C&O #8272 Arrives at Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, PA.

NORTH EAST, PA. — Lake Shore Railway Historical Society is pleased to announce that CSX-donated locomotive C&O #8272 has completed the final leg of its journey, arriving safe and sound at the Lake Shore Railway Museum in North East, PA. The journey included Huntington, West Virginia, Cincinnati and Cleveland, Ohio, Erie, Pennsylvania and the GE Transportation facility there, and finally North East and the Lake Shore Railway Museum.

The 1980 Erie-built General Electric B30-7 locomotive, CSX #5554 (retired in 2009), received cosmetic restoration and has been returned to its ‘as-delivered’ C&O “Chessie Cat” paint scheme by the talented craftspeople of the CSX railroad shops in Huntington, W.V. CSX has donated the renamed C&O locomotive #8272 to Lake Shore Railway Historical Society where it will become part of the museum’s educational programming and display. At Lake Shore Railway Museum, operated by the Lake Shore Historical Society volunteers, C&O #8272 will join seven (7) other General Electric locomotives in the “Locomotives that Dad & Grandpa Built Collection.”

Ray Grabowski, Jr., president of Lake Shore Railway Historical Society, said “Chessie #8272 had a great opportunity to visit its birthplace at Erie GE and we were happy to share it there for a while. Now, thanks to the professionals of CSX Transportation, the locomotive made the final step and is here at Lake Shore Railway Museum.” The locomotive arrived just in time to participate in “Night at the Railroad Museum” this weekend, June 17/18.

GE Transportation of Erie, PA, and B&O Railroad Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, assisted the CSX Huntington Shop restoration of C&O #8272 by contributing historic paint records, logo/lettering information and paint chips.