The Chessie System Historical Society does not yet have a physical building you can visit and immerse yourself in facts, figures, and items of the Chessie System. You can help make this a reality! In the mean time, we will continue to strive to the best resource on the Internet to document for the public, historical information of all kinds, about the Chessie System era that survives in the hearts and minds of many. Our goal is to present information not found elsewhere in one virtual home.
The Virtual Museum project is collaborative effort where members may discuss, contribute, and collect information from many other resources, to fill in the gaps, and combine it together here toward our preservation mission. All to often, information is found in many places, but may disappear. A dedicated online museum should help eliminate this. We hope you might envision and picture yourself walking through an actual building someday, and engross yourselves in the historical information below.
This section will continue to grow and is going to be an area of focus in 2023-2024. An outline of incomplete research topics shall appear below, and will become accessible as content is contributed. After you read through, be sure to check your historical knowledge with the interactive quizzes we will also include. Active research (and findings) may be discussed or drafted in the forums area (accessible to members only) before being moved to a publicly-accessible area.
Virtual Museum Topics
By year: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983
- Chessie the Kitten
- Chessie System Maps, Timetables
- Historical photos: events, equipment, newsworthy, people, and artifacts.
- Individual Directors, Officers, Staff, and Employees
- Chessie System Corporate History, News, Legal
- Technology or process firsts introduced or tested by the Chessie System
- Chessie System influence on rail competition with the trucking industry
- Railroad operations, signaling, defect detection, train orders, radio, train handling rules
- 1977 and GM 50
- CSX Transportation
- Safety Campaigns
- Chessie Steam Special
- Chessie Paint Scheme
- Chessie System and the B&O Railroad Museum
- Modeling the Chessie System with model trains
- Chessie System Trivia
References
History of West Virginia Mineral Industries – Coal
Business History Profile of CSX Corporation
Surface Transportation Board
Trains Magazine Archives
News Articles from the various press.
Books about Chessie System or the Era of Chessie
Disclaimer:
As we continue to add and improve the factual content we retrieve from multiple sources, expect the information to potentially be altered above as the facts are uncovered and information is transposed. If you are aware of a mistake and would like to correct the information or direct us to information, please kindly reach out to the CSHS officers or directors. We will make every effort to acknowledge and point out areas that are still incomplete and forthcoming areas of needful emphasis.