresponds with the date each railroad was founded.
The Conrail unit wears the late-era “Conrail Quality” paint scheme.
The units are being painted at the railroad’s shop in Waycross, Ga.
Kudos to CSX and new CEO Heinrichs for continuing to restore pride in CSX among employees and railfans.
Speaking from personal experience, train service employees don’t much care about paint jobs. When they’re repainting these locomotives, are they also cleaning the cabs? I’ll trade the clean cab from a brand new locomotive for 10 new paint jobs.
After seeing the nice job they did with the full logos on the Conrail and Seaboard units I’m finding myself a bit underwhelmed by the HO sized lettering on the side of the Chessie loco.
Can’t wait for a Boston & Maine version!
And now it is possible to have a “pair” of Conrail units on a train.
So that everyone knows…the lightning bolt signifies an AC traction unit….whether it’s an appropriate use or not does not matter, it’s what we do.
Charles, The word should be “LIGHTNING” for the atmospheric phenomenon. Lighting is what lamps do.
The CEO needs to tell the painters to paint the heritage units FULLY COMPLETE what they do not understand
The idea is blending the modern CSX with its past. They are not like NS or UP’s units.but they are all CSX and that is what probably matters to them.
Built between 2003 and 2019, the ES44AC (Evolution Series, 4400 hp, AC traction) replaced the AC4400CW model in the General Electric catalogue. These locomotives have been ordered by every Class I railroad in North America: CSX Transportation, Union Pacific Railroad (who refers to these locomotives as the C45ACCTE), BNSF Railway, Norfolk Southern Railway, Kansas City Southern Railway, Kansas City Southern de Mexico, Ferromex, Canadian Pacific Railway, and Canadian National Railway.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
Kansas City Southern exists only in paint scheme alone. no matter what the CP wags will say…
Conrail came into being in 1976 and the majority of it disappeared corporately in 1998 when the other two major eastern U. S. railroads – NS and CSX – acquired its assets and split the spoils, so to speak.
Dr. Güntürk Üstün
I agree Charles, I like the CSX combination with the heritage livery.
Beautiful job, always liked the Conrail Quality livery. I believe the lighting bolts originally signified
AC traction units.
My mistake I meant to say lightning. LOL
Nice paint job! By the way, I am curious as to what the lightning bolt symbol under the number means. It seems common on other CSX road power.
ALEX —- As I’ve posted before, the lighting bolt is a screw-up. (I seemed to have been one of the few to notice.) It came in with the first AC units on CSX.
However, lighting is DC, not AC. So the lighting bolt should have been on the older, DC units, and discontinued for AC.
While I’m posting, I’m maybe the only one who likes the combination of real, actual CSX livery on the cab, paired with heritage to the rear along the hood.
Whether or not anyone besides me likes the combination contemporary/ heritage livery, I think the two so far, Conrail and Chessie system, are gorgeous, stunning, striking, beautiful.
Back in the day, lightning bolts often referred to a unit that was “radio dispatched” which was a gimmick by the railroads to convince the public that they were modern and on the cusp of leading edge technology. L&N E units actually said “radio dispatched” with lightning bolts (ie; radio waves) on both sides above the phrase. The truth was that trains were made up by paper train orders well into the 80’s… The trains crew could talk to dispatchers or other trains by radio so in that sense, you might could say they were “radio dispatched…”
But at John Garrison above says, they were meant to mean “AC Unit” even though as Charles says rightly that Lightning is DC voltage. No matter. On this one, both are right. “Winner, winner, Chicken Dinner…”
Awesome! Also the child and teenager foamers are almost certainly having heart attacks looking at this RN.
It’s been my experience that rail fans who call other rail fans names such as foamer are usually the biggest as you say “foamers”.