page_title: Chessie System
section_title: Famous locomotives
hierarchical_section_title: Chessie System / Famous locomotives
caption_attribution_description: English: The Chessie Steam Special at Plymouth, Michigan. The train is led by the former Reading Baldwin 4-8-4 #2101. Chesapeake &amp; Ohio EMD GP35 #3575 is visible in the background.
context_page_description: Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the Western Maryland Railway, and several smaller carriers. It was incorporated in Virginia on February 26, 1973, and it acquired the C&O on June 15. C&O had been popularly known as "Chessie System" since the 1930s, and a version of the image of the "Chessie" mascot kitten used in advertising earlier in the C & O's history.
  The three railroads had been closely related since the 1960s. C&O had acquired controlling interest in B&O in 1962, and the two had jointly controlled WM since 1967.
  On November 1, 1980, Chessie System merged with Seaboard Coast Line Industries to form CSX Corporation. However, the Chessie image continued to be applied to new and re-painted equipment until mid-1986, when CSX introduced its own paint scheme.
  The former SCL railroads were merged into the Seaboard System Railroad in 1982, but the three Chessie System railroads continued to operate separately until 1983, when the WM was merged into the B&O. In April 1987, the B&O was merged into the C&O.
context_section_description: Chessie had four famous diesel-electric locomotives in its fleet:
  B&O 1977 (EMD GP40-2) was meant to celebrate the B&O's 150th anniversary (this locomotive became B&O 4100 and B&O 4163; for a short time there were two B&O locomotives numbered 1977)
  B&O GM50 (EMD GP40-2) was painted gold to celebrate GM-EMD's 50th anniversary as a diesel locomotive manufacturer (GM50 got repainted in 1984 and became B&O 4164)
  B&O #3802: EMD GP38 named the All American Locomotive by Trains in 1982
  B&O 4444 (third to last GP40-2 owned by Chessie, last unit was B&O 4447) was the locomotive that pulled Ronald Reagan's 1984 presidential train through Ohio.
  The Chessie System operated and exhibited a former Reading Company T-1 class 4-8-4 2101 on a national tour as the "Chessie Steam Special," beginning in 1977 in celebration of the B&O's 150th anniversary. The 4-8-4 had previously been used as one of three locomotives pulling the American Freedom Train. The train was painted in the Chessie System motif and consisted of the locomotive, two tenders, and eighteen to twenty passenger and baggage cars. The locomotive was severely damaged in a fire in March 1979 while stored in a Chessie System roundhouse. It has since been cosmetically restored to its American Freedom Train paint scheme, and is on static display at the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, although has been exposed to the elements for a majority of its time there.
caption: The former Reading 2101 leading the "Chessie Steam Special" into Plymouth, Michigan in 1977.
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