| CSX Transportation | |
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A CSX train is led by two GE AC6000CW locomotives, with the #5000 "Diversity in Motion" unit leading |
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| Reporting mark | CSXT |
| Locale | Eastern United States, Ontario, and Quebec |
| Dates of operation | 1980–present |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) (standard gauge) |
| Length | 21,000 mi (34,000 km) |
| Headquarters | Jacksonville, Florida |
CSX Transportation (reporting mark CSXT) is a Class I railroad in the United States. It is the main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation. The company is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns approximately 21,000 route miles.[1] CSX operates one of the three Class I railroads serving most of the East Coast, the other two being the Norfolk Southern Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway. This railroad also serves the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec.
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CSX Transportation was formed on July 1, 1986 as a combining and renaming of the Chessie System, Inc. and Seaboard System Railroad into one entity. The originator of the Seaboard System was the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which previously merged Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, and later Louisville and Nashville Railroad, as well as several smaller subsidiaries. On August 31, 1987 the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, which had absorbed the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad on April 30 of that year, merged into CSX. The merger had been started in 1986 with the merger of Chessie System and Seaboard Coast Line Industries to form the CSX Corporation.
On June 23, 1997, CSX Transportation and Norfolk Southern filed a joint application with the Surface Transportation Board for authority to purchase, divide and operate the assets of the 11,000-mile Consolidated Rail Corporation (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% of Conrail's assets, and NS received the remaining 58%. As a result of the transaction, CSX's rail operations grew to include some 3,800 miles 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 U.S., with a few routes into nearby Canadian cities.
The name came about during merger talks between Chessie System, Inc. and Seaboard System Railroad, Inc., 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." 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. Its current slogan, "How Tomorrow Moves", appeared in 2009.[2]
CSX operates two regions of five divisions each: the Northern, based in Calumet City, Illinois, and Southern, based in Jacksonville, Florida.
Northern Region Divisions
Southern Region Divisions
CSX operates the Juice Train, train numbers Q740 and Q741, a notable unit train of Tropicana fresh orange juice between Bradenton, Florida, and distribution centers in the Greenville section of Jersey City, New Jersey and Cincinnati, Ohio in the United States.
In the 21st century, CSX Juice Trains have been the focus of efficiency studies and have received awards. They are considered good examples of how modern rail transportation can compete successfully with trucking and other modes to carry perishable products.
Coke Express trains run between Pittsburgh and Chicago, and other places in the rust belt, carrying coke to industries, mainly steel mills.
CSX also runs daily trash trains out from New York City, bound for Florida, train numbers Q706/Q707 and Q702/Q703. These trains usually consist of about 50 cars with four 20 foot containers of trash on each.
Another style of unit train is a local trash train, D765, runs between Derwood and Dickerson, both in Maryland. The train runs daily except Sunday, sometimes twice a day around holidays. Trash is carried from Montgomery County's Shady Grove Transfer Station to a waste-to-energy plant located off the PEPCO lead to Mirant's Dickerson Generating Station. The trip is roughly 17 miles (27 km), and the train is made up of National Steel Car Company-built well cars, hauling 40 foot containers. The first NEMX equipment was built when the D765 first started operations in 1997. In recent years, the fleet has been somewhat upgraded, repainted, and some entirely new cars have been constructed. In the early days, the locomotives powering the train were a GP40-2/RDMT slug set, but the train has since grown to roughly 40 cars. The locomotives that now routinely power the train are a pair of EMD SD50s.
CSX, in cooperation with the Union Pacific, runs an extended haul perishables train, Q090; known by the railroad as the "Apple Train", from Wallula to Schenectady. This train typically runs with 3 UP AC44CW's and has its extended haul inspection from Wallula to Schenectady at Cleveland – Collinwood Yard on CSX headed in both directions, but on the return trip the train is labeled as a Q091. CSX Train Handling rule book is modified specially for this train to allow use of more power axles.[3]
CSX has numerous named locomotives around the system, the locomotive number will be in bold text (the current paint scheme is blue and gold):
Former CR locomotives can be spotted by recognizing phase differences in engine models and numbering. Other spotting details can be inconsistent, but can include a number of the following: Class lights, Leslie model RS3L air horns, former Conrail SD40-2s ride on Flexicoil "C" trucks and have anticlimbers, ditch lights mounted beneath the anticlimber, headlights above the cab (vs. CSX's standard practice of nose mounted headlights on all wide nose GE units), and modified "Bright Future" paint with battery box faces painted yellow versus black or blue.
CSX has created a new paint scheme, known as YN3, which debuted in 2002 on EMD SD50 8503 [1], now downgraded to an SD50-2. Currently, CSX has over 1000 YN3-painted locomotives and are continuing to paint their locomotives in YN3. The vast majority of CSX locomotives today have flashing ditch lights. Many types of horns are used by CSX such as the Nathan K5H, K5LA, K5LLA, K5HL, K5HLL, and P3, and the RS3L and RS5T from Leslie.
A CSX train, led by CSX Transportation SD40-2 #8888, left its Walbridge, Ohio, rail yard in 2001 and began a 66-mile (106 km) journey through northwest Ohio with no one at the controls. Its engineer had gotten out of the originally slow-moving train to correctly line a switch, mistakenly believing he had properly set the train's dynamic braking system.
Two of the train's tank cars also contained thousands of gallons of molten phenol, an ingredient of paints and dyes toxic when inhaled, ingested, or contacted with the skin. Attempts to derail CSX 8888 using a portable derailer failed, and police were unable to shoot out the Emergency Fuel Cut-Off Switch, instead hitting the fuel cap. For two hours, the train traveled along at speeds up to 47 miles per hour (76 km/h) until the crew of a second train coupled onto the runaway and slowly applied its brakes. Once the runaway was slowed down to a speed of 11 miles per hour, a CSX employee, trainmaster Jon Hosfeld, ran alongside the train and climbed aboard, shutting down the locomotive. The train was stopped just southeast of Kenton, Ohio.[7]
The CSX 8888 incident inspired the 2010 movie Unstoppable, which borrowed some elements from the actual event for its plot.
CSX operates a number of large classification yards around the system that include "hump yard" operations. Trains are slowly pushed over a small manmade 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. These are located at:
Hump Yards (12)
Other Yards:
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![[1]](http://www.trainweb.org/csxphotos/photos/SD50/8503CSX-yn3.jpg){kind=link}