The Last Stand of the Chessie Cats 

I too remember them too as a kid...Even some of the engines featured a cat's face on the front end of the engine and whiskers on the sides and the engines actually purred like cats, either in motion or idling, and crept quietly late at night like a tomcat on the prowl as it lulled me back to sleep. I lived (and still live) close to the railroad tracks, and hearing them chugging quietly with the occasional horn blaring and bells ringing as if to make its presence known, was like listening to an old friend. I could even set my watch to her due to their comings and goings. I also felt the same way about the Norfolk Southern Railway, the Thoroughbred, which also passed through my neighborhood. I'd say, "It's the Thoroughbred...by a nose!" LOL I wonder if anyone has the notion some of those different freight train engines have a distinct and unique type of sound that sets them apart from the others and if anyone has made a video of it.

Thank you. Glad you enjoyed it! I do put extra value on all my pre-graffiti era footage!

Kids these days. Amirite Barb?

CSX doesn’t seem to like the idea of doing that, but at the same time they put their company logo on a steam locomotive. Makes you wonder...

Truly sad.

WORLD 🌎 NOT WORD! Stupid dumb iPhone. See what I mean !?

My feelings as well. I'm 62 and have little interest in modern, generic railroading. Fortunately there's still some interesting stuff on shortline and regional railroads,

I also named one of my cats "Chessie" back in the 1980s!

Yes it is. And lots of different road names on the cars!

The church bell does it for me❤/ 💛💙🐈💪🏻

Me too!

One of the first pet cats I had in my younger days was named "Chessie" (of course!)

Chessie System was C&O, B&O, and Western Maryland. CSX was the conglomerate of the 8.

​@@SlapthePissouttayewChessie was also B&OCT, as well as the three that you mention.

You know, it's comments like this that make me feel really old! ;-)

@@KBuckyRailVideo exactly 8 months before I was born actually lol. These videos are very special to me

Thank you!

Chessie System merged with Seaboard System sometime in the 80's, created "Chessie Seaboard Consolidated" or now known as CSX.

did you know they couldn’t use the that name CSL (Chessie Seaboard Lines) because it belonged to a trucking company I think

Ebay and Reverb...and yard sales, estate sales, good will and Sal Army....🙂

I honestly don't know for sure, but would take an educated guess and say yes. You may want to do a little more research to verify.

This was filmed in Jun of 1986. The CSX merger technically happened in 1980, but that was only on paper.

@@KBuckyRailVideo oh ok

I didn't live near Chessie, but got a few trips in to Sand Patch (obviously)

Yes. So was I, but the business has been sold.

You're clearly not a true Chessie fan or you'd appreciate the video for it's historic value instead of worrying about the quality. Sorry I didn't film this in HD for you.

@@KBuckyRailVideo I'm old enough to have filmed in Super8 and video with VHS camcorder. It looks like the video is from a camcorder, and 1986 makes that likely. I just did not think the video transfer from the original transferred well to a RU-vid video. I have digitized my VHS video, and they look like the original. They aren't HD. However, I am a Chessie fan even if you don't think so, as I have had Chessie locomotives and rolling stock for both my N gauge and present HO gauge model railroad. I did appreciate the historic value of the video: that's why I could not give it a thumbs down.

@@tedinohio3981 It's all good but did you read the caption explaining the quality? Tube camera hooked up to a portable VCR, etc. I also did not use the SP speed on many occasions, choosing LP or even SLP, thinking I was doing myself a favor by saving videotape. I learned quickly, but not until after this was shot. By the end of the year I owned my first VHS camcorder.

@@KBuckyRailVideo I did not read the caption because I first watched it on my flat screen TV RU-vid app, and looking at the caption is not an option there. When I made my comment I was at my PC, but didn't think to check out the caption before my comment. When I made my camcorder VHS tapes I thought I was doing it for posterity, and ease of watching in the future. Then DVDs happened and I converted them all to DVD format, for permenance and posterity. Just last month I tried to play one of my DVDs on my pc and surprise! - Windows 10 doesn't play videos on an optical drive, and when my 42 year old daughter mentions having an optical drive to some her younger friends they ask "what's that?" I did find an app for my pc that lets me play the "old" DVDs, and convert them to an mp4 file for a pc, so I have a rainy day (or week) project ahead if I want to convert all my 30+ DVDs. Cheers, Ted

@@tedinohio3981 Hi Ted, Windows 10 with an optical drive should definitely play a DVD. You just need the right software. (I like PotPlayer) Also, I strongly suggest getting the files from the DVD's copied to a hard drive and even backed up on another hard drive. You really don't need to convert to MP4 or anything else. There is free software for Windows 10 that will play the VOB files on the DVD's. My original tape from that 1986 trip still plays, yet I have burned DVD's less than 10 years ago that will no longer play without some sort of issues. I don't trust them and that is why even after transferring VHS, S-VHS, Hi8 and MiniDV tapes to DVD's, I still copy all the files to a hard drive.

Absolutely! These days I prefer railfanning on the regional and short line railroads where standard cabs are still in use.

​@@KBuckyRailVideoSame here. I'm not a fan of widecabs.

@@TK-ec5bv If you haven't looked already I've uploaded a decent amount of non-widecab stuff in the last year or so.

​@KBuckyRailVideo I'll check out your videos. I agree that shortlines are where the great non widecab scenes are. This is railroading as I remember it, and the visuals are so much more appealing.