CSX Transportation

CSX Transportation Building in Jacksonville, Florida

CSX Corporation was formed on November 1, 1980, by combining the railroads of the former Chessie System with Seaboard Coast Line Industries.[4]

Original logo for the CSX Corporation, emphasizing the "multiplication symbol" X

The name came about during merger talks between Chessie System and SCL, commonly called "Chessie" and "Seaboard". The company chairmen said it was important for the new name to include neither of those names because it was a partnership. Employees were asked for suggestions, most of which consisted of combinations of the initials. At the same time a temporary shorthand name was needed for discussions with the Interstate Commerce Commission. "CSC" was chosen but belonged to a trucking company in Virginia. "CSM" (for "Chessie-Seaboard Merger") was also taken. The lawyers decided to use "CSX", and the name stuck. In the public announcement, it was said that "CSX is singularly appropriate. C can stand for Chessie, S for Seaboard, and X, which actually has no meaning." However, an August 9, 2016, article on the Railway Age website stated that " ... the 'X' was for 'Consolidated' ".[5] The T had to be added to CSX when used as a reporting mark because reporting marks that end in X means that the car is owned by a leasing company or private car owner. The company introduced its current slogan, "How Tomorrow Moves", in 2008.[6]

The originator of SCL was the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which previously merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967 to form the Seaboard Coast Line. In later years, it merged with the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, as well as several smaller subsidiaries such as the Clinchfield Railroad, Atlanta & West Point Railroad, Monon Railroad and the Georgia Railroad. From the late 1970s onward these railroads were known collectively as the Family Lines. In 1982, they were merged into a single railroad, the Seaboard System Railroad.[4]

The origin of the Chessie System was the former Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, which had merged with the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and the Western Maryland Railway.[4]

Despite the merger in 1980, CSX Transportation was a paper railroad (meaning no CSX painted locomotives or rolling stock) until 1986. In that year, Seaboard System changed its name to CSX Transportation. On April 30, 1987, the B&O merged into the C&O. With the Western Maryland having already merged into the C&O, this left the C&O as the sole operating railroad under the Chessie System banner. Finally, on August 31, 1987, C&O/Chessie System merged into CSX Transportation, bringing all of the major CSX railroads under one banner.

On June 23, 1997, CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) filed a joint application with the Surface Transportation Board for authority to purchase, divide, and operate the assets of the 11,000-mile (18,000 km) Conrail, which had been created in 1976 by bringing together several ailing Northeastern railway systems into a government-owned corporation. On June 6, 1998, the STB approved the CSX–NS application and set August 22, 1998, as the effective date of its decision. CSX acquired 42 percent of Conrail's assets, and NS received the remaining 58 percent. As a result of the transaction, CSX's rail operations grew to include some 3,800 miles (6,100 km) of the Conrail system (predominantly lines that had belonged to the former New York Central Railroad). CSX began operating its trains on its portion of the Conrail network on June 1, 1999. CSX now serves much of the Eastern United States, with a few routes into nearby Canadian cities.

In actuality, not all of Conrail was eliminated. There were a few parts of Conrail that both CSX and NS wanted, and neither wanted to allow the other to have total control over. Those small pieces remained owned by the renamed "Conrail Shared Assets," (later "Conrail Shared Assets Operations") so that the pieces were effectively owned and operated by a separate railroad owned by both railroads, thus neither railroad would control those pieces.

On November 30th, 2020, CSX Transportation announced on social media that they had come to an agreement with Pan Am Systems to purchase New England based Class II Pan Am Railways, pending regulatory approval from the Surface Transportation Board. As of February 4, 2021, no application has been filed with the STB.

In 2014, Canadian Pacific Railway approached CSX with an offer to merge the two companies, but CSX declined, and in 2015 Canadian Pacific made an attempt to purchase and merge with Norfolk Southern,[7] but NS declined to do so as well.

In 2017, CSX announced Hunter Harrison would become its new chief executive officer; a settlement with activist investor Paul Hilal and Mantle Ridge.[8] CSX added five new directors to their board, including Harrison and Mantle Ridge founder Paul Hilal. Mantle Ridge owns 4.9% of CSX.[9] Harrison quickly moved to convert CSX rail operations to precision railroading.[10] On December 14, 2017, CSX announced that Hunter Harrison was on medical leave. Two days after the announcement, Harrison died, one day after being hospitalized for complications of an ongoing illness. CSX initially saw a 10% drop in its stock price, but turned around to hit a new 52-week high less than a month later (January 2018).[11] Harrison's successors have continued the shift to precision railroading, with most hump yards converted to flat yards, low volume shipping lanes eliminated and reductions in rolling stock and work force.

CSX also operates numerous trains to and from Oak Island Yard in Newark, New Jersey, which is operated by Conrail Shared Assets Operations (CRCX) on its and Norfolk Southern's behalf. CSX operates two pairs of daily trains to/from Oak Island, Q433 and Q434 coming from and going to Selkirk, along with Q300 and Q301 to and from South Philadelphia.

A new CSX ES44AC in the YN3 paint scheme.

The first official paint scheme under the CSX name was a simple gray paint scheme with blue "CSX Transportation" lettering. Only 11 units were ever painted into this scheme.

The "Blue Down" paint scheme was introduced about a year after the aforementioned paint scheme in 1987. It is composed with an all-gray body, with a blue underframe and top of the long hood. Blue masked the top of the cab around the windshield.

In October 1988, the "Stealth" scheme was created. It is very similar to Blue Down, but the blue on the top portion of the locomotives was removed.

In 1990, the "YN2", or "Bright Future" paint scheme was introduced. The design features a yellow nose, a blue cab, and a gray hood with a blue strip along the bottom extending from the back of the cab. The yellow and blue sections have a 60 degree section slanting down toward the back of the locomotive.

In 2002, CSXT No. 8503, an EMD SD50 (that has since been downgraded to an SD50-2), was painted in the new yellow and blue YN3 scheme. More than 1,000 CSX locomotives have since been painted in the YN3 scheme.[14]

CSX recently created a new paint scheme, known as YN3b, which updates YN3 with the most recent CSX logo. The first unit to wear this scheme was ES44AH 950. Currently, CSX's ES44AHs 950-999 and 3000–3249 and the ET44AHs 3250-3474 wear the scheme, along with recently repainted older locomotives, the first of which was SD70AC CSXT 4719, which was repainted at the Huntington Locomotive Shops in September 2012. YN3b is also commonly found on the SD40-3 rebuilds.

All of the former-Conrail locomotives in active service have been repainted in a CSX livery.

In the mid-1990s, CSXT began placing a lightning bolt decal below the road number on locomotives with AC traction and still continues this practice with the new GE ES44AH and ET44AH locomotives.

CSX also has several locomotives with "spirit" stickers with a name of an important person or location in the CSX system.

In 2016, CSX placed the logos of several predecessor railroads on some locomotives, in order to maintain legal control of the logos.

On April 30, 2019, CSX unveiled locomotives 911 and 1776, two locomotives created to honor the first responders and veterans.[15] Another special unit, CSX 3194, was unveiled on August 22, 2019, in honor of the law enforcement.[16]

CSX has been significant in rebuilding locomotives. CSX has 3 rebuilds of its 4 axle and 6 axle EMD Locomotives. The EMD GP38-2, GP40-2, and SD40-2 have all been rebuilt to then Dash 3 standards with updated Wabtec Electronically Controlled Air Brakes, Electronic bells (E-Bell), electronic handbrakes with a mechanical backup, an airstarter on the motor with an electric start backup, a new designed crash safe cab, a new electronic control stand, YN3B paint job, and Positive Train Control (PTC) computers. They became EMD GP38-3s, GP40-3s, SD40-3s, and SD50-3s respectively. Most are also Positive Stop Protection ( PSP ) equipped Remote Controlled Locomotives (RCL) and have amber strobe lights on each side of the cab, a Cattron Locomotive Control Unit computer, an Air Brake Transfer Valve ( that transfers brake control from manual to computer control), a speed transponder scanner on each end, and a GPS Receiver on the cab roof to pinpoint the engines location. The Dash 3 RCL can also have its handbrake applied by a Remote Control Operator (RCO) by holding the left and right Vigilance switches on the Operator Control Unit (OCU) remote box. CSX has rebuilt EMD GP35 and GP30 units as road slugs. CSX has also downgraded SD50 and GP40-2 units in order to decrease the wear and tear on the engines the EMD GP40-2s that were downgraded from 3,000 horsepower to 2,000 horsepower during this process are known as GP38-2S locomotives and CSXT 6044 is one of those that was derated. Among its EMD rebuilds, CSX has done rebuilding on many GE locomotives as well. CSX has re-powered most of its GE CW60AC and CW60AH locomotives with a GEVO-16 engine rated at 4,600 hp (3,430 kW), essentially making them an over-engined ES44AH called a CW46AH by CSX. Former Conrail GE B40-8 units have also been downgraded to 2,000 hp (1,491 kW) in an attempt to decrease wheel slip and low speeds. They were redesignated as B20-8s and CSX has since sold or stored most of these units including the 6 axle GE C40-8s. Another group of projects are the "heavy" units. CSX has modified some GE CW44AC and CW44AH units to heavy units by adding extra counterweights to the frame and in the nose of the unit shell and new computers to increase tractive effort at low speeds, they are 432,000 pounds.

In 2015, CSX traded its 12 EMD SD80MACs for 12 SD40-2s from Norfolk Southern. They have all since been rebuilt as SD40-3s.

CSX has also obtained a few EMD F40PHs that were retired from Amtrak for executive office car service and geometry trains. Another locomotive, an ex-MARC GP40WH-2, was acquired for the same purpose.

With the arrival of Hunter Harrison, CSX has begun to store many locomotives. By the end of 2017, CSX plans to store or retire all of the GE CW40-8, CW40-9, CW60AC, CW60AH, CW46AH, EMD SD50, SD50-2, SD50-3, SD60, SD60M, SD60I, SD70M, SD70AC, and SD70AE (SD70ACe) units. Most of the GE C40-8, B40-8, and B20-8 units stored in Corbin, Kentucky, have already been retired and sold off. Even with the passing of Harrison, his replacement, James Foote, confirmed the locomotives would still be retired.[17]

CSX ordered ten SD70ACe-T4s in August 2018, which were delivered in July the following year. They are classified as ST70AHs. CSX also has a contract with Wabtec for modernizing their fleet of CW44s. The modernized locomotives, nearly thirty in number as of June 2020, are being classified as CM44s.

• 1986 Miamisburg, Ohio, train derailment
• 1993 Big Bayou Canot train wreck
• 1996 Maryland train collision
• 2001 CSX 8888 incident, 1 minor injury. This was the inspiration for the 2010 action film Unstoppable
• 2001 Howard Street Tunnel fire
• 2007 Brooks derailment
• 2008 Welded Rail Train Derailment, GA. Involved units were CSXT #6473, CSXT #2243, CSXT #7847
• 2012 Ellicott City, Maryland, train derailment, two killed
• 2013 Spuyten Duyvil derailment
• 2014 Lynchburg, Virginia, oil train car derailment, no injuries
• 2015 Mount Carbon train derailment
• 2015 Tennessee train derailment
• 2016 "Chessie Sticker loco" CSX 366 fire in the J&L tunnel, Pittsburgh, PA[20]
• 2017 Biloxi collision with tour bus stuck on tracks, 4 killed 44 injured[21]
• 2017 Newburgh, New York, train derailment, 2 minor injuries (Q409)
• 2017 Hardin County train derailment, 23 cars derailed, no injuries
• 2017 Crawford County train derailment, 21 cars derailed, no injuries[22]
• 2017 Pittsburgh suburb coal cars derailment[23]
• 2017 Hyndman derailment, chemical release and fire[24]
• 2017 Atlanta derailment destroys occupied home[25]
• 2017 Polk County, Florida, derailment spilling molten sulfur, no injuries (Q453-26)
• 2017 Taunton, Massachusetts, derailment rail hits fuel tank, spilling everywhere
• 2017 Union, New Jersey, derailment, no injuries (Q404)
• 2018 Cayce, South Carolina, train collision involving Amtrak Silver Star and a CSX autorack train (Q210-03). 2 dead, 116 injured.
• 2018 Alexandria, Virginia – May 19, 2018. Train derails in Alexandria, falling onto Norfolk Southern tracks that cross underneath it.
• 2018 Worcester, Massachusetts – July 21, 2018. CSX Intermodal train from Worcester, Massachusetts, hits a low overpass, causing 12 cars to derail. One car nearly crashed into a car full of toxic chemicals, engineer injured.[26]
• 2018 Princeton, Indiana, derailment - track buckles and 23 cars crashed

In hump yards, trains are slowly pushed over a small hill as cars are uncoupled at the crest of the hill and allowed to roll down the hump into the appropriate tracks for outbound trains.

• Avon, Indiana – Avon Yard
• Cincinnati, Ohio – Queensgate Yard
• Nashville, Tennessee – Radnor Yard
• Selkirk, New York – Selkirk Yard
• Waycross, Georgia – Rice Yard

In flat yards, a locomotive pulls and pushes cars to assemble a train.

This is a complete list of all intermodal terminals operated by CSX Intermodal Terminals, Inc:[27]