Chessie System GP40-2 “GM50”: Gold Paint, History & CSX 6063

Published: August 30, 2026

In September 1972 Electro-Motive Division turned fifty as a locomotive builder and put a gold Chessie System GP40-2 on the lawn at La Grange. The engine was a regular B&O order unit, serial 7365-14, roster slot 4164. Chessie numbered it GM50 instead. Gold from pilot to dynamic-brake fans, including the trucks. “Electro-Motive 50 Years of Power” on both ends. No Ches-C on the nose. It went into ordinary freight after the open house and stayed gold for about twelve years. Then it became B&O 4164, then CSX 6063. On July 9, 2025, as 6063, it hit a truck at a crossing in Union City, Georgia, and burned. Sadly, its future status at this time is unknown.

Do not mix it up with B&O GP40-2 1977. That first Chessie-painted Geep celebrated the B&O’s 150th anniversary. GM50 celebrated General Motors. Same order, two different public-relations locomotives.

B&O GP40-2 GM50 with the Royal Blue Special

Baltimore & Ohio GP40-2 "GM50" leads the "Royal Blue Special" fan trip (so-named as B&O's Philadelphia Subdivision at one time was known as the Royal Blue Line) at Aberdeen, Maryland on April 30, 1983. Marty Bernard notes this trip was an NRHS special from Baltimore to Philadelphia, and then returned. Most of the passenger cars in the consist belonged to Railroad Passenger Cars known as RRP and were used with the Chessie System steam specials. The car immediately behind the locomotive is the famous ex-B&O 3302 club "Edward G. Hooper," then the car "Leonard J. Buxton," followed by the Pullman diner-lounge "Defender," with the rest being various RRP coaches and other coaches from the steam trains. Roger Puta photo.

On this page: At a glance · Why a gold GP40-2 · La Grange, September 1972 · The gold scheme · Road service · 4164 and CSX 6063 · Union City, 2025 · Specifications

At a Glance

Item	Detail
Builder / model	EMD GP40-2, Phase Ia
Order / serial	EMD 7365-14
Built	August–September 1972, La Grange, Ill.
Railroad	Baltimore & Ohio (Chessie System paint and marketing)
Special number	GM50 (the only B&O road number that mixed letters and numerals)
Roster slot	4164 in the B&O GP40-2 series
Why gold	Electro-Motive’s 50th anniversary as a locomotive manufacturer (EMC 1922)
Display	EMD 50th-anniversary open house, La Grange / McCook, September 1972 (photographed on the grounds September 9)
Repaint / renumber	Standard Chessie as B&O 4164, 1984 (Athearn/roster notes April 1984; some secondary lists say circa 1985)
CSX number	6063 (1987–88)
July 9, 2025	Grade-crossing collision and fire, Union City, Ga. Photographed dead in transit at Nashville, Aug. 16, 2025
Museum	Not confirmed as of this writing.

Why a gold GP40-2

Electro-Motive Corporation dated its locomotive business from 1922. Fifty years later the GP40-2 was the new four-axle road freight: 3,000 horsepower, 16-645E3, Dash-2 modular electrical cabinet. The model ultimately sold thousands and Chessie was taking a large slice of the early production. Hays T. Watkins always liked a public locomotive and was anxious to showcase the new holding company for the C&O, B&O, and Western Maryland; Chessie System. B&O 1977, completed as 7365-1 in August 1972, was the first unit in the new yellow-blue-vermilion Chessie dress, numbered for the B&O’s 150th anniversary (charter 1827). GM50 was the next public engine out of the same order.

On paper it is just another locomotive in order 7365. Sequence in that order:

7365-1 — B&O 1977 (first), later 4100
7365-2 through 7365-13 — B&O 4101–4112
7365-14 — GM50, roster 4164
7365-15 — B&O 1977 (second), later 4163
7365-16 through 7365-65 — B&O 4113–4162

B&O Modeler called GM50 the second GP40-2 Chessie painted, and the second Chessie-painted locomotive, period. That is the 1977-then-gold sequence, not a claim that 4101–4112 did not exist in the same order. The gold engine filled the 4164 hole so the rest of the 4100s could number straight through 4162, skip 4164, and pick up again at 4165 on the C&O.

La Grange, September 1972

EMD threw a plant open house for the anniversary. Displays included Southern FTA 6100 (the old FT demonstrator 103), Chicago & North Western GP7 1518 (GP7 demonstrator 100), and B&O boxcab No. 50, the 1935 Winton passenger diesel. The gold GP40-2 was the new-build star. Progress Rail’s own 1970s history still shows it that way. Bill Howes and other photographers dated GM50 on the grounds September 9, 1972. The plant sits in the La Grange / McCook industrial belt west of Chicago; both town names appear in period captions.

A freshly painted standard Chessie GP40-2 was there too—the site has featured Paul Schumann’s photograph of B&O 4122 at that open house on the Chessie history page. The gold engine was the one visitors walked around twice.

The gold scheme

It was not a Chessie unit with extra lettering. It was a different paint job:

Solid gold carbody, pilots, trucks, and dynamic-brake hardware
“Electro-Motive 50 Years of Power” logos on the front and rear
No Ches-C on the nose—the only Chessie-painted locomotive so treated, per B&O Modeler
B&O reporting marks on the cab; GM50 as the road number
Chessie kitten branding on the flanks in the gold dress, not the full yellow-blue-vermilion wrap

Factory gold lasted more than a decade in ordinary pool service, which is why the engine is in so many 1970s freight shots. Cumberland Shops laid a second gold coat in September 1983. You can tell the two gold jobs apart by the cab: original B&O letters were tight; the 1983 letters were stretched to the same length as “GM50” underneath. Athearn’s prototype note puts a full standard Chessie repaint and the number 4164 in April 1984. Some roster lists slide that into 1985. Either way, the gold years end in the mid-1980s, not at CSX.

Road service, not a display queen

After the open house, GM50 did what a 3,000-horsepower four-axle does. It mixed with other Chessie GP40-2s on manifests, intermodal, and whatever the dispatcher needed. It appeared at special events when the publicity department wanted gold in the photograph. It was not stored for parades. Roger Puta caught it on a fantrip runby at Aberdeen, Maryland—the B&O Philadelphia line, a place Chessie Steam Specials also stopped in 1977. The gold engine was famous because you could still find it on a freight for several years.

4164 and CSX 6063

Once the gold came off, it was just another B&O GP40-2 in the 4100s. Chessie became CSX in 1986–87. The unit was numbered CSX 6063 in 1987–88 and later wore YN2 and YN3. It was still a working four-axle on CSX into the 2020s. Secondary write-ups (and more than one model-railroad history blurb) talked about a future gift to the B&O Railroad Museum after retirement. That was a rumor with a date, not a deed of gift. GP40-2s were still useful to CSX and the railroad has regularly rebuilt the Geeps; a testament to EMD's product of the 1970s.

Union City, July 9, 2025

On July 9, 2025, CSX 6063, leading with 6440 trailing, struck a truck at a crossing in Union City, Georgia, in suburban Atlanta. The Union City Fire Department documented the fire. The truck driver was ejected and taken to Grady Memorial; the passenger had lesser injuries; the train crew was not injured. Photos after the wreck show melted numberboards, burned conductor-side paint, and a cab that had been through a fire. On August 16, 2025, Rick Morgan photographed it dead in transit northbound at Nashville National Cemetery at Madison, Tennessee.

As of this writing there is no public confirmation it has been rebuilt, scrapped, or moved to Baltimore.

Specifications

Figures are the EMD GP40-2 as built for Chessie’s early Phase Ia cars. GM50 was not a mechanical one-off. The gold was paint.

Specification	Value
Builder	Electro-Motive Division, La Grange, Ill.
Model / phase	GP40-2, Phase Ia (wire-mesh radiator grilles, narrow battery-box louvers, separate ECAFB)
Serial	7365-14 (order 7365)
Horsepower	3,000 (16-645E3 turbocharged)
Wheel arrangement	B-B
Electrical	Dash-2 modular control cabinet
Dynamic brakes	Yes (standard on this Chessie order)
As-built identity	B&O GM50, gold 50th-anniversary paint
Later identities	B&O 4164 (standard Chessie, 1984); CSX 6063 (1987–88 on)

Chessie bought hundreds of GP40-2s for B&O, C&O, and Western Maryland between 1972 and 1981. GM50 is the one whose number would not fit a computer field and whose paint would not hide in a lash-up.

Sources

The Diesel Shop, Chessie System power (GM50 = B&O 4164, EMD 7365-14, 8/72)
Robert Sarberenyi / chessie-system.com GP40-2 table (order 7365 sequence, Phase Ia)
B&O Modeler 4, no. 2 (March–April 2008): second Chessie GP40-2; no Ches-C on the nose; Electro-Motive 50 Years of Power logos; Cumberland gold, Sept. 1983; 4164 then CSX 6063
Progress Rail, EMD 100 / 1970s: La Grange 50th-anniversary displays including B&O GM50
The Diesel Shop, EMD open houses 1966 & 1972 (R. Craig, Bill Howes): gold GP40-2 as the 1972 star; gold until 1984
Marty Bernard / Bill Howes slides, Trainorders: GM50 at La Grange, September 9, 1972
Athearn Genesis prototype note (ATHG-1738): La Grange display, April 1984 Chessie repaint as 4164, later CSX 6063 YN3
Railroad Picture Archives locomotive record CSX 6063 / BO GM50: wrecked and burned Union City, Ga., July 9, 2025; Rick Morgan dead-in-transit photo, Madison, Tenn., August 16, 2025
Union City Fire Department / contemporary reports of the July 9, 2025 crossing fire

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