Chessie System, Inc. was a holding company that owned the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway (C&O), the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), the Western Maryland Railway (WM), and several smaller carriers. It was incorporated in Virginia on February 26, 1973, and it acquired the C&O (which controlled the other companies) on June 15. C&O had been popularly known as "Chessie System" since the 1930s, and a version of the image of the "Chessie" mascot kitten used in advertising earlier in the C & O's history.
The three railroads had been closely related since the 1960s. C&O had acquired controlling interest in B&O in 1962, and the two had jointly controlled WM since 1967.
On November 1, 1980, Chessie System merged with Seaboard Coast Line Industries to form CSX Corporation. However, the Chessie image continued to be applied to new and re-painted equipment until mid-1986, when CSX introduced its own paint scheme.
The former SCL railroads were merged into the Seaboard System Railroad in 1982, but the three Chessie System railroads continued to operate separately until 1983, when the WM was merged into the B&O. In April 1987, the B&O was merged into the C&O. In September 1987, C&O merged into CSX Transportation, a 1986 renaming of the Seaboard System Railroad, and the Chessie System name was retired.
Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the Chessie System was the creation of Cyrus S. Eaton and his protégé Hays T. Watkins, Jr., then president and chief executive officer of C&O. A chief source of revenue for the Chessie System was coal mined in West Virginia.
