“History is real. Heritage is history. Heritage locomotive are neither history or heritage. They are painted locomotives.”
A “heritage unit” is described by Wikipedia as a railroad locomotive painted in an honorary paint scheme; usually the paint scheme is that of a now-defunct railroad that merged with or was acquired by the locomotive’s owner. This sounds like a good definition, which is different from a commemorative locomotive, like CSX’s Spirit of Our Armed Forces honoring the armed forces (above).
The tendency to overvalue paint on locomotives, and undervalue the history behind the beautiful paint. The simpleton thinking is to “paint the whole thing like other railroads do.” What this “painting the whole thing” obsession is touted as a “correct standard” and is rubbish. This “paint the whole thing” seems to come from people who appear to not care about real history and real heritage. They mock CSX’s heritage locomotives because CSX doesn’t “paint the whole thing” and these tend to be the same people who hate CSX’s name and also don’t understand the origins of the name in the “merger of equals.” To these simpletons, “heritage” is a painted locomotive and “cool name” is a name that does not require the knowledge and appreciation of real history and heritage.
CSX heritage locomotive paint jobs are a wonderful tribute to CSX railroad heritage! The CSX way of presenting it’s railroad heritage through paint jobs on modern locomotives is one of uniqueness and a pride in the predecessor railroad. First, the locomotive’s number is the year of the predecessor railroad’s birth. The renumbering is a nice touch..! CSX heritage locomotive paint jobs are a wonderful tribute to CSX railroad heritage!
Second, keeping the cab area in CSX colors shows the predecessor railroad is an honored member of the CSX family, One CSX, and even can bee seen as another, railroad definition of the “multiplication of X.” CSX way of presenting it’s railroad heritage through paint jobs on modern locomotives is one of uniqueness and a pride in the predecessor railroad. CSX heritage locomotive paint jobs are a wonderful tribute to CSX railroad heritage!
Another version of this article is found on Chessie Nation website.
Value history over painted locomotives! Let’s begin by learning the history of the Seaboard Coast Line and its history with Chessie System into CSX Corporation. In the end, you’ll view your knowledge of the history of a CSX predecessor, like Seaboard Coast Line, far better than just seeing CSXT1967, even 100 times, will make CSXT1967 seem just as only a small paint job. Be proud of CSX’s way of presenting its heritage locomotives…but remember… learning history and heritage is of far greater value. Seeing the heritage units of a railroad you have detailed knowledge of can make seeing the heritage unit seem trivial. If you don’t ever get to see any “heritage units,” you will actually have more satisfaction, more pride and a greater feeling of having something more valuable than seeing that heritage unit 100 times!
