CSX starts heritage unit program
CSX Transportation has released its first three heritage units in May and June 2023. The locomotives, so far all GE/Wabtec ES44AC models, are the first in a series honoring the railroad’s many predecessor roads.
The first locomotive features the blue, gray, and black of the Baltimore & Ohio. Previously No. 3059, No. 1827 recognizes the year B&O was founded. The locomotive made its debut May 10, 2023, on the point of Waycross, Ga.-Birmingham, Ala., manifest train M646-10. Repainting of the unit had just been completed at the railroad’s Waycross shops.
“She’s a beauty,” CSX CEO Joe Hinrichs said in a comment on a LinkedIn post at the time.
The paint scheme is a twist on the traditional heritage livery and could be described as a mullet: It’s all CSX business in the front and B&O party in the back. The current CSX livery adorns the front of the locomotive and gives way to the classic B&O paint scheme at the beginning of the locomotive’s long hood.
Subsequent locomotives were released June 10 painted for Chessie System, No. 1973, and June 29 painted for Seaboard System, No. 1982. CSX is, of course, named for these two direct predecessors with the multiplication sign “X” added to indicate a greater railroad than its individual parts.
CSX has more than 20 predecessors it could feature in this way, the most recent being Pan Am Railways acquired in 2022. However, it is worth noting that Conrail, which CSX acquired part of in 1999, is already a represented in the Norfolk Southern heritage locomotive fleet launched in 2012.