CHESSIE SYSTEMS SD50's leading the way. 1990 1991

[@P42_foamer]

Man the times of the Iconic yellow orange and black paint scheme with the iconic Chessie the cat on the nose, and the K5LAs, man i want to go back to that era.

[@1jackdk]

Me to! Ready to go back any time.

[@ejdsndnj]

You mean blue? The blue on the chessie locomotives rusted away. So then it would look black. It might seem black, but it's actually blue.

[@P42_foamer]

​@ejdsndnj oh I see thanks for the correction!

[@anthonyhunt701]

Me too..I miss the diversity of lots of railroads. Kinda back with shortlines, but not like this era..❤

[@Rbnqss]

I do love the Chessie System paint scheme a lot, nice video again ad always. Greetings from Finland

[@louiskats5116]

Goodday Jack, Another awesome video What a time to see the coming & going of railways back 35 years ago a whole different era. Those SD 50's they look awesome similar to our Victorian Railways C Class which are SD 40's with a full width cab. Highly recommended Big George C501 best looking locomotive in Australia & best known too. Also CLP Class SD 40's with the Bulldog Face basically F9's with a SD 40 heart. Love the picture of your White Road Commander. Yeap old Truckie & worked on the Railways too. Cheers Louis Kats from Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺

[@clearlycaribbeanreb2895]

These old Chessie videos are absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for sharing them, Jack.

[@jimsutter149]

I have always believe the CSX railroad should of kept the Chessie paint scheme.

[@1jackdk]

I agree 100% jims. Sure wouldn't hurt my feelings.

[@tommythomason6187]

Chessie had problems with those SD50s, as did any road that had them, but didn't they down rate them to 3000 hp? Or did that not happen until Chessie became part of CSX? Read these engines performed well after the horsepower reduction.

[@1jackdk]

I heard they dropped the ratings, but not sure if they went all the way down to 3000hp.

[@KCTopDawg]

Classic

[@ZombieSlayer-dj3wb]

Were the kinks ironed out by then ?

[@1jackdk]

Not sure. I know CSX rebuilt them into SD50-2's. So maybe.

[@ZombieSlayer-dj3wb]

@@1jackdk hmm one would think a dash 2 would be an upgrade

[@1jackdk]

Actually, the dash 2 was the downgrade. LOL. They cut the hp to 3000. The rebuilt ones are -3's, and completely rebuilt, and seem to be successful. @@ZombieSlayer-dj3wb

[@trainkid16]

What horrible units. They sure looked great but I've only had 1 SD50 out of the 8 I spent many hours on that was worth anything. Good units with excellent dynamics IF they were on straight, flat, dry welded rail, which unfortunately doesn't exist in the mountains.

[@1jackdk]

I heard they had a lot of issues. Wonder if they got any better rebuilt into -2 units.

[@trainkid16]

@@1jackdk Not really. The only "upgrades" were derating them to 3000 hp and a new paint job. Now the -3s I've heard are much improved but their wheelslip systems were replaced so they wouldn't just sit and freely spin. I'd say the most puckering moment I had was when I needed to kick the brakes off going down a mountain because the dynamics were doing well enough to hold, then they immediately dropped out and wouldn't recover. So I took the air back and finally got it settled, but the only options I had to run the train without the wheels spinning or sliding were notches 1-3. Above #3 or anywhere in dynamic they couldn't hold the rail. And that particular consist was three of the -2s.