James Castro
In the late 1860s, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) pushed its
first tracks westward from Virginia's Tidewater region across the
mountains into what was then the new state of West Virginia. Ultimately
its tracks stretched across a half-dozen states and even into Canada.
Appalachian coal was the C&O's primary cargo, but its fast freights
carried shipments of all kinds, and its crack passenger trains were
marvels of their day. In 1963, the C&O merged with the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad in the first of what would become a wave of railroad
mergers. Today the old C&O is part of giant CSX Transportation.
Images of Rail: The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway gathers 200 photographs
that chronicle the C&O story. Here is a fond look back at its
mammoth steam locomotives and the diesels that replaced them, its
bustling passenger stations, and much more, including the legendary John
Henry, who beat that steam drill, and Chessie, the sleeping kitten that
was the C&O's much-loved trademark.
