Hello all, new here
I had a question about the freight Chessie used to pull. What road names did they pull during their era? Also what types of cars did they pull? Were they mainly the older style box cars or did they pull any of the high cubes or waffles or anything like that I see today that were built in the 70s and 80s?
depending on what part of the system the eastern part had a lot coal trains. i have a book somewhere i believe named Chessie system in the cumberland valley a lot of great pics showing a lot of consits. i remember the short 2 bay covered hoppers for silica sand lettered for chessie and predesscor roads. the sand was for a glass manufacturing company. i will look for the book and give you some more info
mark
Given the size of the Chessie System, any car in general interchange service was probably pulled. The roads closest to Chessie would be in the greatest numbers, but even West Coast roads would show up. Assuming you’re talking the mid 80’s (before it became CSX) then cars built in the 80’s, 70’s, 60’s, 50’s would be most prevalent, there could also be some earlier cars as well from the 40’s and even the 30’s.
Enjoy
Paul
I worked on the Chessie before CSX here’s what I seen.
Cars from the West would include WP,UP,SP,GN,BN,SF among others.
Cars from the South CRR,L&N,SDB,ACL,SCL,Southern,Family Lines,N&W and other cars.
Cars from the East,PC,RDG,NH,E-L D&H among others including early CR.
And thousands of short line IPD boxcars,Railbox ,Rail Gon,CP,CN,GTW,PFE,FGX,UTLX,GATX.
Some 40’ and 50’ boxcars with roof walks,tank cars with walkway,covered hoppers,coil cars etc…
Yes,there was waffle boxcars,a lot of the (new) 70 era boxcars like you see today.
Chessie wasn’t all about coal,there was intermodal trains,grain trains,coke trains just to name a few.
Who can forget the Chessie Steam Special and the Chessie Safety Express?
Ok cool, thanks for the info guys. I originally started buying cars for a modern era layout but decided to go with a Chessie era theme before I got to far into it. It looks like most of the cars I have will still work which is good news. Sure I will have a coal train I just didn’t want to buy a bunch of cars with b&o, c&o or wm only, I like a variation. It will be before the csx came along. I believe I read the EOT came out in the early 90s so I assume this era always had a caboose?
CSX is still using cabooses, in Evansville there is an exchange tracks across from the former Whirlpool factory and there are usually several cabooses in the yard there. They are placed on the end of coal trains with an EOT device.
Hey Brakie, I still have one of those “Orange” safety hats that has the circle with a slash through it for no train wrecks. A Chessie prize from an Uncle of mine back in the early 80’s.
Also I have pictures of Chessie System from the late 70’s early 80’s from WV when we went there on a “guys” only road trip with my dad and uncles who workd for the road. There were alot of WM in there original paint as helpers, we saw F units, and BL-2 being used before being scrapped out several years later. so If you are going for the mid-to late 80’s you could have a few WM or B&O or C&O’s still floating around in their original paint before the Chessie paint scheme came out. Hope this helps.
Ray
…" Happiness is seeing a Double Headed EM-1’s charging up a hill with a long coal drag"…
The Chessie System had 50’ Waffle Sided Box Cars with C&O and B&O reporting marks . They were repainted by CSX in the late 1990’s.
The Chessie System 60’ and 86’ Auto Parts Box Cars with C&O and B&O marks would be considered excess height, High-Cube Box Cars.
Andrew
Remember to get strings of 90-Ton and 100-Ton Three-Bay, Open-Top Hoppers for coal hauling in the 1980’s and 1970’s.
C&O and B&O Chessie System Steel Coil Cars with Covers were very common on and off of the Chessie System.
Look for the C&O and B&O Chessie System Pullman-Standard and ACF Center Flow 2-Bay and 3-Bay Covered Hoppers.
Andrew,
B&O freight car photos with dates:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/bo/bo-frt.html
C&O freight car photos with dates:
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/co/co-frt.html
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/co/co484564ags.jpg
http://www.rr-fallenflags.org/co/co486061akg.jpg
Western Maryland
I grew up with the Chessie System, and I remember that 98% or so of the coal hoppers were “home road” cars. Chessie, with older B&O, C&O and WM thrown in. At least where I hung out (western MD and northern WV) these trains were almost “conveyor belts”. They ran them up into the hollers, loaded them, ran them back down to the yards, made them into longer trains and shipped them out to the docks or the power plants. Then the same train came back empty. Kind of the original unit trains. Hardly ever any foreign road hoppers involved.
You definitely want cabooses. Chessie cabooses were some of the most colorful cars in America back in the 70’s and they had all kinds of different safety and promo slogans on them.
The Chessie System was pretty quick with repainting cars and locomotives, but it was a large system and there were always cars and often locos painted for the original three roads, especially the older types.
Train videos are the ticket, to see what they were pulling, in various years.
Check the excellent, Mountain Grades of the B&O, by Charles Smiley Presents.
I reviewed that title and many others recently.
Here is the link
http://wjhudson.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/mountain-grades-of-the-bo/