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Chesapeake & Ohio #8016

Chesapeake & Ohio #8016: The predecessor engine is an F3 locomotive built in1948 by Electro-Motive Division, originally for the Carolina, Clinchfield Railroad & Ohio Railroad as #800. It served the Clinchfield in freight service until it was later assigned to business train service for the Family Lines System and later the Seaboard System Railroad, both predecessors of CSX Transportation. 

Working for the Seaboard System and later CSX, it wore locomotive #116 until it was retired in the early 1990’s. The Chesapeake & Ohio Historical Society acquired the locomotive and painted it into the C&O’s passenger paint scheme and assigned it #8016.The locomotive has been stored at the NC Transportation Museum since 2014, when it appeared during the “Streamliners at Spencer” event.

The legendary locomotive has provided power for many important moves, including the Clinchfield Santa Train through Appalachia and CSX’s intermodal RoadRailer service between Detroit and Atlanta in the late 1980’s.

The Clinchfield Railroad became part of the Family Lines System, later Seaboard System and CSX Transportation. The Chesapeake & Ohio, Baltimore & Ohio, and Western Maryland became the Chessie System in 1973. The Chessie and Seaboard Systems later merged to become CSX Transportation.

Historic details courtesy of the N.C. Transportation Museum.