On Monday evening, March 23rd, Wallace Henderson and I were on our way to Madisonville for dinner at Applebee’s and then the Chapter meeting. As we passed through Crofton – we were traveling US41 to check for trains – we spotted a pretty weathered CSX locomotive and a couple of work cars in the house track just south of downtown. As we had plenty of time and the light was pretty good we pulled into a church parking lot and grabbed a few shots. The locomotive was CSX 5812, a GE B36-7.

As we got back in the car headed for Madisonville we got to talking about the B36-7s and how they were, back in the late 80s and 90s, the pride of the fleet with three well maintained and clean units on the point of the railroads premier traffic, the intermodals or “piggy-back” trains. We spotted another B36-7 shuffling cars in Atkinson Yard, another less than glamorous assignment.

When I was checking my email the next morning I couldn’t get the B36-7s off my mind and did a little checking on old rosters and determined that some 120 B36-7s were acquired in 1985 by CSX predecessor, Seaboard System. My curiosity was still in overdrive and I dug out my slides from the late 80s and found some shots of the GEs in Seaboard paint and later in CSX paint and still leading the prestigious intermodals on the Henderson Sub.

It’s a bit of a shame to see such proud units relegated to mundane work train or yard service but it is a tribute to their heritage that they are still earning their keep after 23 years of service.