Chessie System

Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company incorporated in Cleveland, Ohio in February 1973 to own the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the Western Maryland Railway and the Baltimore and Ohio Chicago Terminal Railroad. Created by industrialist Cyrus S. Eaton and railroad executive Hays T. Watkins, the company ran its railroads under a shared Chessie identity, marked by a sleeping-kitten mascot used in advertising since the 1930s, across roughly 20,000 miles of track serving Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington D.C. and West Virginia. Coal traffic out of West Virginia and automotive parts and vehicle shipments were major sources of revenue. Chessie System combined with Seaboard Coast Line Industries in 1980 to form CSX Corporation, and its railroads were absorbed into CSX Transportation, with the Chessie name retired from operations by 1987.