Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company Agreements, 1914-1974
Collection Number: 5489

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company [CO] began as the Louisa Railroad in Louisa County Virginia in 1836. With the aid of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the railroad expanded to Richmond and Charlottesville, and eventually over the Blue Ridge Mountains and through the Shenandoah Valley. During this period, it was renamed the Virginia Central Railroad. During the Civil War, the CO was one of the Confederacy's most important assets, and was used both to move supplies to Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, and to move troops and supplies into battle. As a result, the CO was heavily targeted by the Union Army and at the war's end was only left with roughly five miles of track in operation. Financially devastated, the CO turned to Collis P. Huntington of New York for capital investment. Huntington was one of the "Big Four," the men who had built the Central Pacific Railroad. With his financial aid, the CO stretched through West Virginia, accessing its coalmines, and reached the Ohio River in 1873. In 1878, the company was reorganized under the name Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company. From 1878 to 1888, the CO capitalized on its coal assets and extended its reach to the new city of Newport News, in Hampton Roads, Virginia, the largest ice-free harbor on the east coast of the United States. In 1888, Huntington lost control of his interests in the CO to William K. Vanderbilt and J.P. Morgan.

During the first decades of the 20th Century, the CO capitalized on its access to the coalfields of West Virginia. In 1910, it took over the Chicago, Cincinnati, and Louisville railroad, giving the CO a direct line to Chicago. At this time, the CO also gained possession of the Hocking Valley line through Ohio, giving the road access to Columbus and the port of Toledo. In 1923, the CO came under the control of the Van Sweringen brothers, who also owned controlling interests in the Nickel Plate Road, the Pere Marquette Road and the Erie. Their control of these lines was lost during the Great Depression, but the CO itself remained strong and was one of the few roads that did not enter receivership. Rather, it used the economic circumstances to take advantage of cheap labor and materials to rebuild itself. This was in large part due to its continued hauling of coal, which remained in great demand. Because of these improvements, the CO was heavily utilized during World War 2, both to move materials and men to its port on the Hampton Roads, which was a point of embarkation for the United States Armed Forces heading to the European Theater.

In the post-war period, the CO was controlled by Robert R. Young. Under his stewardship, and then that of Walter J. Tuohy, the CO updated its locomotives and rolling stock, installed the first large computer system in railroading, and diversified its traffic by merging the Pere Marquette road into its system. The Pere Marquette's main traffic was to the numerous automotive industries in Michigan, which insulated the CO against the declining coal trade.

In 1963, the CO took financial control of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which also brought the Western Maryland Railway under its umbrella. The merging of the systems was gradual, insulating the CO from potential pitfalls. By 1973, the three roads were fully integrated into one, The Chessie System, an old nickname for the CO dating back to the 1930s. In the final decades of the 20th Century, the CO continued to merge with other major systems in the southeastern United States, forming CSX Transportation. CSX is one of the seven Class 1 railroads currently operating in the United States.

(See Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Society, for more information)

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Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company Agreements #5489. Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives, Cornell University Library.