Chessie the cat

Chessie the kitten

Chessie the cat (1938)

The first cat image became the symbol of the Chesapeake & Ohio in the 1930s and when in 1972 the C&O merged with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and Western Maryland Railway, the newly formed company was named the Chessie System after the popular image and it was incorporated into the logo.  The successor to the Chessie System today is CSX Transportation.

an SD35 seen in 1986