# History of CSX



## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

I live in Iowa. I run O Scale and focus on what I call the Granger Lines - Rock Island, Burlington Route, Milwaukee Road, and Union Pacific. But as can be expected I am dabbling in other flags. 

I have a BN, a GN Hustle Muscle, a Norfolk Southern is on the way, Kansas City Southern. 

I always look for trains when I travel the Midwest on business. I was in Dubuque Iowa enroute to Wisconsin several months ago when I spotted a CSX locomotive. 

CSX? I heard of them by ebay searches but what was this brand? I was going to ask for history on here, but thought I would check out Wikipedia 1st. 

I was very surprised to find it was a merger of Chessie (Chesapeake and Ohio?) and Seaboard. I thought Seaboard was a long ago gone fallen flag absorbed by Norfolk Southern or some such merger. 

I found it interesting that they later purchased some of Conrail. In any case, CSX appears to be a major Class 1 railroad with many interesting rosters. I just purchased an older MTH locomotive. I won't likely purchase many more because I need to ramp down my out of control spending but the ones I see in the new catalogs are quite decorative and it will be tough - especially as I complete most of what I want from the lines I collect. 

Do any of you collect and run mainly CSX and / or their fallen flags underneath them like I do regionally my lines? Does anyone have antecdotal or real world experience with their trains or history? 

Normally a train brand that is only initials is a yawner but most lines are reduced to initials one way or another (U.P., BNSF being 2 easy examples)


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## gregc (Apr 25, 2015)




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## Spence (Oct 15, 2015)

I can tell you that about 20 years ago UPS tried to buy the railroad but the federal government stepped in and said no because it would form a monopoly. The reason we were trying to buy it was that we many problems with CSX. One of them being that they were unable to properly track our trailers and tell us where they werew at anytime.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Anyone East of the Mississippi would recognize the initials CSX in a second, even if they couldn't tell you the full history. I think it's interesting that there are hobbyists out there who don't recognize all the Class 1's. Maybe I'm more of a train nerd than I thought.

Anyway, no help from me. I model the New Haven, which is one of the predecessor roads of CSX, as you can see from the excellent chart gregc posted. You can also see from the chart that the Chessie system itself grew out of the Chesapeake and Ohio, absorbing the Baltimore and Ohio, Western Maryland, and B&O Chicago Terminal along the way. Seaboard, too, was a conglomeration of other roads.


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Aren't railroads and history interesting! I plan to purchase a few more CSX color themes and will pick up some rolling stock. I only run diesels - diesel era so I have a few modern locomotives. I'll keep an eye out for CSX as I get closer to the Mississippi River. The one I bought off ebay is kind of plain compared to some of the others I have seen. 

Running O Scale, I note that Lionel and MTH push CSX in their modern locomotive offerings, probably because of all of the hobbyists east of the Mississippi that see these trains and because they know the fallen flags underneath them. 

Thanks for the chart, almost overwhelming.


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

I see CSX and Norfolk Southern diesels quite often on the BNSF mainline through Lincoln. I don't even give them a second thought, now.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

Bryan Moran said:


> I was very surprised to find it was a merger of Chessie (Chesapeake and Ohio?) and Seaboard. I thought Seaboard was a long ago gone fallen flag absorbed by Norfolk Southern or *some such merger.* [emphasis added]



I mean, CSX was created in the early 1980s, so you're not exactly wrong there; it's been 35+ years.

Seaboard Air Line (SAL) merged with Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) to become Seaboard Coast Line (SCL). SCL later associated with Louisville & Nashville (LN), Clinchfield RR (CRR) and Georgia Railroad (GA) as "Family Lines" but each with their own identity still. Eventually the "Family Lines" roads all merged into Seaboard System (SBD).

Chessie System was of course an association of Chesapeake and Ohio (CO), Baltimore and Ohio (BO), and Western Maryland (WM), again all separate companies on paper still though.

CSX formed from the merger of the Chessie System and Seaboard System and a few other lines (Port Huron & Detroit (PHD), Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac (RFP), etc.) in the early 1980s at which point some of these companies actually got officially merged together.

Note - CSX's actual reporting marks on equipment are CSXT for CSX Transportation because reporting marks that end in "X" are reserved for non-railroad owners (shippers, leasing companies, etc.).


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## DonR (Oct 18, 2012)

At present, you can see that East of the Mississippi 
the two major railroads that dominate the
area are CSX and Norfolk Southern.

Likewise, West of the Mississippi you find, again,
two major railroads that dominate that area. They
are BNSF and Union Pacific. 

A third major player is CN that has taken over
many middle American roads.

Don


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## Gramps (Feb 28, 2016)

flyboy2610 said:


> I see CSX and Norfolk Southern diesels quite often on the BNSF mainline through Lincoln. I don't even give them a second thought, now.


I have seen Union Pacific units in Atlanta. I'm guessing it's cost effective to not switch motor power.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

Gramps said:


> I have seen Union Pacific units in Atlanta. I'm guessing it's cost effective to not switch motor power.


Sometimes. It's also possible that they are leased power. Railroads often put their unused motive power out for lease, so at least they get some revenue for it.

The only train I know of for sure that originated in thr west and ends up in the east is a produce train from the Pacific Northwest. It changes from BNSF to CSX motive power in Chicago before heading to Selkirk yard outside Albany, where it gets broken up for local destinatations.

Cars, on the other hand, almost always get handed off between railroads. The time and effort involved in transshipping cargo is prohibitive.


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## eljefe (Jun 11, 2011)

Bryan Moran said:


> I was very surprised to find it was a merger of Chessie (Chesapeake and Ohio?) and Seaboard.


The merger wasn't always a smooth one.


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## flyboy2610 (Jan 20, 2010)

eljefe, that's a good pic! :laugh::laugh:
I do hope noone got hurt!


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

eljefe said:


> The merger wasn't always a smooth one.


They drive like my sons!


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## Gramps (Feb 28, 2016)

This has happened on many layouts, proving once again that there is a prototype for everything.


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## cv_acr (Oct 28, 2011)

Gramps said:


> I have seen Union Pacific units in Atlanta. I'm guessing it's cost effective to not switch motor power.


There are many reasons to see locomotives from another railroad.

There may be cases of jointly operated or "run-through" trains where an entire train (especially some unit coal trains) is handed off from one railroad to another with the engines continuing through.

These arrangements can lead to an imbalance of RR A's engines being used by RR B, and they keep track of all this. To even things out, RR B will loan engines to RR A. This is called Horsepower-hours (HPH) repayment.

Then there is always just straight up rental or leasing of units to cover power shortages.


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## gregc (Apr 25, 2015)

a few years ago i was stunned to see a train pulled by Santa Fe locomotives here in central NJ.


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## DennyM (Jan 3, 2016)

I see a lot of CSX here in Michigan. There's a maintenance station about 17 miles from me.


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

Those of you that are loyalists like I am (to Rock Island, and U.P.) have a nice "brand" in CSX to collect the modern locomotive, in any scale. They are generally quite attractive locomotives with a mix of yellow, blue and grey. 

Then you can get some of their fallen flags underneath them. I'll try to limit my buying to R.I. but will see about getting some CSX rolling stock and an occasional locomotive. 

The railroad consolidations that took place from the late 70's through the 90's seemed to happen overnight. Out here in Iowa and the Midwest, U.P. has always been U.P. It was BNSF that you really had to keep track of. 

I am old enough to remember the green BN, no SF. I have one BNSF modern locomotive, I'm OK with them and glad Lionel and MTH (3 rail O Scale) support them but I won't be buying any more.


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## Bryan Moran (Jan 15, 2017)

DennyM said:


> I see a lot of CSX here in Michigan. There's a maintenance station about 17 miles from me.


Yes they seem to be "everywhere". When I take my bike rides around Des Moines, Iowa I have seen those maintenance boxes with "Property of CSX" on them. 

I think they really took off and must have filled a void. It is hard to follow - for me - the CSX fallen flags underneath them but they seem to have gained a large foot print in Michigan, Indiana and Ohio.


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## GNfan (Jun 3, 2016)

You're old enough to remember the green BN? I'm old enough to remember the Great Northern and Northern Pacific!


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## Tallaman (Oct 23, 2012)

Bryan Moran said:


> but will see about getting some CSX rolling stock"...


What's really interesting is to get private car line rolling stock. 70% of the car miles railroads pull are cars owned by private companies. TTX, Union Tank, Wells Fargo, Tropicana Transportation, Phillips 66, Shell Oil, Chevron, GATX, American Railcar, Procor, Strates Shows (Ringling Bros circus)...those are all private car lines.


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## Stumpy (Mar 19, 2013)

Speaking if NS & CSX...

https://www.railpictures.net/photo/699091


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## Gramps (Feb 28, 2016)

I remember the original version of this photo with the locos in their pre-merger colors.


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