OK, I’ve seen that logo for years, but I seriously do not understand what it is. What is it?
No offense to their marketing dept., but I do not understand what that picture is!!!
It’s a kitten’s head laying with it’s paw extended.
There is even a book written about “Chessie the Railroad Kitten” http://www.railroadbookstore.com/rrbooks/Detailed/295.html
Yep, it’s the silhouette of a kitten. I was in the same boat as you for a long time until I read about it in a book!
Regards,
Clint
Ahh, my Chessie…purrrrrfect.
The first Pere Marquete passenger set evolved into the C&O Chessie the roots of the kitten, and has carried on to the “Chessie” logo.
Bob K.
What has PM passnger trains got to do with the ‘Chessie’ cat? The C&O did not buy the PM until after WWII. The Chessie cat has been used by the C&O long before that.
In WWII there were C&O advertisment noting that Chessie’s ‘husband’ Peake was doing his part and off to war. The Chessie kitten was used as a passenger advertising.
Jim
Correct.
“Sleep like a kitten” proclaimed the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway when it introduced CHESSIE in a 1933 advertisement. Two years later, two kittens were added to the logo in ads and company calendars. When the public demanded to know the father of her kittens, Peake, another tabby, was introduced as “Chessie’s Old Man.” Chessie still rides the rails on the sides of boxcars and locomotives in this stylized version, which appeared in 1972 after a 1969 merging of the C&O, B&O and other lines became the Chessie Systems.