Chessie Modelling Question

The B&O, C&O, WM open-top hoppers were mixed together, especially in the early CSX Transportation days.

Andrew

Thanks.  I assume the same for cabooses and locos?  (most Chessie had a roadname on the cab).

I picked up the new MTH Blue B&O Chessie Bay Window Caboose.  I recommend it highly.  

It's possible to see almost any mix of equipment........

BNSF on CSX trackage in St Albans WV......

On my recent trip out west I saw BNSF and NS locos mixed on the same train......

And mixing Chessie family equipmnet, as shown above, was the norm.

And if you are asking about freight cars.......Anything goes!!!!!

You may want to stick to an era or two.......but run what you want!!

There are several good books for anyone wanting to learn more about the Chessie System, its history, equipment and operations. Pictured below are titles I recommend highly. Each book offers something different and they all have plenty of nice photographs. I particularly like the Doyle motive power book.

Bob

I run a Chessie theme and it's great mixing and matching Baltimore & Ohio, Chesapeake & Ohio and Western Maryland motive power and rolling stock. The only downside is no one makes a GP40-2 in O scale, to my knowledge, and most Chessie trains were pulled by GP40-2s.

They rostered around 85-90 SD40s, too. The 6-axle locomotives like SD35s, SD40s and SD40-2s were used primarily as helpers since the Chessie traversed steep grades through the Appalachians. It wasn't all that uncommon to see an SD40 on the point, though.

The bay window caboose was a common sight as well. I have the latest MTH B&O bay window caboose and it's very nice. They finally have the proper Barber-Bettendorf caboose trucks on this model.

So few SD40's leading a Chessie train?

It was that common to see an SD40 on the point.

The not and un create a double negative.

Andrew

So Lionel's new SD40 is only good as a pusher on the layout? haha  If not uncommon then it was common

Or you can model the Chessie system of today.....like I do......

custom paint and decals on WbB units

I like that!!  

CSX was really boring with its branding in the early days.  At least they have color now.  I would have liked to see the Seaboard System Scheme applied for good.  

Regarding Chessie Diesels...did the SD40's have that beautiful high pitched K5LAs?  

Mike i have some info on the chessie system railroad. The GP40-2, SD35, SD40, SD40-2, U25C and SD50 was used in the west virgina mountains for pulling coal drags because these engines was geared lower and stuck to rail better. When chessie got the SD50's they started to use the SD40-2 as helpers and SD50's and GP40-2 as well. The SD35 was rebuilt to SD20-2 and the SD40 was rebuilt to SD38 and the U25B was retired in 1980.    

On the topic of horn notes...what type of horn is used on the new EMD SD70 AC.  I find them rather harsh and unpleasant.  

To echo what many have already told you, yes. There was mingling of equipment even prior to the creation of Chessie System. B&O was a majority owner of WM for example and C&O was the majority owner of the whole thing. Prior to making the Chessie merger official they were already running a lot of trains in a "cooperative" mode, pooling a lot of equipment. On the other end of the time line, I went to work for CSX in 1991. I can tell you that we still had B&O/C&O equipment painted in original "blue dip" as well as lots of equipment still painted in the Chessie scheme. Many of the WM "circus paint" locos remained that way well into the 1980's.  Seaboard, Family Lines, L&N and other liveries persisted too. With such a large fleet of locomotives it takes quite a while to get around to re-painting all of them. Those destined for scrap or trade-in weren't re-painted at all. Usually just stenciled with "CSXT".

This aspect of modeling Chessie is one that I love and exploit regularly - mixing pre-merger paint schemes at will.