CSX Transportation

CSX Transportation

CSX system map; trackage rights in purple
Reporting mark CSXT
Locale Alabama
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Ontario
Pennsylvania
Quebec
South Carolina
Tennessee
Virginia
Washington D.C.
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Dates of operation July 1, 1986 (1986-07-01)–present
Predecessor Chessie System
Clinchfield Railroad
Seaboard System Railroad
Conrail
Baltimore & Ohio
Chesapeake & Ohio
Louisville & Nashville Railroad
Monon Railroad
Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac
Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Length 21,000 mi (34,000 km)
Headquarters Jacksonville, Florida
Website www.csx.com
CSX headquarters building in Jacksonville, Florida

CSX Transportation (reporting mark CSXT) is a Class I railroad in the United States. The main subsidiary of the CSX Corporation, the railroad is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, and owns about 21,000 route miles (34,000 km).[1] CSX operates one of the three Class I railroads serving most of the East Coast, the other two being the Norfolk Southern Railway (NS) and Canadian Pacific Railway. It also serves the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Together CSX and Norfolk Southern Railway have a duopoly over all east-west freight rail traffic east of the Mississippi River. As of August 8, 2017, CSX's total public stock value was slightly over $41.5 billion.[2]

History

CSX Transportation was formed on July 1, 1986, by combining the railroads of the former Chessie System with the Seaboard System Railroad. The originator of the Seaboard System was the former Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which previously merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967, and later 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. 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.

In 1995, CSX started a new liability insurance requirement of $200 million to introduce their official policy "No steam on its own wheels", banning the operation of steam locomotives and other antique rail equipment on their trackage due to serious business, safety concerns, and increased risk.[3][4]

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.

The original logo for the CSX Corporation, emphasizing the "multiplication symbol" X

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." 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. Its current slogan, "How Tomorrow Moves", appeared in 2008.[6]

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]

In 2017 CSX announced Hunter Harrison as its new chief executive; 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 percent of CSX.[9]

CSX divisions

CSX operates two regions of five divisions each: the Northern, based in Calumet City, Illinois; and Southern, based in Jacksonville, Florida.

Northern Region Divisions

One line in the Northern Region travels into Canada:

Southern Region Divisions

Unit trains

A long CSX coal train of empty hoppers crosses the New River as seen from Hawks Nest State Park.

CSX operates the Juice Train—a collective name for Train Nos. O823, Q740 and Q741, Q743, and Q745—which consists of Tropicana cars that carry fresh orange juice between Bradenton, Florida, and the Greenville section of Jersey City, New Jersey. The train also runs from Bradenton to Fort Pierce, Florida, via the Florida East Coast Railway. In the 21st century, the Juice Train has been studied as a model of efficient rail transportation that can compete with trucks and other modes in the perishable-goods trade.

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 Q702 and Q703 from The Bronx to Philadelphia (via Selkirk Yard) and then Petersburg, Virginia, where they interchange with NS. These trains consist of 89-foot (27 m) flatcars loaded with four containers of trash. Another pair of trains, Q710 and Q711, originate in Kearny, New Jersey, and terminate in Russell, Kentucky.

Another style of unit train is a local trash train, D765, that runs between the Maryland towns of Derwood and Dickerson. The train runs daily except on Sundays; on holidays it sometimes runs twice a day. 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 (12 m) containers. The first NEMX equipment was built when the D765 first started operations in 1995. In recent years, the fleet has been somewhat upgraded, repainted, and new cars have been constructed. In the early days, the locomotives powering the train were a GP40-2/RDMT slug set, but currently the train can be upwards of 47 cars. The locomotives that now routinely power the train are a pair of EMD SD50s.

Working with Union Pacific, CSX runs an extended haul perishables train, Q090. Known by the railroad as the "Apple Train" or "Salad Shooter", the train runs from Wallula, Washington, to Schenectady, New York. This train typically runs with three of Union Pacific's newest locomotives and has its extended haul inspection from Wallula to Schenectady at Cleveland-Collinwood Yard on CSX headed in both directions. On the return trip, the train is labeled Q091. CSX modified its Train Handling rule book to allow this train to use more power axles.[10] In early 2012 the "Salad Shooter" derailed just a few miles northwest of Greenwich, Ohio. No injuries were reported in the incident.

Locomotives

Paint and Aesthetics

A new CSX ES44AC in the YN3 paint scheme.

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.[11]

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 SD70MAC 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 1990's, CSXT began placing a lightning bold decal below the road number on locomotives with AC traction. The practice has since ceased.

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.

Locomotives

Former Conrail 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: red marker lights, Leslie model RS3L or RS5T air horns (only a few original horns remain. Many have been replaced by K5LAs), former Conrail SD40-2s ride on Flexicoil "C" trucks and have anti-climbers, ditch lights mounted beneath the anti-climber, 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 (instead of black or blue).

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

CSX has been significant in rebuilding locomotives. CSX has 2 rebuilds of the SD40-2; the SD40E3 and SD40-3. CSX has rebuilt 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. Among its EMD rebuilds, CSX has done rebuilding on many GE locomotives as well. CSX has re-powered most of its GE AC6000CW locomotives with a GEVO-16 engine rated at 4,600 hp (3,430 kW), essentially making them an over-engined ES44AC. Former Conrail Dash 8-40B units have also been downgraded to 2,000 hp (1,491 kW) in an attempt to decrease wheel slip and low speeds. CSX has since sold or stored most of these units. Another group of projects are the "heavy" units. CSX has modified some AC44CW units to heavy units by adding extra weight and new computers to increase tractive effort at low speeds.

CSX has also obtained a few EMD F40PHs that were retired from Amtrak for executive office car service and geometry trains.

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 Dash 8-40CW, Dash 9-40CW, SD50, SD60, and SD70 units.

Incidents

Wrecked Amtrak 255 in the 1996 Maryland train collision.

Railyards

Hump and control tower at Selkirk Yard
Locomotive waiting at the Cumberland Yard

Hump yards

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.

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.

Flat yards

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

Intermodal yards

This is an incomplete list of all intermodal terminals operated by CSX Intermodal Terminals, Inc:

NASCAR sponsorship

CSX "Play It Safe" car driven by David Ragan in 2013

In 2013, CSX's "Play It Safe" campaign promoting safety near railroad tracks signed on as a sponsor for the No. 34 driven by David Ragan of Front Row Motorsports in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. This sponsorship has continued with drivers Brett Moffitt in 2015, Chris Buescher in 2016, and Landon Cassill in 2017.[19]

See also

References

  1. ↑ CSX Transportation, Jacksonville, FL. "Company Overview." Archived 2011-01-29 at the Wayback Machine. Accessed 2012-12-02.
  2. ↑ "CSX Corporation: NASDAQ:CSX quotes & news - Google Finance". www.google.com. Retrieved 2017-08-08.
  3. ↑ Craft, John (June 25, 2010). "CSX: 'No steam on its own wheels' is official policy". SteamCentral. Retrieved March 4, 2017.
  4. ↑ Wrinn 2000, p. 102.
  5. ↑ Vantuono, William (2016-09-28). "So what does the "X" in "CSX" really mean?". RailwayAge magazine online.
  6. ↑ Dolinger, Milt (2006-05-01). "How CSX got its name". Trains magazine online.
  7. ↑ Mattioli, Dana; Hoffman, Liz; George-Cosh, David (October 13, 2014). "Canadian Pacific Approached CSX About Merger Deal". The Wall Street Journal.
  8. ↑ Orol, Ronald (March 6, 2017). "CSX, Mantle Ridge Reach Blockbuster Deal". TheStreet.com.
  9. ↑ Michael Flaherty and Aishwarya Venugopal (March 6, 2017). "UPDATE 2-CSX names Hunter Harrison CEO". Reuters.
  10. ↑ Air Brake and Train Handling Rules,. CSX Transportation. October 2007. pp. Section 4, Page 1.
  11. ↑ "Image: 8503CSX-yn3.jpg, (640 × 480 px)". trainweb.org. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  12. 1 2 3 "Ohio – CSX". csx.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  13. ↑ "Alabama – CSX". csx.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  14. 1 2 3 "Florida – CSX". csx.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  15. ↑ "Georgia – CSX". csx.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  16. ↑ "Illinois – CSX". csx.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  17. 1 2 "Indiana – CSX". csx.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  18. ↑ "Louisiana – CSX". csx.com. Retrieved 2015-09-01.
  19. ↑ Staff (February 12, 2015). "Front Row, Ragan back on track with CSX". NASCAR.com. Retrieved 2015-02-12.

Bibliography

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