Some of us in the industry wondered why "Chessie System" rescusitated the kitten for a logo. A sleeping kitten was a fine symbol to represent a railroad's sleeping car service, but what did it say about freight service? "We're so slow a cat can sleep in the yard?" It was also one of those color schemes that was highly noticeable when clean and new, but showed dirt and weathered badly - not from a modeler's point of view maybe, but from a corporate image one surely.
My daughter sure appreciated getting a "Chessie" calendar every year while she was growing up, though.