My love for trains goes back deep into my childhood. I remember asking my dad to drive the country roads in Waukesha County (WI) that ran along the tracks to look for trains. At my grandma’s house, I’d run to a viewing spot by some bushes when I heard a train horn or heard the distant bells of the crossings.
As an 11 year-old in the summer of 1974, I had two main obsessions: trains and cats. That summer I would see something new on boxcars that combined those two main obsessions: The Chessie System logo. At first, I remember being a bit confused about what it was, because to a girl who loved cats, it looked to me like the head of a cat. I then saw it again on other passing trains, other passing boxcars, and became convinced it was a “cat head.” I would look for “the cat head” on railcars of every passing train and count the how many I saw. I would later learn from a train magazine that “the cat head” was indeed a cat head, the image of a sleeping kitten.
So, in about January, I was in Chesterton (IN) shooting videos of night Norfolk Southern trains. Then, on one train with two front locomotives, the black of the lead NS locomotive gave away to the sticker on the front of the second CSX locomotive. Out of the darkness I saw the sticker shinning back at me. It was the cat head, and for the first time in about 45 years, I saw the cat head!
I felt my identity as a girl who loved trains come back and establish my identity as the woman who loves trains!
There are some people who think that I “just started” my love for trains and Chessie Cat. Nope, my love of trains and Chessie Cat goes back deep, as it does for many trainfans. I love NS, but I also love CSX because of a special connection to the Chessie Cat, Chessie System and intersecting into my deep past of cats and trains. I’d like to thank CSX for bringing back the Chessie Cat! It’s very special to me as it is to you.
In recent weeks there have been what could be called CSX heritage trains passing through Milwaukee. I’ve shot a few, and there were cars from Family Lines System, Seaboard System and a Chessie System car. I was thrilled. Welcome back, Chessie!
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