News & Reviews News Wire CSX unveils Atlantic Coast Line heritage locomotive

CSX unveils Atlantic Coast Line heritage locomotive

By Bill Stephens | November 27, 2023

The unit, No. 1871, is the seventh locomotive in the railroad’s growing heritage fleet

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CSX’s seventh heritage locomotive is a salute to Atlantic Coast Line. CSX

A tribute to Atlantic Coast Line is the latest heritage locomotive to emerge from CSX’s paint shop in Waycross, Ga.

CEO Joe Hinrichs posted photos of the locomotive on his LinkedIn account this afternoon.

“Here’s the new CSX Atlantic Coast Line Heritage Locomotive fresh out of the paint shop in Waycross, Georgia,” Hinrichs wrote. “We had a pause in new heritage locomotives as we worked on other projects (like the CSX Holiday Express cars which just hit the rails this week and the new CSX Santa Train car). Several more exciting heritage locomotives to come in the near future. Enjoy!”

The locomotive, CSX No. 1871, sports ACL’s classic aluminum and Royal Purple scheme, which was introduced in 1939 on the railroad’s first Electro-Motive E3 passenger locomotives.

It joins CSX locomotives whose long hoods are painted for predecessor lines Baltimore & Ohio, Chessie System, Seaboard System, Conrail, Chesapeake & Ohio, and Louisville & Nashville.

The ACL logo adorns the rear of the CSX heritage locomotive. CSX

16 thoughts on “CSX unveils Atlantic Coast Line heritage locomotive

  1. Don’t know how the photographer managed it, but this picture doesn’t convey the eye-scalding quality of the ACL purple in bright sunlight. Seeing the full effect in bright sunlight is like being slapped, hard.

  2. Sure would have been terrific, if CSX had “JUMPED INTO THE Heritage Paint Pool” like UP and NS did with their Heritage Paint Schemes….. BUT I guess we’ll have to take what they gave us! Just a DIP, and Splash….

    1. There is already a Seaboard Heritage unit, Gray with Orange, Green and White lettering in the final Seaboard logo.

      I only wish they had done the C&O heritage unit at the same level as this ACL unit, above the hand rails. But the ACL unit is a looker…

    2. I thought I’d seen all the CSX heritage, must have missed the SAL one, when was it completed?

  3. IMO the ACL purple people eater design on the nose of its Es needed to be duplicated. This front is just another CSX unit not ACL. There are some preserved ACL units to compare.

  4. These heritage engines look great. I only wish that they did a better job blending the colors, making them fade into each other. I have yet to see a heritage unit first hand, however they have been in the central Mass. area. Someday!

  5. I absolutely agree with Richard. As someone termed, them these are “half-heritage” locos. NS did the best job of all.

    1. And I’m the only one who supports the CSX policy. I find it lends authenticity to the locos, as they are, in reality, working CSX property. As an aside, how many people in today’s CSX territory even know what ACL was before the merger which was I think 1964. A whole lot of people weren’t even born in 1964, and CSX tpday serves states well removed from ACL territory.

      While I’m at it: ACL heritage was a high point of American industrial design, but really folks, in all due respect, who besides the photographer ever sees the “B” end of a diesel locomotive.

  6. I like the repaint going back to the 1939 introduction on ACL passenger locomotives. I like the logo on the rear. I always thought the ACL logo was nice with the states served.

  7. God, I don’t like that at all. Doesn’t work CSX. They should have just made the entire engine in the attractive Atlantic Coastline colors.

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