1. Home
›
2. Fallen Flags
›
3. Chesapeake & Ohio

Chesapeake and Ohio Railway: Map, Logo, History

Last revised: September 17, 2026

By: Adam Burns

The Chesapeake & Ohio called itself George Washington’s Railroad. Reporting mark CO. The company that wore that slogan was a Virginia farm road that became one of the great Appalachian coal haulers—Newport News to Cincinnati, mines in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, a James River water-level freight line, and, after 1947, the Pere Marquette across Michigan and Ontario. Collis P. Huntington pushed it to the Ohio River in 1873. The Van Sweringens and Robert R. Young made it a Midwestern system. It took control of the Baltimore & Ohio on February 4, 1963, became the senior road in Chessie System, and vanished into CSX Transportation on August 31, 1987.

The ancestor was the Louisa Railroad, chartered February 18, 1836. First trains ran in December 1837. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company took the name on August 31, 1868. The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company was the reorganization of July 1, 1878.

Chessie System/C&O B30-7 #8274 leads empties westbound through the yard at Clifton Forge, Virginia, in October 1983. Rob Kitchen photo.

On this page: At a glance · Louisa Railroad · Virginia Central and the Blue Ridge · Civil War · Huntington to the Ohio · George Washington’s Railroad · Newport News, Cincinnati, coal · System map, 1946 · Chicago, Hocking Valley, the lakes · Van Sweringens, Pere Marquette, Young · Chessie the kitten · Steam and diesel · Passenger trains · B&O, Chessie System, CSX · What remains

At a glance

The Chesapeake & Ohio’s classic logo. Author’s work. The C&O for Progress mark is the Robert R. Young era; the older public slogan was George Washington’s Railroad.

Thomas W. Dixon, Jr., Chesapeake & Ohio Railway: A Concise History And Fact Book, is the company narrative. Corporate succession follows the ICC valuation (Vol. 24). 1930 and 1950 miles are the Official Guide-era plant. 1963 equipment counts on the live page were 1,053 diesels, 92,992 freight cars, and 324 passenger cars. Information compiled September 17, 2026.

Louisa Railroad, 1836

Virginia chartered the Louisa Railroad on February 18, 1836, to open a branch off the north–south Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac. The first 22.80 miles, Doswell (then Taylorsville) to Frederick’s Hall, opened in December 1837. Louisa followed in 1838, Gordonsville in 1840. Piedmont farms paid the bills. The RF&P connection at Doswell was the tidewater outlet until the company built its own line into Richmond.

On February 2, 1850 the Louisa took a name that fit a longer railroad: Virginia Central. Thomas Dixon, Jr., in Chesapeake & Ohio Railway: A Concise History And Fact Book, puts the object as the Shenandoah Valley and what was then western Virginia. The RF&P objected to a rival into Richmond. The Virginia Central reached the capital anyway; the Interstate Commerce Commission valuation books Doswell–Richmond as 1851, 26.30 miles.

Virginia Central and the Blue Ridge

West of Charlottesville the mountains began. The Commonwealth chartered the Blue Ridge Railroad on March 5, 1849 to carry the Virginia Central over Rockfish Gap. Claudius Crozet was the engineer. Four tunnels, the longest the Blue Ridge Tunnel: 4,273 feet by Crozet’s 1858 figure, opened April 13, 1858. It was then among the longest railroad tunnels in the world. The Virginia Central operated the state line from opening. The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad bought the Blue Ridge company on April 1, 1870. A larger parallel bore replaced Crozet’s tunnel in 1944; CSX and Amtrak still use the new one. The old bore is a trail.

West of the Blue Ridge the Virginia Central crossed the Valley and Great North Mountain. It reached Jackson’s River Station—later the Clifton Forge area—in the mid-1850s (ICC: Millboro to Jackson River, 1858). That was about 192 miles from Richmond, enough to make the road a Confederate asset and a Union target.

Civil War

The Virginia Central carried Shenandoah food into Richmond and moved troops when the campaigns sat on its rails. Both armies wrecked it. The Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society puts the road at about five miles still in service and $40 in gold in the treasury when the war ended. Crews had the line running again on July 23, 1865.

Jackson’s River to Covington, 12.60 miles, opened July 1, 1867. Beyond Covington the unfinished Covington & Ohio—chartered February 15, 1853, a state project to the Ohio River—had grading, tunnel work on Alleghany Mountain, and pieces of roadbed around Charleston. The money to finish it was gone. Virginia and West Virginia acts of March 1 and February 26, 1867, vested those rights in the Virginia Central. On August 31, 1868, the company took the name Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company. The object was now Chesapeake Bay to the Ohio River, the old Virginia “Great Connection.”

Huntington to the Ohio, 1869–1873

Williams C. Wickham, president after the war, needed capital the ruined South could not supply. Collis P. Huntington, just off the Central Pacific, put money in during 1869. He wanted an eastern piece of a true transcontinental. The C&O used Covington & Ohio work over Alleghany Mountain, reached White Sulphur Springs in 1869, and then built from both ends through the new state of West Virginia: east from a raw town on the Ohio that took Huntington’s name, west from White Sulphur along the Greenbrier, the New River Gorge, Gauley, and the Kanawha. The Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society dates the join at Hawks Nest to January 28, 1873. Huntington, West Virginia, became the locomotive shops. The Ohio was still a packet-boat connection. Huntington did not bridge it.

The Panic of 1873 caught a railroad that had spent its cash on construction and had not yet developed the coal that would pay the bills. Receivership began October 9, 1875. Foreclosure sale was July 1, 1878. The purchaser—Huntington, A. S. Hatch, A. A. Low, Isaac Davenport Jr., and John Castree, for a committee of security holders—reorganized the property the same day as The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company, under the general laws of Virginia and West Virginia. That is the corporation that lasted until CSX.

Why “George Washington’s Railroad”

Washington died thirty-seven years before the Louisa charter. The slogan ran through a canal, not through the first president’s person. Virginia chartered the James River Company in October 1784 (and again February 17, 1820) on a scheme Washington had promoted: James River navigation toward the Kanawha and the Ohio. Seven miles, Richmond to Westham, opened in 1790. The James River and Kanawha Company of March 16, 1832, pushed the canal to Buchanan by 1851 and stopped. Railroads had won.

The Richmond & Alleghany Railroad bought the canal right-of-way and, from 1880, laid track on the towpath. Laura Armitage’s Richmond & Alleghany Railroad is the article for the construction: 230.31 miles Richmond to Clifton Forge in 1881, plus 19.38 miles Balcony Falls to Lexington. Receivership began July 1, 1883. The Richmond & Alleghany Railway emerged May 20, 1889. The C&O took the property on January 20, 1890. The James River Line was the low-grade coal route the mountain Virginia Central had never been. CSX still runs it. The canal ancestry is what let the C&O put Washington on the timetables.

Newport News, Cincinnati, and the coalfields

Huntington kept control through the 1878 reorganization and spent the next decade pointing the railroad at water. The Peninsula Extension, Richmond to a new city at Newport News on Hampton Roads, opened 1881–82 (ICC books Richmond–Newport News as 1882, 74.10 miles). Ice-free tidewater, coal piers, coastwise ships to the Northeast. That became the eastern staple.

West of Ashland, Huntington used the Newport News & Mississippi Valley (formed June 1879) and the Elizabethtown, Lexington & Big Sandy to reach Lexington in December 1881. Trackage rights on the Louisville & Nashville carried C&O cars into Louisville. The Big Sandy later gave the C&O its own coal line to Elkhorn City and an interchange with the Clinchfield.

In 1888 Huntington lost majority control, without a foreclosure, to J. P. Morgan and Vanderbilt interests. Mike Schafer, in More Classic American Railroads, is the usual citation. Melville E. Ingalls, already president of the Vanderbilt Big Four, took the C&O presidency; George W. Stevens ran the railroad. They rebuilt what Huntington had finished but not modernized: ballast, lined tunnels, steel bridges, heavier rail, larger power. On December 25, 1888 the Cincinnati Division opened down the south bank of the Ohio—Ashland, Augusta, Covington, Kentucky—and into Cincinnati. In 1891 trackage rights on the Virginia Midland, Orange to Washington, put C&O trains into the capital. That line became Southern Railway.

From 1900 to about 1920 the map filled with coal branches in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky. Shops and yards went in at Charlottesville, Gladstone, and Clifton Forge, Virginia; Handley, West Virginia; and Russell, Kentucky, which grew into the principal western coal terminal. The mountain main and the James River Line together made the C&O a coal conveyor of the same order as the neighboring Norfolk & Western, with a Tidewater pier of its own and, soon, a Great Lakes outlet.

Before the C&O took control of the Baltimore & Ohio the two roads interchanged at Kenova, West Virginia, near Huntington, where the C&O main met the B&O’s Ohio River Branch. B&O steam sits at left; C&O GP9s have a coal drag. Probably the 1950s. Author’s collection.

System map, 1946

An official 1946 system map of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway. Author’s collection. Tidewater at right, Cincinnati and the Ohio at left; the Pere Marquette merger is still a year away.

Chicago, the Hocking Valley, and Lake Erie

Twentieth-century growth was mostly purchase. The Chicago, Cincinnati & Louisville had built 284.5 miles diagonally across Indiana—Cincinnati via Richmond, Muncie, and Peru to Hammond—and gone into receivership. The C&O acquired it on June 23, 1908 and operated it as the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway of Indiana. Friendly rights into Chicago made a Tidewater–Chicago route. Most of that Indiana line later lost out to the B&O’s Chicago main and was abandoned.

Also in 1910 the C&O took control of the Hocking Valley Railway, Toledo to Athens, Jackson, Gallipolis, and Pomeroy via Columbus, with Hocking coal southeast of the capital. For years C&O coal bound for Toledo rode the Norfolk & Western from the Kenova area to Columbus, an arrangement the N&W rationed. Between 1917 and 1926 the C&O built its own connection from near Russell, Kentucky, across the Ohio at Limeville/Sciotoville to Columbus. The Sciotoville bridge remains one of the heaviest railroad spans in the country. The Hocking Valley was merged in 1930. More C&O coal then moved west to the lakes than east to Hampton Roads.

Chesapeake & Ohio GP35 #3535 leads a westbound past the Hammond Water Filtration Plant on the joint C&O of Indiana/Erie trackage through Hammond, Indiana, toward State Line interlocking in July 1972. Rick Burn photo.

Van Sweringens, Pere Marquette, and “C&O for Progress”

O. P. and M. J. Van Sweringen of Cleveland bought control of the C&O in January 1923 as part of a Nickel Plate–centered empire that also took in the Erie and, in 1924, the Pere Marquette. The ICC denied the “Greater Nickel Plate System” in 1926. The C&O kept the Pere Marquette stock. The brothers’ holding companies collapsed in the Depression; the C&O did not. Coal still moved. Cheap labor and materials in the early 1930s paid for new tunnels, double track, heavier rail, and rebuilt bridges. The railroad went into the Second World War with modern plant and modern steam. Hampton Roads was a principal port of embarkation.

Robert R. Young took control through the Van Sweringen remnants and was chairman by 1942. He put C&O for Progress on the herald, staffed a research department, and treated passenger service as a public argument about what railroads should still be. The Pere Marquette was merged on June 6, 1947. Automotive traffic in and out of Michigan gave the C&O a merchandise base that coal alone had never supplied. Walter J. Tuohy ran the railroad under Young and after; Cyrus Eaton later chaired the board from Cleveland. Young left to chair the New York Central and died in 1958.

Chesapeake & Ohio GP7 #5773 works Reed City Lumber in Reed City, Michigan, in August 1962. Rick Burn photo. Ex-Pere Marquette country, fifteen years after the merger.

Chesapeake & Ohio GP9 #5707, Chessie System/C&O GP38 #3820, and other power, layover at Rougemere Yard in Dearborn, Michigan in March, 1977. Karl Miller photo.

C&O train 25 northbound at Thompsonville, Michigan, in August 1962. Rick Burn, riding with his brother Don from Baldwin to Traverse City, noted the locomotive sitting on the Ann Arbor diamond (Toledo–Frankfort), heavy head-end business, a former Pere Marquette combine, and the tri-weekly Chicago–Traverse City sleeper named Traverse City.

Chessie, the sleeping kitten

The image that outlived the railroad was not a locomotive. In 1933 Lionel Probert, heading C&O public relations, bought a drawing of a sleeping kitten from the artist Guido Grenewald for $5. Probert was selling new air-conditioned sleeping cars. He named the cat Chessie, after the railroad, and wrote the line Sleep Like A Kitten And Wake Up Fresh As A Daisy In Air-Conditioned Comfort. The first advertisement ran in the September 1933 Fortune. Calendars and merchandise followed faster than the company could stock them. A father cat, Peake, and kittens Nip and Tuck joined the campaign through 1948.

The original version of Chesapeake & Ohio’s Chessie, the sleeping kitten.

Chessie, with Nip and Tuck.

Peake, the father cat in the Chessie advertisements.

The kitten receded with the passenger business. It came back as a silhouette inside the Chessie System “C” on yellow, vermilion, and blue locomotives in 1972. That holding-company story is Chessie System. The Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society still sells the calendars.

Alleghenies, Greenbriers, and a late diesel

Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-6 #1625 (H-8) charges out of the tunnels at Alleghany, Virginia, with an eastbound coal drag on October 19, 1951. Bill Price photo. American-Rails.com collection.

Coal was cheap fuel, so the C&O stayed with steam later than most Class Is, as the Norfolk & Western did. Lima’s 2-6-6-6 Alleghenies (H-8, 1941–48) were built for the Alleghany grade between Hinton and Clifton Forge. The 4-8-4 Greenbriers, 2-8-4 Kanawhas, 2-10-4 T-1s of 1930 for Russell–Toledo coal, Pacifics, and Mountains are the steam roster. Baldwin’s last steam locomotives for a U.S. railroad were ten C&O H-6 2-6-6-2s of 1949, 1300–1309, for Logan coal. No. 1308’s last run was February 29, 1956. Main-line steam was finished that year.

Chesapeake & Ohio 2-6-6-6 (H-8) Allegheny #1637 at Richmond, Virginia, circa 1956—the last year of C&O steam.

Road diesels arrived in earnest only as steam parts and shops disappeared. Electro-Motive GP7s and GP9s took the coal branches and then the mains; E7s and E8s took the varnish. Alco, Baldwin, and GE filled in. Unit-by-unit is the diesel roster.

A trio of Chesapeake & Ohio GP9s at Charlottesville, Virginia, on the evening of March 8, 1969. Roger Puta photo.

A shined-up Chesapeake & Ohio GP7, #5896, on the Old Dominion Chapter NRHS Autumn Leaf Special at Clifton Forge, Virginia, October 26, 1969. Roger Puta photo.

F.F.V., George Washington, Sportsman

With Chesapeake & Ohio E8A #4029 as power, the westbound George Washington awaits departure from the ferry terminal in Newport News, Virginia, in October 1968. Roger Puta photo.

The public names, each with its own page:

• Fast Flying Virginian / F.F.V. — Washington/Newport News–Cincinnati/Louisville
• George Washington — Washington/Newport News–Cincinnati/Louisville, the flagship after 1932
• Sportsman — Washington/Newport News–Cincinnati/Detroit
• The Chessie — Washington–Cincinnati, advertised after the war, never launched; M-1 turbines and leftover Budd cars
• Pere Marquette — Detroit–Grand Rapids from August 10, 1946 (first postwar streamliner), later Chicago–Grand Rapids/Muskegon
• Resort Special — Chicago–Petoskey in the Pere Marquette years; later Washington–White Sulphur Springs for the Greenbrier

Chesapeake & Ohio E8A #4003 lays over at the small engine terminal in Charlottesville, Virginia, on March 8, 1969. Roger Puta photo.

Chesapeake & Ohio E7A #96 on train 25, Grand Rapids–Petoskey on the former Pere Marquette, taking a wave at Baldwin, Michigan, in July 1960. Rick Burn photo.

Long-distance C&O passenger trains passed to Amtrak on May 1, 1971. Amtrak’s Cardinal still uses the mountain and New River main through West Virginia and Virginia.

B&O control, Chessie System, CSX

By the early 1960s the C&O was still earning money on coal when larger neighbors were not. The New York Central wanted the Baltimore & Ohio. So did the C&O. The Interstate Commerce Commission approved C&O control on December 31, 1962. Direct control closed February 4, 1963. It was not a merger of the two corporations. The C&O left the B&O standing, in part to keep a Maryland tax exemption and in part because B&O people would not have taken an erasure quietly. Western Maryland stock accumulated until C&O/B&O had the Wild Mary in 1967. A proposed C&O–N&W merger, announced in 1965 as a counter to Penn Central, never closed.

Yellow, blue, and vermilion GP40-2s with the Chess-“C” kitten silhouette began arriving in 1972. Chessie System, Inc. was incorporated in Virginia on February 26, 1973, and became parent of the C&O, B&O, and Western Maryland on June 15. Hays T. Watkins was the C&O president who wanted one public name for the three. The holding company is Chessie System.

Chesapeake & Ohio GP30 #3008, GP35 #3568, and another GP30 at the east end of Rockwell Yard on the Belt Railway of Chicago, Southwest Highway crossing, January 1965. Roger Puta photo.

Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries (the Family Lines) formed CSX Corporation on November 1, 1980. Trains Magazine’s CSX family tree is the date list used on the B&O page and here: Western Maryland into the B&O on May 1, 1983; B&O into the C&O on April 30, 1987; C&O dissolved into CSX Transportation on August 31, 1987.

What remains

CSX still runs the spine: Newport News to Richmond, the James River Line to Clifton Forge, the New River and Kanawha mains to Huntington, and the Cincinnati Division along the Ohio. Columbus–Toledo and the Russell coal terminal remain. The mountain Virginia Central west of Charlottesville is largely a short-line and Amtrak operation on CSX-owned iron. Most of the C&O of Indiana to Chicago came up in favor of the B&O. Lexington is mostly gone. Large pieces of the Pere Marquette were sold or abandoned; Grand Rapids–Chicago and other Michigan mains survive under CSX and short lines. Ludington car-ferry service outlived the C&O name.

The kitten, the Greenbrier at White Sulphur Springs, H-8s 1601 and 1604, Kanawhas on town display, 2-6-6-2s 1308 and 1309, and 4-8-4 614 are what the photographs remember. The corporation of July 1, 1878, is not.

Related reading on American-Rails.com

• C&O steam roster · C&O diesel roster · M-1 turbines · Alleghenies
• Class F 4-6-2 · Class J 4-8-2 · Greenbriers · Kanawhas · T-1 2-10-4
• F.F.V. · George Washington · Sportsman · The Chessie · Pere Marquette
• Pere Marquette Railway · Baltimore & Ohio · Western Maryland · Chessie System · CSX
• Clinchfield · Norfolk & Western · Louisville & Nashville · Nickel Plate · Family Lines

Sources

• Dixon, Thomas W., Jr. Chesapeake & Ohio Railway: A Concise History And Fact Book. Clifton Forge, Va.: Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society, 2012. Company narrative; Chessie kitten purchase
• Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society. Company history. Louisa/Virginia Central; Crozet tunnels; Hawks Nest January 28, 1873; 1878 Railway; Peninsula 1881; Ingalls/Stevens 1888; Hocking Valley and Sciotoville connection 1917–26; Van Sweringens; Young; Pere Marquette; Chessie System
• Interstate Commerce Commission. Valuation Reports, Vol. 24, The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company. Louisa February 18, 1836; Virginia Central February 2, 1850; C&O Railroad August 31, 1868; receivership October 9, 1875; Railway July 1, 1878; construction years including Doswell–Richmond 1851, Covington–Huntington 1873, Richmond–Newport News 1882; Richmond & Alleghany January 20, 1890
• Armitage, Laura. “Richmond & Alleghany Railroad.” 230.31 miles Richmond–Clifton Forge, 19.38-mile Lexington branch
• Schafer, Mike. More Classic American Railroads. Osceola, Wis.: MBI. Huntington loses control, 1888, to Morgan/Vanderbilt
• Trains Magazine CSX merger family tree. Chessie System, Inc., February 26 / June 15, 1973; WM into B&O May 1, 1983; B&O into C&O April 30, 1987; C&O into CSXT August 31, 1987
• Classic Trains. “Remembering the Pere Marquette Railway.” Van Sweringen control; C&O–PM merger June 6, 1947
• American Society of Civil Engineers / Crozet Blue Ridge Tunnel Foundation. Tunnel 4,273 feet (Crozet 1858); replacement bore 1944
• Live American-Rails B&O, Chessie System, Pere Marquette, steam-class, diesel-roster, M-1, and named-train pages as linked above

FacebookXPinterestTumblrRedditWhatsAppMessenger

Recent Articles

• 
• 
• 

1. Toledo, Peoria & Western Diesel Roster (All-Time)

   Oct 30, 26 10:25 AM

   
   Toledo, Peoria & Western diesel locomotives, each frame once. Thirteen Alcos, three Lima-Hamilton switchers, and 26 Electro-Motive units.

   Read More

2. Toledo, Peoria & Western Steam Roster

   Oct 30, 26 09:14 AM

   
   Toledo, Peoria & Western steam locomotives from the Rogers Consolidations of 1895 through the 4-8-4s of 1937

   Read More

3. Toledo, Peoria & Western Railway: Map, Roster, History

   Oct 29, 26 11:12 PM

   
   History of the Toledo, Peoria & Western. The Peoria & Oquawka, George P. McNear, the Santa Fe and Pennsylvania years, and the railroad that came back in 1989.

   Read More

4. Cotton Belt Diesel Roster (All-Time)

   Oct 29, 26 07:58 PM

   
   St. Louis Southwestern diesel locomotives, each frame once. Baldwin switchers, F units, and new Cotton Belt-lettered power through the GP60s of May 1990.

   Read More

5. Cotton Belt Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

   Oct 29, 26 06:52 PM

   
   St. Louis Southwestern steam locomotives built since 1900. Consolidations, Ten-Wheelers, and twenty class L-1 4-8-4s. The quantity column is 297.

   Read More

6. Cotton Belt Railroad: Map, Logo, History, Rosters

   Oct 29, 26 10:56 AM

   
   History of the St. Louis Southwestern, the Cotton Belt Route. The Tyler Tap, Paramore's silver spike, the Thebes Bridge, the Blue Streak, and Southern Pacific control. Steam and diesel rosters are sep…

   Read More

7. Pere Marquette Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

   Oct 28, 26 11:54 PM

   
   Pere Marquette steam locomotives built since 1900. Consolidations, Mikados, Pacifics, and 39 Berkshires. The quantity column is 503.

   Read More

8. Pere Marquette Diesel Roster (All-Time)

   Oct 28, 26 11:48 PM

   
   Pere Marquette diesel locomotives, each frame once. Two SW1s, 14 NW2s, three GE 70-tonners, eight E7As, and six BL2s delivered lettered Chesapeake and Ohio. The quantity column is 33.

   Read More

9. Pere Marquette Railway: Map, Logo, Rosters, History

   Oct 28, 26 11:44 PM

   
   History of the Pere Marquette Railway. Timber roads, the Prince years, the Van Sweringens, the Ludington car ferries, and the Chesapeake and Ohio merger of June 6, 1947.

   Read More

10. Nickel Plate Road (Railroad): Map, History, Rosters

    Oct 28, 26 10:51 PM

    
    History of the Nickel Plate Road, the New York, Chicago and St. Louis. The Seney syndicate, the Van Sweringens, the Berkshires, and the Norfolk and Western absorption at 12:01 a.m. on October 16, 1964…

    Read More

11. Nickel Plate Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 28, 26 10:48 PM

    
    Nickel Plate diesel locomotives, each frame once. Alco switchers and PAs, GP7s and GP9s, and the GP30s. The quantity column is 440. The 1950 fleet was 117.

    Read More

12. Nickel Plate Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 28, 26 10:43 PM

    
    Nickel Plate steam locomotives built since 1900, including the Lake Erie and Western, the Clover Leaf, and the Wheeling engines that took Nickel Plate numbers. The quantity column is 786.

    Read More

13. EMD "E9" Locomotives: Specs, Roster, History

    Oct 28, 26 10:37 PM

    
    EMD E9 cab units and boosters, 2,400 horsepower, built April 1954 through January 1964. Gear ratios, specifications, and the production roster by owner, serial, and order.

    Read More

14. NYC 4-6-4 #5344, "Commodore Vanderbilt"

    Oct 28, 26 04:31 PM

    
    NYC J-1e Hudson 5344, the Commodore Vanderbilt. Alco, November 1931. Carl Kantola’s shroud, December 1934, then a Dreyfuss bullet nose in 1939. Scrapped at Collinwood in 1954.

    Read More

15. New Jersey, Indiana & Illinois Railroad: A South Bend Shortline

    Oct 28, 26 11:05 AM

    
    The New Jersey, Indiana & Illinois, the Jersey Line, ran from South Bend to Pine. Singer built it in 1905. Wabash stock control came in 1926. Two diesels, and the steam the record names.

    Read More

16. Monon Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 28, 26 10:13 AM

    
    Monon diesel locomotives, each frame once. F3s, nine BL2s, the C420s, and eight U23Bs. The quantity column is 96. The 1951 fleet was 57.

    Read More

17. Monon Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 28, 26 10:09 AM

    
    Monon steam locomotives built since 1900. Twelve-Wheelers, Mikados, light Pacifics, and thirteen six-wheel switchers. The quantity column is 148.

    Read More

18. Monon Railroad: Map, Photos, History, Logo

    Oct 28, 26 09:55 AM

    
    History of the Monon, the Hoosier Line. The New Albany & Salem, the X at Monon, Barriger's streamliners, and the Louisville & Nashville merger of July 31, 1971.

    Read More

19. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 28, 26 09:48 AM

    
    All-time diesel roster of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas. 406 locomotives, each frame once. Baldwin switchers, Alco cab units, F units, Geeps, and the SD40-2s.

    Read More

20. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 28, 26 09:43 AM

    
    Missouri-Kansas-Texas steam locomotives built since 1900. Moguls, Mikados, Pacifics, and the narrow-gauge shop tanks. The quantity column is 715.

    Read More

21. Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (Katy): Map, History, Rosters

    Oct 27, 26 11:02 PM

    
    History of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas, the Katy. The race into Indian Territory, Gould, the 1923 railroad, the Texas Special, and the 1988 sale. Steam and diesel rosters are linked.

    Read More

22. Soo Line Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 27, 26 10:55 PM

    
    All-time diesel roster of the Soo Line and the Wisconsin Central. 786 locomotives, each frame once. Cab units, Geeps, the Milwaukee Road engines, and the SD60s. The South Shore's 24 stay on that page.

    Read More

23. Soo Line Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 27, 26 10:49 PM

    
    Soo Line and Wisconsin Central steam locomotives built since 1900. Consolidations, Mikados, Pacifics, 21 Mountains, and four Lima 4-8-4s.

    Read More

24. Soo Line Railroad: Map, Logo, History, Rosters

    Oct 27, 26 10:24 PM

    
    The Soo Line, from the flour millers' railroad around Chicago to the Sault, the Wisconsin Central, and the Milwaukee Road. Steam quantity 422. Diesels 786. Canadian Pacific took full control in 1990.

    Read More

25. Minneapolis, Northfield and Southern Railway: Map, History, Rosters

    Oct 27, 26 10:32 AM

    
    The Minneapolis, Northfield & Southern, the Dan Patch Line that became a Twin Cities belt. Steam, gas-electric mules, motor cars, and the 22 diesels, through the Soo Line.

    Read More

26. Minneapolis & St. Louis Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 27, 26 10:27 AM

    
    All-time diesel roster of the Minneapolis & St. Louis. 97 locomotives, each frame once. Switchers from 1938, 35 RS-1s, the FT and F-unit cabs, two SD7s, and 23 GP9s. Builder numbers included.

    Read More

27. Minneapolis & St. Louis Steam Roster (Post 1900)

    Oct 27, 26 10:25 AM

    
    Minneapolis & St. Louis steam locomotives built since 1900. Moguls, Consolidations, 35 Mikados, and five Pacifics.

    Read More

28. Minneapolis and St Louis Railway: "The Peoria Gateway"

    Oct 27, 26 09:52 AM

    
    The Minneapolis & St. Louis, the Tootin' Louie, from the 1870 charter to the Peoria Gateway and the Chicago & North Western sale on November 1, 1960.

    Read More

29. Alco "PA" Locomotives: Restoration, Specs, Engine, Rosters

    Oct 27, 26 12:12 AM

    
    Alco's PA passenger cab, 297 locomotives built from 1946 to 1953. The 244 engine, the production roster, the Delaware & Hudson PA-4s, and Nickel Plate Road 190.

    Read More

30. Milwaukee Road Diesel Roster: (All Time)

    Oct 26, 26 01:44 PM

    
    All-time diesel roster of the Milwaukee Road. 1,208 locomotives, each frame once. Alco, Baldwin, Davenport, EMD, Fairbanks-Morse, General Electric, and Whitcomb, with builder numbers.

    Read More

31. Milwaukee Road Steam Roster (All-Time): Post-1900

    Oct 26, 26 01:38 PM

    
    Milwaukee Road steam locomotives built since 1900. Prairies, Mikados, the N-class articulateds, the S-class 4-8-4s, and the Hiawatha Atlantics and Hudsons. Quantity column 1,974. Unique frames 1,951.

    Read More

32. Milwaukee Road: Map, Electrification, Logo, History

    Oct 26, 26 01:20 PM

    
    The Milwaukee Road, from the Milwaukee & Mississippi of 1850 to the Pacific Coast Extension, the Hiawathas, and the Soo Line sale. Why Lines West should have stayed.

    Read More

33. Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad: Map, Roster, History

    Oct 25, 26 11:38 PM

    
    Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad, reporting mark LSI, from the Marquette Range to the Presque Isle ore dock. The 1954 steam list and the diesels the railroad owned.

    Read More

34. Kansas City Southern Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 25, 26 09:09 PM

    
    Steam locomotives of the Kansas City Southern built since 1900, with the Louisiana & Arkansas and the Texas company.

    Read More

35. Kansas City Southern Diesel Roster (Built New)

    Oct 25, 26 11:46 AM

    
    All-time diesel roster of the Kansas City Southern. E units, F units, Geeps, SD40s through SD70ACes, Fairbanks-Morse, Baldwin, Alco, and General Electric, with serials and order numbers.

    Read More

36. Kansas City Southern Railway: Map, Photos, History

    Oct 25, 26 12:24 AM

    
    The Kansas City Southern, from Arthur Stilwell's Gulf line to Canadian Pacific Kansas City on April 14, 2023. Steam and diesel rosters, the Southern Belle, and the Louisiana & Arkansas.

    Read More

37. Indiana Harbor Belt Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 25, 26 12:17 AM

    
    All-time diesel roster of the Indiana Harbor Belt. 202 locomotive frames, each counted once. NW2s, SW7s, SW1500s, road switchers, and gensets. Slugs and boosters are outside the count.

    Read More

38. Indiana Harbor Belt Steam Roster (Built Since 1900)

    Oct 25, 26 12:13 AM

    
    Steam locomotives of the Indiana Harbor Belt built since 1900. 182 engines, each counted once. 0-6-0s, 2-6-0s, 0-8-0s, and 2-8-2s. The three U-4a switchers are three-cylinder Brooks engines of 1927.

    Read More

39. Indiana Harbor Belt Railroad: Map, Rosters, History

    Oct 25, 26 12:00 AM

    
    Indiana Harbor Belt, the inner belt across the Calumet, from the East Chicago Belt of May 16, 1896. Renamed June 29, 1907. Still operating, headquarters Hammond. Steam roster is the companion, 182 loc…

    Read More

40. NYC's "P Motor" Electric Locomotives

    Oct 24, 26 11:43 PM

    
    New York Central P motors: 22 Alco-GE 2-C+C-2 electrics, Cleveland Union Terminal 1050–1071, class P-1a. 3,030 hp one-hour on 3,000-volt DC catenary, then 660-volt third rail as P-2a and P-2b.

    Read More

41. Illinois Terminal Car Roster

    Oct 24, 26 11:40 PM

    
    Illinois Terminal cars. Mainline motors, the 1948 streamliners, sleepers, Alton and Valley Division cars, express motors, and the line cars rebuilt from pull cars.

    Read More

42. Illinois Terminal Diesel Roster

    Oct 24, 26 09:31 PM

    
    All-time Illinois Terminal diesels, 62 frames. Alco S-2s and RS-1s, EMD switchers, GP7s, SD39s, GP38-2s, and the two GP20s. Serial numbers from the 1989 roster.

    Read More

43. Illinois Terminal Electric Locomotives

    Oct 24, 26 08:22 PM

    
    Illinois Terminal electric locomotives, 57 frames. Class A through Class D, the Decatur-built motors, and the battery locomotives. Class D is the same five Class C frames, rebuilt.

    Read More

44. Illinois Terminal Steam Roster

    Oct 24, 26 07:37 PM

    
    Illinois Terminal steam locomotives, 36 frames. Baldwin Moguls, three Class 30 Mikados, Florida East Coast 0-8-0s, and 2-6-0 No. 21, the last fire on June 30, 1950.

    Read More

45. Illinois Terminal Railroad: Map, Roster, Photos, History

    Oct 24, 26 07:32 PM

    
    Illinois Terminal, McKinley's Illinois Traction System, from the Danville coal towns to St. Louis. The McKinley Bridge, the sleeping cars, the 1937 break with the power company, the 1948 streamliners…

    Read More

46. Southern Railway Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 23, 26 11:00 PM

    
    All-time diesel roster of the Southern Railway. 2,505 locomotives in the system number series, from the 1939 demonstrator FT to GP50s and B30-7A1s. Serials included.

    Read More

47. Illinois Central Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 23, 26 04:06 PM

    
    Illinois Central and Illinois Central Gulf diesel locomotives, each frame once. The quantity column is 886. Serials and order numbers from Electro-Motive's builder lists. Paducah rebuilds and Gulf, Mo…

    Read More

48. Illinois Central Gulf Diesel Roster

    Oct 23, 26 04:02 PM

    
    Illinois Central Gulf operating numbers from August 10, 1972, to February 29, 1988. New frames stay on the Illinois Central diesel roster. Gulf, Mobile and Ohio frames stay on that roster. No Gulf fle…

    Read More

49. Illinois Central Railroad: Map, Logo, History

    Oct 23, 26 03:50 PM

    
    Illinois Central, the Main Line of Mid-America, from the 1850 land grant to Canadian National control on July 1, 1999. Charter lines, Cairo bridge, Paducah, and the Illinois Central Gulf. Steam quanti…

    Read More

50. Grand Trunk Western Diesel Roster (All-Time)

    Oct 23, 26 12:53 PM

    
    Grand Trunk Western diesel locomotives, each frame once. The quantity column is 377. Serials are filled for the Detroit, Toledo and Ironton and Detroit and Toledo Shore Line engines the railroad kept…

    Read More