Card deck:Chessie Peake | Chessie System | Purr-fect Transportation

The Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was a Class I railroad formed in 1869 in Virginia from many smaller railroads begun in the 19th century. Tapping the coal reserves of West Virginia, it formed the basis for the City of Newport News and the coal piers on Hampton Roads, and forged a rail link to the midwest, eventually reaching Columbus, Cincinnati, and Toledo in Ohio and Chicago, Illinois. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, in 1972 it became part of the Chessie System, along with the Baltimore and Ohio and Western Maryland Railway. In 1980, the Chessie system combined with Seaboard Coast Line Industries to form CSX Corporation, which by 1987 had merged all its railroad subsidiaries into CSX Transportation, one of seven Class I railroads operating in North America at the beginning of the 21st century. The C&O itself disappeared in a merger into CSX on September 2, 1987. During the 1960s two mascot cats, "Chessie," and "Peake," were depicted on card deck backs, which advertised the rail line. Playing cards were, at the time, a common premium for train travellers.