Steam Saturday: A Chessie Steam Memory

Here’s a memory for some of you. It is Sept. 21, 1980, in Connellsville, Pennsylvania. Chessie 4-8-4 No. 614 is westbound during a one-way ferry move from Cumberland, Maryland to Pittsburgh. The excursion was part of the first season of the Chessie Safety Express program. This was the fifth trip of 20 that the 614 and its train made this year. Another season followed in 1981.

Photograph by Robert Farkas

Railroading as it Once Was: When Chessie Ran Steam Trains to Promote Railroad Safety

Chesapeake & Ohio No. 614 departs Connellsville, Pennsylvania, in September 1980 with a Chessie Safety Express. Even with a bright yellow train this was still a show. Note the original station behind the 11th car.

Photograph by Roger Durfee