Southern Railway (U.S.)
Overview | |
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Headquarters | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
Key people |
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Founders | standard gauge |
The Southern Railway (also known as Southern Railway Company;
At the end of 1971, the Southern operated 6,026 miles (9,698 km) of railroad, not including its Class I subsidiaries
The railroad joined forces with the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1980 to form the
History
Official predecessors
- Richmond, York River and Chesapeake Railroad(1894)
- Richmond and Danville Railroad (1894)
- Memphis and Charleston Railroad (1894)
- East Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia Railway (1894)
- Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (1894)
Creation and independent status
The pioneering
As railroad fever struck other Southern states, networks gradually spread across the South and even across the
Rail expansion in the South was also halted with the start of the
Known as the "First Railroad War", the
Southern Railway came into existence in 1894 through the combination of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, the Richmond and Danville system and the
Southern's first president,
After the line from
In 1912, the Southern Railway leased most of its Bluemont, Virginia, branch to the newly formed Washington and Old Dominion Railway. In 1945, the Southern sold most of the remnant of the branch to the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, the successor to the Washington and Old Dominion Railway.[12]
The
The Southern tried to gain access to Chicago by targeting the Monon Railroad and the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad but both those railroads went to Southern's competitor, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.[16] A decade later Crane tried to rectify the situation by merging with the Illinois Central Railroad.[17] When that failed, he petitioned the Interstate Commerce Commission to give Southern the old Monon routes and the old Atlantic Coast Line route from Jacksonville to Tampa by way of Orlando among other properties as a condition of the I.C.C.'s approval of the Seaboard Coast Line – Chessie System merger in 1979. While the request was supported by the I.C.C.'s Enforcement Bureau, it was ultimately unsuccessful.[18]
Becoming part of the Norfolk Southern Corporation
In response to the creation of the
The Southern Railway was renamed Norfolk Southern Railway as the Norfolk and Western Railway became a subsidiary to its system on June 1, 1982.[20][21] The railroad then acquired more than half of Conrail on June 1, 1999.[20]
Notable features
Southern and its predecessors were responsible for many firsts in the industry. Starting in 1833, its predecessor, the
The Southern operated some of the largest heavy repair shops of any US southeastern railroad. The oldest shops were located in
The Southern Railway began dieselization in 1941, and was the largest all-diesel railroad when it retired its last steam locomotive in 1953. The Southern Railway was active in mechanization, used helper engines, is widely credited with inventing unit trains for coal and new freight cars,[25] and understood the power of marketing using the promotional phrase "Southern Gives a Green Light to Innovation".[26]
In 1966, a popular steam locomotive excursion program was instituted under the presidency of W. Graham Claytor Jr., and included Southern veteran locomotives No. 630, No. 722,[27] No. 4501, and Savannah & Atlanta No. 750 along with non-Southern locomotives such as Texas & Pacific No. 610,[28] Canadian Pacific No. 2839,[29] and Chesapeake & Ohio No. 2716.[30] The steam program continued after the 1982 merger with the Norfolk and Western to form the Norfolk Southern, through increased operating costs and concerns ended the program in 1994.[30][31] Norfolk Southern reinstated the steam program on a limited basis from 2011 to 2015, as the 21st Century Steam program.
In the early 2000s, a 22-mile (35 km) loop of former Southern Railway right-of-way encircling central Atlanta neighborhoods was acquired and is now the BeltLine trail.
Passenger trains
Along with its famed
- Aiken-Augusta Special
- Airline Belle
- Asheville Special
- Birmingham Special
- Carolina Special
- Fast Mail "Old 97"
- Florida Sunbeam
- Goldenrod
- Kansas City–Florida Special
- Land of the Sky Special
- Memphis Special
- New Yorker
- Peach Queen
- Pelican
- Piedmont Limited
- Ponce de Leon
- Queen and Crescent Limited
- Royal Palm
- Skyland Special
- Sunnyland
- Tennessean
The Southern Railway also handled ticket sales and operations for subsidiary railroads, such as:
- The Nancy Hanks (operated by Central of Georgia Railway)[33]
- The Man O' War (operated by Central of Georgia Railway)
The Southern Railway also participated in the operation of the
When Amtrak took over most intercity rail service in 1971, Southern initially opted out of turning over its passenger routes to the new organization. However, it shared operation of its flagship train, the New Orleans–New York Southern Crescent, with Amtrak. Under a longstanding haulage agreement inherited from Penn Central and the Pennsylvania Railroad, Amtrak carried the train north of Washington. By the late 1970s, growing revenue losses and equipment-replacement expenses convinced Southern it could not continue in the passenger business. It handed full control of its passenger routes to Amtrak in 1979.
Roads owned by the Southern Railway
- Alabama Great Southern Railway(AGS)
- Albany and Northern Railway (A&N)
- Atlantic & Eastern Carolina Railway (A&EC)
- Birmingham Terminal Company
- Camp Lejeune Railroad Company
- Carolina and Northwestern Railway(C&NW)
- Central of Georgia Railway (CofG)(CG)
- Cincinnati, New Orleans and Texas Pacific Railway (CNO&TP)
- Chattanooga Station Company
- Chattanooga Traction Company (CTC)
- Georgia and Florida Railroad (G&F)
- Georgia Ashburn Sylvester and Camilla Railway (GAS&C)
- Georgia Northern Railway (GANO) – acquired in 1967
- Georgia Southern and Florida Railway (GS&F)
- Interstate Railroad (INT)
- Kentucky and Indiana Terminal Railroad (K&IT)
- Sievern and Knoxville Railroad
- Live Oak Perry and Gulf Railway (LOP&G)
- Louisiana Southern Railway (LS)
- New Orleans and North Eastern Railway(NO&NE)
- New Orleans Terminal Company (NOTCO)
- Norfolk Southern Railway (NS)
- Savannah & Atlanta Railway(SA)
- Saint John's River Terminal Company (SJRT)
- State University Railroad Company (54%)
- South Carolina and Georgia Railroad(SC&G)
- South Georgia Railway (SG)
- Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia Railway (TA&G)
- Tennessee Railway(TENN)
Major railroad yards
- Chattanooga, Tennessee – DeButts Yard (formerly Citico Yard)
- Atlanta, Georgia – Inman Yard
- Spencer, North Carolina – Spencer Yard
- Birmingham, Alabama – Norris Yard
- Knoxville, Tennessee – Sevier Yard
- Macon, Georgia – Brosnan Yard[34]
- Sheffield, Alabama – Sheffield Yard
- Alexandria, Virginia – Cameron Yard
Company officers
Presidents of the Southern Railway:
- Samuel Spencer (1894–1906)[35]
- William Finley (1906–1913)
- Fairfax Harrison (1913–1937)
- Ernest E. Norris (1937–1951)
- Harry A. DeButts (1951–1962)
- D. William Brosnan (1962–1967)
- W. Graham Claytor Jr. (1967–1977)[36]
- L. Stanley Crane[13][14] (1977–1980)
- Harold H. Hall (1980–1982)
Heritage unit
To mark its 30th anniversary, Norfolk Southern painted 20 new locomotives with the paint schemes of predecessor railroads.
See also
- FM OP800
- Southern Railway's Spencer Shops
References
- ^ a b "Southern Railway History". Southern Railway Historical Association. March 5, 2017. Archived from the original on April 29, 2017. Retrieved March 12, 2017.
- ^ a b Marrs, Aaron W. "South Carolina Railroad: December 19, 1827–1902". South Carolina Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on April 19, 2019. Retrieved April 19, 2019.
- ^ a b Loy, Hillman & Cates (2004), p. 7.
- ^ Ulrich Bonnell Phillips (1908). Transportation in the Ante-bellum South: An Economic Analysis. Ulrich Bonnell Phillips. pp. 148–153.
- ^ Harper's Encyclopædia of United States History from 458 A.D. to 1905: Based Upon the Plan of Benson John Lossing ... Harper & brothers. 1906. p. 526.
- ^ ISBN 978-0752408071.
- ISBN 978-0807857830.
- ISBN 978-1476616407.
- ^ North Carolina. Board of Railroad Commissioners (1895). Annual Report of the Board of Railroad Commissioners of North Carolina. J. Daniels, state printer. pp. iv–xiii.
- ^ a b c d e Loy, Hillman & Cates (2004), p. 8.
- ^ "Samuel Spencer Killed In Wreck". The New York Times. November 30, 1906. Archived from the original on June 20, 2018. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
- OCLC 20461397.
- ^ a b "NAE Website – Mr. L. Stanley Crane". Archived from the original on January 10, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2015.
- ^ The George Washington University with a chemical engineering degree in 1938. He worked for the railroad, except for a stint from 1959 to 1961 with the Pennsylvania Railroad, until reaching the company's mandatory retirement age in 1980. Crane went to Conrail in 1981 after a distinguished career that had seen him rise to the position of CEO at the Southern Railway. He died of pneumonia on July 15, 2003, at a hospice in Boynton Beach, Florida
- ^ "Deadline Set on Rail Merger" (PDF). U.S.Government Publishing Office. June 30, 1980. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 21, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
The purpose of the agency is to give railroads an opportunity to purchase portions of the Chessie and Seaboard systems. Cited as an example was the Southern Railroad's interest in the Louisville & Nashville line between Louisville, Ky., and Chicago, Ill. 'There may be other examples where parties have been unable to agree on specific terms such as price of properties and operational arrangements because of a failure to communicate adequately,' the agency said.
- ^ "Monon, L&N. Roads Act to Merge". Chicago Tribune. March 22, 1968. Archived from the original on June 19, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
- ^ "Southern Dreams of Chicago". Chicago Tribune. July 5, 1978. Archived from the original on June 19, 2015. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
- ^ April 8, 1978 "I.C.C. Urged to Split Seaboard Coast Line". The New York Times. April 8, 1978. Archived from the original on March 13, 2024. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
- ^ "Southern Rail, N&". The Washington Post. February 22, 1982. Archived from the original on May 19, 2018. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
- ^ a b c "Norfolk Southern merger family tree". Trains. June 2, 2006. Archived from the original on July 19, 2017. Retrieved May 19, 2018.
- ^ Davis (1985), p. 165.
- ^ Brown, William H. (1871). "Chapter XXIX: Explosion of "Best Friend"". The History of the First Locomotives in America; From Original Documents And The Testimony Of Living Witnesses. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Archived from the original on November 26, 2001. Retrieved May 28, 2008.
- ISBN 978-1586488512. Archivedfrom the original on March 13, 2024. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
- ^ Starr 2024.
- ISBN 978-1616731373. Archivedfrom the original on March 13, 2024. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
- Kalmbach Publishing. Archived from the originalon April 10, 2018. Retrieved May 16, 2017.
- ^ Loy, Hillman & Cates (2004), p. 124.
- ^ Loy, Hillman & Cates (2005), p. 114.
- ^ Loy, Hillman & Cates (2005), p. 123.
- ^ a b Schafer (2000), p. 134.
- ^ Phillips, Don (October 29, 1994). "Norfolk Southern plans to end nostalgic steam locomotive program". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 30, 2016. Retrieved March 11, 2017.
- ^ Schafer (2000), pp. 127–132.
- ^ Loy, Hillman & Cates (2004), p. 93.
- ^ Loy, Hillman & Cates (2004), p. 54.
- ^ "The History of the railroad and Spencer". North Carolina Transportation Museum. Archived from the original on February 5, 2007. Retrieved January 25, 2007.
- ^ quotes from article by journalist Don Phillips of the Washington Post in a "Tribute to W. Graham Claytor, Jr." published May, 1994
- ^ Heritage Locomotives Archived February 2, 2019, at the Wayback Machine Norfolk Southern
- ^ Norfolk Southern Heritage Locomotives Archived December 12, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Norfolk Southern
- ^ "AltoonaWorks.info". www.altoonaworks.info. Archived from the original on June 16, 2023. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
- ^ "NS derailment damages Southern Railway heritage unit". Trains. December 14, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2023.
Bibliography
- Davis, Burke (1985). The Southern Railway: Roads of the Innovators (1st ed.). University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807816361.
- Loy, Sallie; Hillman, Dick; Cates, C. Pat (2004). The Southern Railway. Images of Rail (1st ed.). Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0738516417.
- Loy, Sallie; Hillman, Dick; Cates, C. Pat (2005). The Southern Railway: Further Recollections. Images of Rail (1st ed.). Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0738518312.
- Schafer, Mike (2000). More Classic American Railroads (1st ed.). Voyageur Press. ISBN 076030758X.
- Starr, Timothy (2024). The Back Shop Illustrated, Volume 3: Southeast and Western Regions. Privately printed.
Further reading
- The Historical Guide to North American Railroads, Third Edition (3rd ed.). ISBN 978-0890249703.
- Harrison, Fairfax. A History of the Legal Development of the Railroad System of Southern Railway Company. Washington, D.C.: 1901.
- Murray, Tom (2007). Southern Railway. MBI Railroad Color History (1st ed.). Voyageur Press. ISBN 978-0760325452.
- Prince, Richard E. (1970). Steam Locomotives and Boats: Southern Railway System (2nd ed.). Wheelwright Lithographing Company. ISBN 0960008845.
External links
- Southern Railway Historical Association covers Southern Railway history
- Railroad lines abandoned by the Southern Railway at the Wayback Machine (archived 2008-05-11), which was replaced by a map version on AbandonedRails.com.