A C&O/B&O memoir

Chesapeake and Ohio Historical Magazine, Sep 2003 by Howes, William F Jr

Also arguing for maintaining B&O's corporate identity were two factors:

B&O enjoyed a tax abatement privilege in several Maryland counties that was linked to its original charter. No more B&O; no more tax relief.

A group of dissident B&O stockholders continued to argue for an independent B&O, effectively forcing C&O to treat B&O evenhandedly, especially as to traffic solicitation and the allocation of expenses.

The C&O was also guided by promises it made during the ICC hearings. These included maintaining adequate service to the port of Baltimore, retaining the word "Baltimore" in any new name for the company, and keeping a headquarters presence in Baltimore.

As to the latter requirement, the C&O/B&O executive offices were centered in Cleveland's Terminal Tower, railroad operations were headquartered in Baltimore, and engineering and mechanical functions gravitated to Huntington.

Initially, the two roads maintained separate coal, merchandise, and passenger traffic organizations, all in their traditional headquarters. Passenger traffic was the first to be consolidated, beginning in 1965 under B&O's Paul Reistrup in Baltimore.

C&O had also promised to infuse B&O with cash by way of some $200 million in loans over a five-year period. This began even before C&O received approvalto control B&O. The monies were used to increase car supply on the B&O, to finance a major project to enlarge clearances on the Parkersburg Branch to permit piggyback traffic over that route between the East and Cincinnati and St. Louis, and for other facility improvements.

But enough background history!

C&O officially took control of the B&O on February 4, 1963. On February 28th, I boarded the National Limited in Cincinnati en route to Baltimore for more interviews with B&O officers. On July 1, I went to work. Well not exactly "to work." I began a two-year training program that exposed me to every department on the railroad and took me to the far reaches of the system. Well, not exactly the "far reaches." B&O trainees were not permitted on the C&O. Although you might say I was one of the first C&O/B&O "babies," these were still two very separate companies. In fact, throughout the C&O/B&O era, newcomers to the railroad were given either a C&O or a B&O employee identification, not both.

Just as I was arriving on the B&O, so was a fleet of 77 GP30s. This was B&O's first new road power in many a year. These were the locomotives that introduced the nose "Sunburst" paint scheme. They were also the last to have cast-metal Capitol Dome plates on their nose. They were the pride of the road!

Although Jervis Langdon had been encouraging some fresh thinking in the company, particularly in marketing, the B&O was still reveling in its illustrious past. It had its own telephone company and a steel rolling mill right out of the 19th century. It bottled its own dining car water from its spring in Deer Park, Maryland. And the ghost of president Daniel Willard, dead since 1942, was everywhere! Signs bearing Uncle Dan's signature exhorted employees to be safe, courteous, and run on time. And most employees still took these admonitions seriously, even in these hard times.