C&O-PAINTED LOCOMOTIVE RETURNED TO SERVICE:
[Bull Sheet, May 1998]
CSXT's last C&O blue locomotive 4617, which was 'retired' on March 24 of this year, has returned to service.
Not only was the unit restored to the active list, but for awhile it was even seen working with YN2 unit 4615, another locomotive that had been deleted from the roster and came back.
The news of 4617's rebirth was welcomed by the purists who delight in seeing some vestige of CSXT's component carriers still at large on the system. Never mind that 4617 has for some time sported a yellow nose -- on an engine that had not had a yellow nose in its C&O days -- it is still a C&O blue-painted locomotive, and it still has C&O proudly painted upon its sides. Unit 4617 -- formerly unit 8393 -- had been 7534 in its waning C&O days. Except for its yellow nose, which was applied in 1996 to brighten its appearance for safety reasons, the engine has survived the CSXT paint brush.
Coincidentally, 20 C&O locomotives actually did have yellow noses. According to locomotive historian Bob Michaels, C&O units 7550 through 7569 inclusive originally had yellow noses. They were very much sought by photographers for their distinctive appearance, almost as much as the Western Maryland (black & gold, and red & white) engines that sparingly roamed the former Chessie System in the 1980s.
Unit 4617 is back, but probably not for long. It's getting old, and it had been reportedly on the recommended retirement list for a while prior to its alleged deletion in March.