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CSX has rolled out another locomotive as part of its heritage program. CSXT 1899, an ES44AH honoring the Pere Marquette Railway was unveiled at the CSX shops in Waycross, Georgia.
The locomotive, like the other CSX heritage units, begins with a cab resembling most others on the roster before transitioning in to the scheme of the honored road.
The Pere Marquette was begun in November 1899 with three railroads intending to merge. Those being the Flint and Pere Marquette, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Western, and the Chicago and West Michigan Railway. The new Pere Marquette Railroad began operating on January 1, 1900.
In 1917 the road was reorganized as the Pere Marquette Railway and not that long after that in the 1920s came under the control of the Van Sweringen Brothers, who owned the Chesapeake and Ohio, Ere, and Nickel Plate Road. Had the Vans had their way, the Pere Marquette story would have ended shortly afterwards as the above roads would have been merged in to one huge Nickel Plate Road.
With this plan failing, the C&O snatched up controlling interest in the Pere Marquette in 1929 and the two companies operated separately until 1947 when the Pere Marquette name fell in to Chessie’s road.
The Pere Marquette has a unique claim to fame in that it operated the first all new streamliner to begin service post World War Two. In August 1946 two new train sets began operating between Detroit and Grand Rapids, Michigan.