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Chessie System Railroads in West Virginia by Thomas W Dixon Jr Soft Cover
Chessie System Railroads in West Virginia by Thomas W Dixon Jr
Soft Cover
64 pages
Copyright 2007
CONTENTS
Introduction iv
Chapter 1 The Chesapeake & Ohio 1
Chapter 2 The Baltimore & Ohio 37
Chapter 3 The Western Maryland 57
INTRODUCTION
For over a decade the verdant green hills of West Virginia served as backdrop to diesel locomotives painted in a vibrant yellow powering huge trains of coal and merchandise destined to the industrial centers of America. These locomotives were emblazoned with the initials of three great railroads: the ancient Baltimore & Ohio, mother of American railroads, the Chesapeake & Ohio, long recognized as the "Coal Bin of America," and the short but scenic coal and lumber hauling Western Maryland. This was the period in which the locomotives of these three companies operated together under the name of Chessie System Railroads.
This book looks at the operations of Chessie System in the state of West Virginia beginning in 1972 when the first units arrived, and carries through into the mid-198os when the much loved Chessie System paint scheme was exchanged for the various liveries of CSX Transportation.
Several books and many magazine articles and videos, have covered the trains of Chessie System, but this book is intended to look at its operation in one defined geographical area. West Virginia was chosen for several reasons. It contained important operations for all three lines, and it was the source of much of their wealth through the transportation of coal from mines that proliferated up and down the valleys and hollows of the "Mountain State." The nature of the operations also required big diesel locomotives or a lot of them to power heavy trains over heavy grades leaving the coal fields.
The southern part of the state was served by the Chesapeake & Ohio's myriad of branches radiating from its main line between its entry in the east from Virginia at the top of Alleghany Mountain to its exit in the west into Kentucky across the Big Sandy River near Huntington. The Baltimore & Ohio had a similar set of lines crossing the northern part of the state from entry at Harpers Ferry, across the state to Parkersburg, up the panhandle to Wheeling, down the Ohio to Huntington, and down through the center of the state to Charleston. The Western Maryland operated generally in some of the same areas as
B&O in Maryland and northeastern West Virginia, tapping similar coal fields and lumber lands.
The nostalgia and culture that associated with railroading in West Virginia also have a particular draw for many of the people who today have an interest in railroading for its historical value, as enthusiasts for its operations, as model hobbyists, or as people who connect it with local history. It is very much like the culture of railroading and mining that is found in Colorado which has infatuated so many people since the hobby of railroad history and modeling first gained maturity.
As background it should be understood that the three railroads in this study were all operating as fully independent lines in 1960. It was just a year or two after that when C&O acquired controlling interest in Baltimore & Ohio, and a few years later that the WM was brought into the picture from its status as a line controlled by B&O. C&O had acquired a reputation as a gold-plated company that was always on top financially, operationally, managerially, and in many other ways. It used its huge and steady income from coal hauling to make itself not only a blue chip investment, but to become a leader in railroad innovation and management, especially in the decades just following the end of World War II.
By the late 1950s C&O was looking for a partner to expand its horizons, and because it could not capture the preferred New York Central, the B&O came under consideration. The B&O was considered a weak railroad financially, but it had a system larger than C&O, and was like it in many ways, not the least of which was a reliance on coal for a large part of its income. Also there was little real overlap in the two systems; they were not largely competitive. But B&O had fallen on bad days and was struggling financially. C&O management decided that it would be advantageous to acquire the line with a view to eventual merger, which was accomplished in 1962. The new system began calling itself C&O/B&O Railroads, using a combination of the C&O for Progress and B&O Capitol Dome logos. At the same time thought was being given as to how the line's new image should be projected in the longer term. As a result Howard Skidmore, C&O's Vice President Public Relations, commissioned a study in 1965 to determine a new name and image for a combined company. The name "Chessie System" was the clear preference in this study.
This was a natural outgrowth of the marvelous success C&O had with the Chessie ad campaign starting in 1933. The cuddly half-asleep kitten supposedly drowsing in air-conditioned comfort on one of C&O's name trains had expanded from just advertising the comforts of passenger travel on C&O to became in effect the very image of the railway itself. This had been bolstered in the public's mind through a concerted, concentrated, and highly imaginative advertising and public relations campaign year after year, supplemented with the ever-growing popularity of the annual Chessie Calendar which C&O issued in monumental quantities. By the 196os, with passenger traffic in eclipse, Chessie was being used in many ads featuring coal, merchandise traffic, and industrial development. The names "C&O" and "Chessie" had become interchangeable. Chessie is still recognized in advertising history as one of the best loved and, in her day, best known corporate symbols.
But the new name was not immediately adopted. The C&O/B&O logos and name continued during the years when the two companies moved from two distinctly operated entities into more and more consolidations of functions and operations. By the late 196os motive power and cars had become almost completely interchangeable, and many offices had been consolidated and reorganized, as well as engineering and mechanical functions, as the two roads moved toward a genuine merger.
B&O and C&O both had blue diesels, so as consolidated orders were placed. C&O Enchantment Blue was adopted for both lines, as a large "C&O" or "B&O" replaced spelled-out road names on diesel flanks. Locomotives and cars still carried the logos of each respective lines: "For Progress" on C&O units and cars and the "Capitol Dome" on B&O units and cars. Standards were adopted which mandated the repainting of older units to the new scheme as needed, and many were, but many retained their original livery.
In 1971 Hays T. Watkins became President and Chairman of the combined companies, and decided that the image change was finally needed. Howard Skidmore, still at the public relations helm, asked his creative department, headed by Franklyn Carr, to adopt the Chessie System name and develop a livery and logo to use it. Skidmore was impressed with the bold paint schemes
used by western railroads, particularly Santa Fe's Warbonnet scheme, and wanted something similarily eye-catching.
Franklyn Carr's design for the new scheme was inspired, of course, by the classic image of the sleeping Chessie. He simply took the standard design, placed it in a circle, and drew a stylized outline of the kitten. This then formed the uppercase "C" in the words Chessie System. The balance of the name was also portrayed in a very bold, thick font. Skidmore enthusiastically approved Carr's design as did Mr. Watkins and the Board of Directors.
The capital "C" with Chessie's outline was called the "Ches-C," and replaced the C&O For Progress logo wherever it appeared, such as the fronts of locomotives, the sides of freight cars, etc. The full lettering also appeared the sides of locomotives and on the cars as well.
The Locomotives were to borrow a page from the western railroads as well with regard to the body paint, UP's design being the best example. The new Chessie System design featured the body of the locomotive painted in C&O's famous Federal Yellow, on which the Chessie System name was painted in the old Enchantment Blue color. Above the doors along the hood was a vermilion stripe. The space above it, along the skyline of the locomotive's long hood side, extending through the cab and to the top of the short hood (for the newer locomotives) was in blue. The trucks, underbody, and pilot were blue.
This was a radical departure from the subdued blues prevalent on C&O and B&O equipment and from the dull colors used by many other eastern railroads.
By 1973 Western Maryland had been subsumed into Chessie System and its units received the same paint treatment.
The new paint scheme became the darling of railfan photographers, publicity officials, and everyone connected with the railroads involved. It was a great morale boost for employees, and it had the desired effect on the general public as well. Even the railroad's safety department liked it because of the good visibility the locomotives presented in yards and at grade crossings, in bad weather and good. In all it was a master stroke. As new cars and locomotives were received the new scheme and many older ones were repainted.
In 1980 Chessie System and Seaboard System (itself a combination of the old Atlantic Coast Line, Seaboard Air Line, Louisville & Nashville, Clinchfield, and Georgia) were both put under an overarching holding company called CSX. It was announced at the time that this was just a temporary name and that it would never be used on equipment. The rationale behind the letters was: "C" for Chessie System, "S" for Seaboard System, and the multiplication sign "X" meaning that the two working together would be greater than the whole of each separately.
But by the mid-198os things had changed and CSX was entrenched. Locomotives and cars were given a new paint scheme featuring the large CSX letters, a scheme which has changed several times down to the present day. The sub-lettering of locomotives and cars to their constituent company ownership was discontinued as the subordinate companies were gradually merged legally into each other and finally into today's CSX Transportation.
Over the twenty years since the repainting into CSX started, all the Chessie locomotives had been repainted and/or retired and none are believed left in service at this writing.
C&O operations in West Virginia in the 1960s were largely unchanged from that which they had been over the previous 4o years, with the exception of a diminishing number and final elimination of passenger trains, and the elimination of local freight business, as was occurring on railroads nationwide. Many stations had been closed by this time or were closed in the period as Less-Than-Carload freight (LCL) disappeared and along with it the need for freight depots and agents. Also by this time Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) signaling had been installed on all major lines and the towers ("cabins" in C&O parlance) had been largely eliminated. The C&O and B&O "affiliation" began to look more like a merger in modern terms by 1970, as motive power assignments had been consolidated, schedules integrated, and general operational practices made more uniform.
Initially many C&O units were seen on the B&O but few B&O units on the C&O because of the great need for more and newer locomotives on the B&O at the time of the take-over. By the 1970s motive power had become homogeneous and B&O and C&O locomotives appeared on both railroads as needed. In 1971 passenger operations were taken over by Amtrak, so there was never a Chessie System passenger locomotive or car for revenue service. Numerous passenger cars appeared in Chessie System paint for official use (business cars and roadway inspection, safety instruction, etc.). Of course the Chessie Steam Special ran a huge excursion train with an ex-Reading Railroad 4-8-4 painted in Chessie Colors (followed later by ex-C&O 4-8-4 No. 614 painted less garishly.)
During the early Chessie era locomotives congregated principally at Hinton, Handley, and Huntington on the C&O mainline, much as in the past. It was only during the early CSX days that the first two were essentially eliminated as locomotive terminals. On branch lines Chessie units could be seen at Peach Creek for the Logan fields, and at Danville, Elk Run Junction, Raleigh (Beckley), and Quinnimont, again not much different from the past. But in the decade and a half that followed these terminals would gradually decline in importance and viability as the pattern of traffic changed. Likewise B&O's locomotive terminals remained fairly static, a principal location being Grafton, which, taken in context, is really very much a mirror of Hinton on the C&O, as is Cumberland (Maryland) on B&O is comparable to Huntington on the C&O.
Although some GP9s were repainted Chessie colors very early and they appeared on West Virginia lines, most of these older units were left until retirement in their old schemes. But as new orders for locomotives arrived, they came, of course, in Chessie paint.
The first debut of the scheme in West Virginia was on November 18, 1972, when GP40-2s painted in the new livery powered five special Amtrak passenger trains to White Sulphur Springs. Only weeks after this date the new U3oB General Electric units were received in Chessie paint and went into use in West Virginia. As other new units arrived they very often received assignments on the coal lines of West Virginia. In the 19721978 period the most common occurrence was to see a set of mixed paint scheme units on trains, but as time passed the Chessie scheme became predominant, both because older units were repainted and because many older units were retired.
By the end of the Chessie era in West Virginia and the arrival of CSX Transportation, the metamorphosis of the old C&O, B&O, and WM lines accelerated. The last station buildings, even some which had been saved to be used by company forces, were largely eliminated, coal operations were originating in very large scale treatment plans and mines, ever larger in capacity and smaller in number, many branches were abandoned or dormant because of mine closings, and almost all yard operations had been reduced to bare minimums or eliminated.
Unit coal trains moving from one mine directly to the customer eliminated the need for most en route handing. Bigger locomotives meant fewer units; bigger cars meant fewer trains; fewer mines and fewer customers meant bigger trains, run on demand. The new locomotives required little in-service maintenance and even held enough fuel so that they had to be refueled only at the end-points of very long runs, thus completely eliminating the need for refueling terminals.
At about the beginning of the Chessie System period, the Alleghany Subdivision main line underwent some major changes. The West Virginia portion of the C&O main line was singled-tracked near Talcott, which included the elimination of the old bore at Big Bend Tunnel. Other second track segments were taken up as well on the New River Subdivision, as traffic appeared to be on a more or less steady decline. Numerous branches became inactive or were completely abandoned as the nature of coal mining changed. On the B&O the largest change was abandonment of a large segment of the old St. Louis line between Grafton and Parkersburg, a line which, ironically, had received a major upgrade just a few years before. Some of the old Coal & Coke Line to Charleston was also abandoned. But by the end of the era and the beginning of CSXT traffic was rebounding.
During the Chessie System era the constituent railroads really became an operational whole. Central dispatching and central-remote management became possible through technological advances.
This book is intended as a remembrance of the decade and a half when these bright, shiny, flashy locomotives and cars traversed the mountains and valleys of West Virginia hauling merchandise and coal. The scope of the book is geographically limited exclusively to lines in West Virginia. It is an album of photos more than anything else, and a fond remembrance of a great era in railroading. For detailed data on locomotives and cars one can find very adequate treatment in Morning Sun Publishing's Chessie System Color Guide to Freight Equipment, and for locomotives, TLC Publishing's Chessie System Diesel Locomotives.
Thomas W Dixon Jr, President, C&OHS Lynchburg, Va March 2007
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