CSX Transportation

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"CSX" redirects here. For the parent company, see CSX Corporation. For other uses, see CSX (disambiguation).
CSX Transportation
Logo
System map
CSX system map
Reporting marks CSXT, B&O, C&O, SBD, L&N, NYC, RF&P, and SCL
Locale Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia
Dates of operation July 1, 1986–present
Track gauge 4 ft 8½ in (1435 mm) (standard gauge)
Headquarters Jacksonville, Florida

CSX Transportation (AAR reporting marks CSXT) is a Class I railroad in the United States, owned by the CSX Corporation. It is one of the three Class I railroads serving most of the East Coast, the other two being the Norfolk Southern Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway.

Contents

[edit] History

Main article: List of CSX Transportation predecessor railroads

CSX Transportation was formed on July 1, 1986 as a renaming of the Seaboard System Railroad and Chessie System, Inc. into one entity. The originator of the Seaboard System was the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which previously merged Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and later Louisville and Nashville Railroad, as well as several smaller subsidiaries. On August 31, 1987 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which had absorbed the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on April 30 of that year, merged into CSX. The merger had been started in 1980 with the merger of Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries to form the CSX Corporation.

Map of CSX's "A" and "S" lines, inherited from predecessors ACL and SAL, respectively.
Map of CSX's "A" and "S" lines, inherited from predecessors ACL and SAL, respectively.

On June 23, 1997, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern filed a joint application with the Surface Transportation Board for authority to purchase, divide and operate the assets of the 11,000-mile Consolidated Rail Corporation (Conrail), which had been created in 1976 by bringing together several ailing Northeastern railway systems into a government-owned corporation. On June 6, 1998, the STB approved the CSX-Norfolk Southern application and set August 22, 1998, as the effective date of its decision. CSX acquired 42% of Conrail's assets, and Norfolk Southern received the remaining 58%.

As a result of the transaction, CSX's rail operations grew to include some 3,800 miles of the Conrail system (predominantly lines that had belonged to the former New York Central Railroad). CSX began operating its trains on its portion of the Conrail network on June 1, 1999. CSX now serves much of the eastern U.S., with a few routes into nearby Canadian cities.

CSX's headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Florida East Coast Railway bridge in the foreground.
CSX's headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida, with the Florida East Coast Railway bridge in the foreground.

The name came about during merger talks between Chessie System, Inc. and Seaboard System Railroad, Inc., commonly called Chessie and Seaboard. The company chairmen said it was important for the new name to include neither of those names due to its being a partnership. Employees were asked for suggestions, most of which consisted of combinations of the initials. At the same time a temporary shorthand name was needed for discussions with the Interstate Commerce Commission. CSC was chosen but belonged to a trucking company in Virginia. CSM (for Chessie-Seaboard Merger) was also taken. The lawyers decided to use CSX, and the name stuck. In the public announcement, it was said that "CSX is singularly appropriate. C can stand for Chessie, S for Seaboard, and X, the multiplication symbol, means that together we are so much more, and T for Transportation." The T had to be added to use CSXT as a reporting mark, since company initials that end in X can be used only by non-railroad railcar owners.[1]

[edit] CSX Divisions

CSX operates two regions, they are split by the Northern Region which is based out of Calumet City, IL and has five divisions, and the Southern Region based out of Jacksonville, FL which also has five divisions. Within these regions CSX has 10 divisions.

CSX rail tunnel at Harper's Ferry, in the Baltimore Division
CSX rail tunnel at Harper's Ferry, in the Baltimore Division

Northern Region Divisions

  • Great Lakes Division
  • Chicago Division
  • Albany Division
  • Baltimore Division
  • Louisville Division

Southern Region Divisions

  • Atlanta Division
  • Huntington Division
  • Nashville Division
  • Florence Division
  • Jacksonville Division

[edit] Unit trains

CSX operates the Juice Train, train numbers Q740 and Q741, a famous unit train of Tropicana fresh orange juice between Bradenton, Florida, and distribution centers in the Greenville section of Jersey City, New Jersey and Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States.

In the 21st century, CSX Juice Trains have been the focus of efficiency studies and have received awards. They are considered good examples of how modern rail transportation can compete successfully with trucking and other modes to carry perishable products.

CSX also runs daily trash trains out from New York City, bound for Florida, train numbers Q706/Q707 and Q702/Q703. These trains usually consist of about fifty cars with four twenty foot containers of trash on each.

Another style of unit train is a local trash train, ID # D765 that runs between Derwood Maryland and Dickerson, Maryland. The train runs daily except Sunday, sometimes twice a day around busy holidays. Trash is carried from Montgomery County's Shady Grove Transfer Station to a waste-to-energy plant located off the PEPCO lead to Mirant's Dickerson generating station. The trip is roughly 17 miles, and the train is made up of NSC built double stacks, holding 40' containers. The first NEMX double stacks were built when the D765 first started operations in 1997. In recent years, the fleet has been somewhat upgraded, repainted, and some entirely new cars have been constructed. In the early days, power was a GP40-2/RDMT slug set, but the train has grown to a heavy 40 cars or so. Power is now most often a duo of SD50s

[edit] Locomotives

Typical motive power.
Typical motive power.
CSXT SD40-2 8376 showing off the YN2 paint scheme (commonly known as the bright future paint scheme). Jason Trew Photo
CSXT SD40-2 8376 showing off the YN2 paint scheme (commonly known as the bright future paint scheme). Jason Trew Photo

CSX has a few famous locomotives around the system, the locomotive number will be in Bold text (the current paint scheme is blue and gold):

  • 1 , a GE AC4400CW, is lettered the Spirit Of West Virginia
  • 295 , a GE AC4400CW, is lettered the Spirit of Clinchfield
  • 356 , a GE AC4400CW, is lettered the Spirit of Brunswick
  • 391 , a GE AC4400CW, is lettered the Spirit of Dante
  • 454 , a GE AC4400CW, is lettered the Spirit of Magnolia
  • 500 , a GE 'CW44AH', ballasted and equipped with low speed high adhesion hardware and software, is lettered the Spirit of Grafton
  • 601 , a GE AC6000CW, is lettered the Spirit of Waycross
  • 602 , a GE AC6000CW, is lettered the Spirit of Maryland
  • 666 , a GE AC6000CW, is commonly known as the Devil's Express
  • 699, is a GE CW44-6, rebuilt from an AC6000CW with a prime mover from an AC4400CW, and is painted in the diversity in motion scheme, was the test bed for the CW44-6 downgrades, which while short lived, were done without changing the prime mover
  • 2207 First RDMT built from GP40, only RDMT with nose mounted headlights
  • 2702 is an EMD GP38-2 that is lettered Franklin M. Garrett and Spirit Of Atlanta for the famous Atlanta historian (Unit assigned to Atlanta, GA)
  • 2667 is an EMD GP38-2 still in Seaboard System paint
  • 4500 is an EMD SD70MAC that is lettered the Spirit of Cumberland (formerly numbered 700)
  • 4589 is an EMD SD70MAC that is lettered the Spirit of Nashville (formerly numbered 789)
  • 4590 is an EMD SD80MAC that is lettered the Spirit of Benning (formerly numbered 800), and is the only former Conrail SD80MAC spirit locomotive
  • 4617 is an EMD SD40 that is still in C&O paint
  • 4685 is an EMD SD70M that is lettered the Spirit of Mulberry
  • 4688 is an EMD SD70M that is lettered the Spirit of Tampa
  • 4699 is an EMD SD70M that is lettered the Spirit of Miami
Locomotive #5000
Locomotive #5000
  • 5000, and 5001 are both GE AC6000CWs decorated with a "Diversity in Motion" logo on the side
  • 5500 is a GE ES44DC that is lettered the Spirit of Cincinnati
  • 5555 is a GE B30-7 that is lettered the Spirit of Cartersville
  • 6000 is an EMD GP40-2 that was the last locomotive painted Chessie System, rebuilt from a wrecked GP40
  • 6001 is an EMD GP40-2 that had the first road number B&O 1977
  • 6063 is an EMD GP40-2, formerly Chessie System GM50
  • 6392 is another EMD GP40-2 that was the second locomotive that had B&O 1977
  • 8077 is an EMD SD40-2, named Colonel Phillip Hooper
  • 8508 is an EMD SD50-2, a homegrown downgrade from an SD50, only SD50 or SD50-2 in "stealth" scheme variant
  • 8886 is an EMD SD40-2, rebuilt by Conrail with a 16-cylinder engine and redesignated as an SD40-2, ex Conrail 6661, built as Erie Lackawanna SD45-2 3676, November 1972.
  • 8888 is an EMD SD40-2, often called Crazy Eights by railfans following two separate incidents in Ohio: a well publicized runaway train[2][3] and a derailment[4]
  • 8889 is an EMD SD40-2, rebuilt by Conrail with a 16-cylinder engine and redesignated as an SD40-2, ex Conrail 6663, built as Erie Lackawanna SD45-2 3678, November 1972.
  • 8974 is an EMD SD40-2, rebuilt by Conrail with a 16-cylinder engine and redesignated as an SD40-2, ex Conrail 6658, built as Erie Lackawanna SD45-2 3673, November 1972.

Former Conrail motive power can be spotted by recognizing phase differences in engine models and road numbering. Other spotting details can be hit or miss, but can include a number of the following; Class lights, Leslie model RS3L air horns, former Conrail SD40-2s ride on Flexicoil "C" trucks and have anticlimbers, ditch lights mounted beneath the anticlimber, modified "Bright Future" paint with battery box faces painted yellow versus black or blue.

CSX has created a new paint scheme, YN3, which debuted in 2002 on EMD SD50 8503 [1], now downgraded to an SD50-2. At the present, CSX has over 1000 YN3-painted locomotives.

[edit] Major hump yards

CSX operates a number of large classification yards around the system that include "hump" operations. Trains are slowly pushed over a small manmade hill as cars are uncoupled at the crest of the hill and allowed to roll down the hump into the appropriate tracks for outbound trains. These yards are also referred to as gravity yards. The larger yards are located in:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Dolinger, Milt (2006-05-01). "How CSX got its name". Trains magazine online. 
  2. ^ Runaway train stopped. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
  3. ^ Rail workers describe how they stopped runaway train. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.
  4. ^ CSXT locomotive 8888 gets into trouble again. Retrieved on 2008-02-25.

[edit] External links

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Current (operating) Class I railroads of North America