As Carl Shaver pointed out, the L stands for alternative schedule. Several years ago just after the move to Jacksonville, I was working in the CSX Service Design Department and got tasked with the job of coming up with the new train symbol system for the combined railroad's operation plan. At that point the Seaboard System had three digit train numbers and the Chessie System had train names like the Chicagoan, computer symbol CHGN, numbers like 90, computer symbol 0090, etc. The new computer database was defined as one alpha and three numerics. With those restrictions, I came up with an alpha that was defined by what the train carried and a number series that at least in the case of the merchandise fleet told something about what part of the railroad the train ran in. At first, all scheduled merchandise trains were R trains with S as the second section. Then we started needing additional schedules for trains to do additional work on some days as Carl pointed out. Thus the alternate schedules. But A was already in use for the Atlanta Division locals. L had not been used, so I came up with "L"ternate schedules. Q for quality trains came later and then every merchandise train became a Q train. The new numbering system was placed into effect on July 1, 1987 and, with numerous modifications over the years, is still in effect.
CSX train symbol designation - Trains Magazine
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