W.Va. Tourist RR to Resume Service on ex-C&O Line

A West Virginia tourist railroad plans to operate service between Cass and Durbin.

Trains magazine reported on its website that the Durbin & Greenbrier Valley Railroad said the Greenbrier Express will operate over 15 miles of a former Chesapeake & Ohio line that had hosted trains of the Cass Scenic Railroad until much of the track was damaged by flooding in 1985.

The line is being reopened following completion of restoration of the Trout Run bridge.

That project was completed by the West Virginia Rail Authority earlier this month in a public-private partnership with the D&GV. Work continues to rebuild the track on each side of the bridge.

The State of West Virginia purchased a portion of the ex-C&O Greenbrier Division in the late 1970s after it was abandoned south of Cass.

In a related development, the D&GV announced it has adopted a pair of Greenbrier Express logos created by artist Tyler Hardin.

Each herald has a silhouette of former Buffalo Creek & Gauley 2-8-0 No. 4, which is being restored for eventual assignment to the the Greenbrier Express. The herald also feature a C&O-like design.

C&O GP35 in Akron

At our request the wayback machine has taken us to the 1970s in Akron. Shown is Chesapeake & Ohio GP38 No. 4825 on June 6, 1976. The unit was built in July 1970 and would later serve CSX before a career with various locomotive leasing companies.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Once Upon a Time on the B&O near Warwick Tower

Finding an old negative/slide/digital image you have forgotten you had taken can bring back many wonderful memories.

It is one of the purest forms of photographic time travel.

The image above was made some time between 1967-1970 in Clinton. Chesapeake & Ohio F7A No. 7057 and its Baltimore & Ohio coal train are northbound near Warwick Tower where the train can head west to go to Lorain (diverging at Sterling) or continue west to Willard.

On the other hand, it could go east to Akron and beyond to Lake Erie.

The double track is out of the ordinary since one track belongs to the Pennsylvania Railroad/Penn Central and the other to the B&O. But they share trackage with one line for all southbound trains of both lines and the other track for all northbound trains of both lines. This sharing runs from Warwick Tower south to Massillon.

It’s likely this coal train originated in the B&O yard in Holloway, Ohio.

If you look toward the back of the train, you see it is crossing Chippewa Creek on one of two bridges. The pole lines are still in place, and back-to-back F units make this scene even better.

Today one of the lines has been ripped out while the other is used by RJ Corman.

There is only one bridge, no pole lines, and usually no more than one train north and south a day instead of having so many long trains that Canal Fulton, Ohio (A few miles south) needed a firehouse on each side of the tracks.

Article and Photograph by Robert Farkas

Their Service Days are Over

John Woodworth and I found two trade-in Chesapeake & Ohio Alco RSD5 road switchers at the GE plant in Erie, Pennsylvania, in the late 1960s/early 1970s. They are C&O 2000 and C&O 2002 and both are mere hulks.

Photographs by Robert Farkas

C&O Phone Box Restored by Society

A former Chesapeake & Ohio railroad phone box has been restored by the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society.

The artifact is on display at the C&O Railway Heritage Center in Clifton Forge, Virginia.

The historical society said at one time the railroad had hundreds of these phone boxes, which continued to be used into the 1980s. But they were replaced other forms of communication.

The restored phone box came from the former C&O mainline in Charlottesville, Virginia.

It was donated to the C&OHS by society member and former director David Powell, who had acquired it during a construction project involving Interstate 64.

Powell kept the phone box for more than four decades before donating it to the C&OHS.

Yes, Clinton Once had a Hotel

It is very early in the CSX era in Clinton on Aug. 24, 1986. C&O GP40 No. 3784 is leading a westbound passing what once was a hotel. It might seem strange to think Clinton had a hotel, but it was common for even small towns to have one during the heyday of railroad passenger travel.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Lease Unit on NS Gets Unauthorized C&O Look

If you see a locomotive that looks like a CSX unit but causes you to do a double take, your eyes are not deceiving you.

SD70ACe No. 4834 has the Chesapeake & Ohio “for progress” herald on its nose.

The unit is owned by Progress Rail and being leased to Norfolk Southern.

Trains magazine reported on Friday that it was recently spotted near Buffalo, New York, leading NS train 36T.

The magazine reported that C&O lettering has been placed on what had been PRLX reporting marks on the unit’s flanks and it is not clear who did that.

But whoever did might get into legal hot water with CSX, which owns the trademarks, logos and service marks of its predecessor railroads.

“CSX takes the use of trademarks, logos and service marks very seriously and has outlined our position on our website,” CSX spokeswoman Katie Chimelewski told Trains. “Proper use of the marks reinforces their distinctive identity and value, while unauthorized use and variation of the marks dilutes and undermines their marketing strength, the owner’s trademark rights, and the economic value of the intellectual property asset.”

She said that CSX marks are not to be used by third parties without express permission of the owners of those marks.

NS is leasing five former CSX SD70ACes. The current CSX livery, known to some as “dark future,” is modeled after a former C&O livery.

CSX Repaints Locomotive to C&O Livery

CSX shop workers in Huntington, West Virginia, have repainted another diesel into heritage colors.

The Huntington Locomotive Shops has adored former Chesapeake & Ohio SD40 No. 7534 into the livery it wore when it left the Electro-Motive diesel assembly plant.

The locomotive was repainted on behalf of the Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society, which plans to display it at its museum in Clifton Forge, Virginia.

The unit was previously CSX No. 4617 and was the last locomotive in the CSX fleet to wear C&O colors.

The C&O group might use the locomotive to pull trains on the Buckingham Branch Railroad.

Rob Catlin, project manager at the C&O Historical Society, told Trains magazine that although the locomotive is serviceable, it is missing six traction motors.

Earlier this year, the Huntington shops repainted a locomotive in Chessie System colors. That unit is currently in Erie, Pennsylvania, waiting to be moved to the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, Pennsylvania.

An Original Van Sweringens’ ‘Bible’

Once upon a time two brothers named Van Sweringen controlled the Erie, Chesapeake & Ohio, Nickel Plate Road and Pere Marquette.

They wanted to standardize things on their railroads so they set up a committee to come up with specific standards on everything from mixing concrete to cloth rubber lined fire hoses. You name it, they standardized it.

My girlfriend was in a junk shop near her home in Suffern, New York, and found this book, which is the “bible” of the Van Sweringens’ standards.

There can’t be too many of these 80-year-old books around. There probably weren’t many too many to begin with.

As you can see from the bottom right hand corner of the cover, this copy was used by the New York, Susquehanna & Western Railroad, which during this time period was controlled by the Erie.

I think it is neat that each standard is signed off by officials of all the railroads involved. I think you have to agree it is a neat gift for a railroad historian.

Article and photographs by Jack Norris

Chessie Loco Going to Lake Shore Museum

The Lake Shore Railway Museum has acknowledged that it will be receiving a locomotive painted at a CSX shop in the Chessie System colors.

Former Chesapeake & Ohio No. 8272 received the treatment in Huntington, West Virginia, so that is now resembles the appearance it had when the B30-7 was delivered by GE Transportation  in 1980

The Lake Shore museum in North East, Pennsylvania, specializes in collecting retired locomotives that were built at the nearby GE assembly plant in Erie.

No. 8272 will be the eighth locomotive to join that collection.

In a news release, the Lake Shore Railway Historical Society, which operates the museum, said  the locomotive is being donated by CSX to the museum. It was retired by CSX in 2009 as No. 5554.

The museum said that GE and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Museum assisted in the restoration of No. 8272 by contributing historic paint records, logo/lettering information and paint chips.

The museum said that plans to move No. 8272 to the museum are still being worked out.