CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs today unveiled the railroad’s 17th heritage locomotive, which pays homage to the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad.
“Another great job by our ONE CSX team in Waycross, Georgia. Founded in 1877, C&EI Railroad connected Chicago with southern Illinois, St. Louis, and Evansville, IN. In the 1960’s C&EI was purchased by both the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Louisville & Nashville Railroads (L&N). The L&N piece, through Evansville, IN became part of CSX,” Hinrichs wrote on LinkedIn. “The Missouri Pacific piece became part of Union Pacific. Thanks again to everyone who helps bring these heritage units to life so we can celebrate our history and heritage while also showcasing that we are ONE CSX team moving forward. Enjoy. The back end of this engine is particularly interesting.”
The 1877 joins others in the railroad’s growing heritage fleet, which includes locomotives honoring the Georgia Railroad; Pittsburgh & Lake Erie; Family Lines; Pere Marquette; Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac; Baltimore & Ohio; Chessie System; Seaboard System; Conrail; Chesapeake & Ohio; Louisville & Nashville; Atlantic Coast Line; New York Central; Monon; Western Maryland; and Seaboard Coast Line.
All of the units have been painted at CSX’s shop in Waycross, Ga.
EHH almost completely killed the CLINCHFIELD! I hope CSX will create a heritage unit for Clinchfield and use it on future Santa Claus Trains in SW Va. & eastern TN..
I know it’s a GE, but which model? Probably an ES44. Are all their heritage paint schemes on the same loco type?
I am in love with this program. If possible, I would like a B&M either in classic minute man scheme or blue bird scheme that the GP9s were delivered in.
I love seeing the heritage units with their former liveries. I love the rear stripes and logo on the latest C&EI heritage unit, very striking look. Keep it up CSX.
I agree with you David Schwengel very monotonous at trackside these days. I take a second look when I see an Eastern or Canadian railroad unit when I am railfanning the Seattle Subdivision in Western Washington. A heritage unit out here is a real treat.
Another great job by CSX on a heritage unit. I really like these special paint jobs. It is good to keep history in mind and honor the people who worked on these predecessor railroads.
It also keeps things from getting monotonous now that we are down to a few Class 1 carriers from the dozens of decades ago. And what should be the problem as long as the actual road number and reporting marks are clearly visible?
Metra did a nice job on their heritage units, maybe they will do a few more.
This is also a good way to make some kind of “connection” with the public as many people have had family and friends who worked for a former railroad and probably enjoy seeing a C&EI or NYC or whatever diesel pass through their town.
Once again CSX a nice note to history but please remember SEABOARD AIRLINE!!! and Thanks!!!!!!
Keep them coming CSX! I for one like them all.
Still waiting on the New Haven heritage unit, as CSX runs over several ex- New Haven lines in SE Massachusetts.
Seriously, though, let’s call it well enuff and bring this to a halt. The major components of CSX are L&N, SAL, ACL, C&O, B&O, and NYC. Most of those have predecessors (C&EI into L&N etc. etc. etc). I think what we have now is getting lost in the weeds.
Into the age of diesels, there were dozens, maybe over a hundred, railroads with diesel liveries. Do all of them get heritage units? CSX absorbed Pan Am which was descended from B&M and other railroads. When does it stop?
Norfolk Southern surprised everyone when they did an Illinois Terminal heritage engine. By 1980, the IT was nothing but a trackage rights operation between Peoria and St Louis owned by 4 Class 1’s. I love the IT, but it was small potatoes compared to the C&EI.
Or are you waiting for the Wisconsin Central heritage unit to roll by your abode? Lost in the weeds or smoking them?
JOHN RICE —- Wisconsin Central, Soo Line, DSS&A, Fox Valley and Western, Green Bay and Western, Grand Trunk Western, Grand Trunk, Central Vermont, Duluth Winnipeg and Pacific, Detroit and Toledo Shore Line, Ann Arbor, Detroit Toledo and Ironton, Bessemer and Lake Erie, DMIR, ICRR, GM&O, Alton, EJ+E —- off the top of my head, those are CNR predecssessors in USA alone (though some of those lines have been spun off). Oh, we might add, a CNW line in Oshkosh.
If CNR were in the heritage business, would each get a heritage unit?????
I kind of liked Detroit and Toledo Shore Line, “The Expressway For Industry”. Betcha most of the people reading these words never heard of it.
Around 1980, D&TSL was absorbed by DT&I, the latter of which already owned the Ann Arbor. Very shortly thereafter, DT&I was absorbed into GTW.
Didn’t Henry Ford buy the D&TSL?
JOHN — Henry Ford bought the DT&I and upgraded it and electrified it. By our time, the wires were long gone but the concrete arch gantries (many of them) were still in place in southern Wayne County, and Monroe County, both in Michigan. These could be seen from a distance as the area is considered the flattest land on the face of the earth.
South of Toledo, catenary support seems to have been more conventional. See the photo on Page 109 of Kalmbach’s 1971 classic “Our GM Scrapbook”, one the books I simply couldn’t live without.
When CNR bought the DT&I, some place in Ohio (Springfield, if memory serves) became the southernmost outpost of Canadian railroading, supplanting New London (Connecticut) on Central Vermont.
After the merger DT&I engines could be seen on GTW in Detroit.
My understanding is that CNR has disposed on the Ann Arbor, along with DT&I south of Toledo. It’s been a zillion years since I went to college in Ann Arbor —- it was so nice to have our own private railroad just for us!!!! (And back then, there was a lot of freight on Penn Central’s Michigan Central, then a double-track railroad.)
The MILW also used the C&EI route when reaching their Latta Sub south of Terre Haute after they shut down their line from Harvey to Terre Haute. The Indiana RR picked up their rights when they took over the Latta Sub.
Now its their Chicago Subdivision.
Which Harvey?
The Milwaukee Road first used the Conrail from Terre Haute to Chicago to reach the Indiana Harbor Belt and on to Bensenville, for a number of years before running on the former C&EI.
Faithorn was the Milwaukee yard the SouthEastern guys ran into before the line North of Terre Haute was abandoned.