Atlantic Coast Line Railroad

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
This article is about the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in the United States. For the Atlantic Coast Line in Cornwall, UK, see Atlantic Coast Line, Cornwall.
Not to be confused with Atlantic Shore Line Railway.
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
standard gauge
Length5,155 miles (8,296 kilometres)[1]

The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (

Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967, it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Much of the original ACL network has been part of CSX Transportation
since 1986.

The Atlantic Coast Line served the Southeast, with a concentration of lines in Florida. Numerous named passenger trains were operated by the railroad for Florida-bound tourists, with the Atlantic Coast Line contributing significantly to Florida's economic development in the first half of the 20th century.[2]

At the end of 1925, ACL operated 4,924 miles of road, not including its flock of subsidiaries; after some merging, mileage at the end of 1960 was 5,570 not including A&WP, CN&L, East Carolina, Georgia, Rockingham, and V&CS. In 1960, ACL reported 10,623 million net ton-miles of revenue freight and 490 million passenger-miles.[citation needed]

History

Early history

The earliest predecessor of the ACL was the

William T. Walters, gained control of these separate railroads after the Civil War, and operated them as a network of independent companies.[3] In 1897–98, most of the South Carolina lines in Walters' system were consolidated under the name of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of South Carolina.[5] In 1898, as the companies moved towards combining themselves into a single system, the lines in Virginia were combined into the new Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of Virginia, and the lines in North Carolina underwent a similar process in 1899, becoming the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company of North Carolina.[5] In 1899[3] or 1900,[5] due to a regulatory climate in Virginia that was better suited to the company than that in other states, the ACL of Virginia took control of the other lines and subsequently shortened its name to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company.[5]

Forming the ACL by mergers

1914 map of the lines through Florida

In 1898,

Hookerton, although the 12-mile extension to Hookerton was abandoned in 1933.[8]

The ACL's last major acquisition was the Atlanta, Birmingham and Coast Railroad, which it purchased in 1927, though the AB&C was not merged into the ACL until 1945.

Upon the formal incorporation of the ACL in 1900, an assessment was made of its repair and maintenance facilities. The oldest inherited shop site was at Wilmington, North Carolina, which dated to 1840. The shops in Florence, South Carolina were a bit more modern, having been upgraded in 1883. However, the sprawling ACL system needed larger and more modern facilities to handle locomotive overhauls and freight car building. By the 1920s the two largest shop sites were at South Rocky Mount, North Carolina and Waycross, Georgia, each of which employed about 2,000 workers. To handle extensions into Florida, in 1926 the ACL established the Uceta shops and yard outside of Tampa, Florida at a cost of $2 million.[9]

Later history

Atlantic Coast Line headquarters, Jacksonville, Florida.

By the early 1900s the railroad had largely reached its final configuration and began to focus on upgrading its physical plant.[3] By the 1920s the railroad's main line from Richmond, Virginia to Jacksonville, Florida had been double-tracked, which benefited the railroad during the 1920s when Florida boomed.[3]

In 1928 the ACL completed a line between Perry, Florida and Drifton, near Monticello, Florida, the last link of the new "Perry Cutoff".[10] This created a more direct route between Chicago and Florida's west coast and bypassing Jacksonville, one which passed through Macon, Albany, and Thomasville, the route followed by ACL's passenger train Southland from December 1928 to 1957 when it was rerouted to Jacksonville.

1910 advertisement for ACL trains from New York to Florida

During the Great Depression ACL's freight traffic declined by around 60%, but the railroad survived the 1930s without declaring bankruptcy; its success in this regard has been attributed to its leadership and careful financial practices, as well as owning the Louisville and Nashville, which remained strong through the Depression.[3]

During World War II ACL's passenger traffic increased 200% and freight traffic 150%.

$268 million in upgrading its physical plant during this period.[3]
On June 30, 1955, the railroad retired its last steam locomotive.

In 1956 the railroad moved its headquarters, which had been sited at and adjacent to Wilmington, North Carolina's Union Station to Jacksonville, Florida. Jacksonville was selected from three candidate cities, the other two being Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina. Construction of the new office complex was finished in July 1960, with the move from Wilmington completed over the following weeks.[12]

Merger

As early as October 1958

Clayton Antitrust Act. Following another round of court decisions in 1966, the merger was allowed to proceed, and did so on July 1, 1967. The result was the creation of the Seaboard Coast Line.[4][13]

Lines

See also: Main Line (Atlantic Coast Line Railroad)

The backbone of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was its main line, which ran nearly 900 miles from Richmond, Virginia to just south of Tampa, Florida. By 1952, the company operated over 5,000 miles of track including the main line and numerous secondary lines and branch lines.[14] The network extended as far west as Birmingham, Alabama and as far south as Everglades City, Florida at its height.[15]

Traffic

ACL #501, an EMC E3, pulled the Champion and now resides at the North Carolina Transportation Museum.

Freight

During its early years, the ACL handled mostly seasonal agricultural products, but by World War II its freight traffic had become more diverse.

Interstate highway system.[3]

Passenger

The ACL's Pinellas Special in Belleair, Florida, in 1920

The ACL's passenger traffic consisted almost entirely of Florida-bound traffic, largely from the Northeast, but also from the Midwest via trains that were operated by multiple railroads and handled by the ACL at their southern ends.[3] In 1939, in response to the Seaboard's popular new streamliner, the Silver Meteor, the ACL launched its first streamlined train, the all-coach Champion. ACL invested heavily in its passenger fleet after World War II[3] but passenger revenue fell from $28.5 million in 1946 to $14.1 million in 1959.[3] Until its 1967 merger the railroad continued to maintain and improve its passenger service, even replacing old stations with new.[3]

Major passenger trains

All of ACL's New York - Florida trains ran on the Pennsylvania Railroad north of Washington, D. C., then via the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad from Washington to Richmond. Tampa/St. Petersburg trains used ACL rails south of Richmond all the way to their destinations. Trains for Miami ran on the Florida East Coast Railway from Jacksonville to Miami, but after passenger service on the FEC effectively ended with a long-lasting strike in 1963, ACL transferred its Miami-bound trains to Seaboard rails at Auburndale, Florida.

New York-Florida routes:[16]

  • Champion
     (New York - Tampa/St. Petersburg, and New York - Miami)
  • Everglades (New York – Jacksonville)
  • Orange Blossom Special
    )
  • Gulf Coast Special (New York – Tampa/Ft. Myers/St. Petersburg)
  • Havana Special (New York – Key West, prior to the 1935 Labor Day hurricane.)
  • Miamian (Washington – Miami)
  • Vacationer (New York – Miami)

Midwest-Florida routes:[17]

  • City of Miami (Chicago-Miami)
  • Dixie Flagler (Chicago-Miami)
  • Dixie Flyer (Chicago-Miami; shortened in final four years to Atlanta-Jacksonville)
  • Dixie Limited (Chicago-Jacksonville)
  • Flamingo (Cincinnati-Jacksonville)
  • Seminole (Chicago-Jacksonville)
  • South Wind (Chicago-St. Petersburg/Miami)
  • Southland (Cincinnati—St. Petersburg/Ft. Myers/Miami; sole year-round passenger train to bypass Jacksonville and run through the western side of Florida)

Other routes:[18][19]

  • Palmetto (New York – Savannah, S.C./Augusta, Ga./Wilmington, N.C.)
  • Tar Heel (New York and Norfolk -Wilmington)

In popular culture

In Preston Sturges' 1942 comedy

Pennsylvania Station.[20]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-89024-072-4
    .
  2. ^ Dickens, Bethany (June 5, 2014). "Episode 17 Travel Dining". A History of Central Florida (Podcast). Retrieved January 24, 2016.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7603-1649-8
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-1-883089-13-9
    .
  5. ^ a b c d e "Atlantic Coast Line Railroad". RailGa.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2011. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  6. ^ Griffen, William. Atlantic Coast Line: The Standard Railroad of the South
  7. ^ Dozier, Howard Douglas. A History of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
  8. ^ W. Terry Smith. "Farmville collector shares passion for railroads with Tarboro " TGIF " The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC". Dailysoutherner.com. Archived from the original on 22 September 2010. Retrieved 13 February 2011.
  9. ^ Starr, Timothy. The Back Shop Illustrated, Volume 3: Southeast and Western Regions
  10. ^ "New Era for West Coast Ushered In". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. December 5, 1928. Retrieved 22 October 2015.
  11. ^ "Davis' Elevation to A.C.L. President Is Success Story". Tampa Times. October 16, 1942. p. 7. Retrieved September 17, 2020.
  12. ^ Goolsby, Larry (2010). "The ACL Moves to Jacksonville". Lines South. 27 (3). White River Productions: 14–21.
  13. ISBN 978-0-9766201-0-5
    .
  14. ^ "Atlantic Coast Line: "Standard Railroad of the South"". American-Rails. Retrieved 19 October 2022.
  15. ISBN 978-0-7385-2421-4
    .
  16. ^ "Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Condensed Tables, Table 1, 2". Official Guide of the Railways. 82 (8). National Railway Publication Company. January 1950.
  17. ^ "Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Condensed Tables, Tables 11, 14, 18, 23, 25, 29". Official Guide of the Railways. 82 (8). National Railway Publication Company. January 1950.
  18. ^ "Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Consists Tables, Table 27". Official Guide of the Railways. 64 (9). National Railway Publication Company. February 1932.
  19. ^ Atlantic Coast Line Railroad timetable, June 12, 1955, Tables D, 6
  20. ^ Dirks, Tom. "The Palm Beach Story (1942)", Filmsite movie review, accessed 23 Feb. 2012

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atlantic_Coast_Line_Railroad&oldid=1219738970"